Upgrades for 2007 make this great sports car better

The Mercedes-Benz SL-Class of two-seat roadsters has been significantly upgraded for 2007. These were wonderful cars before, and they're even more wonderful for 2007.

For 2007, all SL models get revised styling, with new front, rear, and side sheetmetal along with new interior decor.

The entry-level model, now called the SL550, gets a bigger, more powerful engine, and a new seven-speed automatic, giving it a big boost in performance and a sportier sound. The SL55 AMG gets more power as well. The steering and active suspension have been upgraded on all the 2007 models, sharpening the handling.

At the same time, these cars provide grand touring intimacy, for quiet conversation or unimpeded stereo performance. New upholstery materials give the cabins a richer appearance. Drop the top and they deliver comfortable, top-down motoring, putting the wind in your hair, and whisking your troubles away. Buffeting is well controlled, so you don't even have to put up with much wind.

Few sports cars can boast a continuous 50-year history like the Mercedes-Benz SL can. First offered as a two-seat 300SL roadster in 1957, the SL-Class brought heart-stopping good looks, fuel injection, independent front and rear suspension and disc brakes to the sports car party, and has been in the Mercedes-Benz lineup ever since, leading the applied technology in the sports car segment with things like the disappearing steel top, radar, sonar, active hydraulic suspension and composite brakes. Today we have the safest, quickest, flattest-handling and prettiest SL-Class cars in half a century. . More>

Fountain's new 33 SFC is a fast sportfish that will get you to the hot spots first, and in high style.

Crank It Up: With a 50-mph top end, this fancy fishboat can get you to the fish fast and back to the scales early.

Reggie Fountain is onto something. This should come as no surprise. The president of Fountain Powerboats has spent a lifetime figuring out how to be Number One. He did it in insurance, real estate, tunnel boat and offshore racing, and for the past quarter of a century in boat building. You know about his exploits in offshore racing (more world championships, personally and via his unstoppable boats, than a watermelon has seeds). You may not know that for years now he has been crushing much of the competition in offshore fishing. Reggie reasoned, correctly as it turned out, that the same hell-for-leather speeds that won him loving cups would also win him the hearts and minds of dedicated fishermen, especially those who campaign in the big king mackerel tournaments.

Reggie's newest fishboat is the 33 SFC. I recently tested it on the Pamlico River at Washington, N.C. This 33 performs like all Fountain hulls. It's quick out of the hole, banks into a hard turn with no slippage, and makes a chop feel like a millpond. The difference is this one is a cabin boat with all of the aforementioned qualities and livability, too.

"I call it my Fountain Grady," Reggie grins later.

Well, homage to Grady-White, his Eastern North Carolina neighbor, notwithstanding, he really is onto something with this gem of a fishing boat.

It's very functional. The protected bridge .....More>>