How much faster is a purpose-built V8 racecar than a V8 road car? And how much faster is a V8 F1 car than both of those? Head down to Australia to find out.

Mercedes revealed their new AMG convertible in the launch video for their 2012 F1 car. With a 529 horsepower, 5.5 liter twin-turbo V8 and all the customary AMG accessories, the new SL63 is going to make lot of country club show-offs very happy.

Full-time swimmer and occasional drug user Michael Phelps will now look like a drug dealer driving around Baltimore in his murdered-out Mercedes SL63 AMG. The contrast between the black Mercedes and gold medals is nice. The hat? Not so much.

We've been waiting for the 6.2-liter AMG V8 version of the Mercedes SL like that famous dog in Scotland who waited at the train station for his dead master to arrive. Of course AMG is no dead master, as it were. It's a cornucopia of major mechanicals, of which its latest naturally aspirated V8 is most definitely one.…