Elon Musk may not be Tony Stark, but he's doing a credible impersonation of Lee Iacocca.

The co-founder of Tesla Motors set another milestone for his electric car company today by making a final $451.8 million payment on the $465 million loan from the U.S. government — nine years earlier than scheduled. The massive payment came courtesy of a stock offering last week that raised $1 billion for the California automaker, made possible after it revealed its first quarterly profit. The move makes Tesla the only automaker to have paid back its Department of Energy loan in full — yet another talking point for Musk's EV drive.

Now comes the hard part.

It's fair to point out that other automakers received far larger loans from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program; Ford borrowed $5.9 billion, while Nissan took $1.4 billion, both for modernizing plants and vehicles to build hybrid and electric vehicles. It's equally fair to note both have far more resources

Read More »from Tesla pays off $465 million U.S. loan nine years early

A handy test can determine whether you’re the target buyer for the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe or Cabriolet.

Like their sober sedan cousin, these more fun-loving E-Classes have receiving an unusually thorough “refreshing” for 2014. That’s industry shorthand for a makeover that occurs roughly halfway through a model’s life cycle, as opposed to the stem-to-stern redesign that happens roughly once every five or six years. At January’s Detroit auto show, journalists and janitors alike were struck by the E-Class' dramatized body – especially a black-mesh maw with the kind of gaping, jet-fighter air inlets usually associated with Italian exotics, not a demure Mercedes. Don’t forget the three-pointed star on the grille, roughly the size – and, some suggested, the tastefulness — of Flava Flav's clocks/necklaces.

The flamboyant styling may help the Mercedes lure a few buyers who would otherwise lean toward Audi, BMW, even Cadillac or Infiniti. But these two-door E-Classes, by emphasizing creamy thrust, a soothing ride, creature comforts and safety innovations, aren’t about to alienate their traditional audience. And that’s where the test comes in:

Read More »from 2014 Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe and Cabrio: Motoramic Drives

In the early 1970s, Dodge gave Europeans a sip of American muscle-car moonshine by building the 3700 GT in Spain, a cousin of the Plymouth Valiant with styling tweaks, a Euro-grade interior and a Slant Six that towered above the continent's field of four-cylinder motors. It was a cool enough combination 15 years later to catch the eye of Clash co-founder Joe Strummer during his exile in Spain — even though he later lost it in a Madrid parking garage. That loss, and the search for Strummer's car, sparked filmmaker Nick Hall's documentary on the late rocker's wilderness years, "I Need A Dodge!" Hall' has started a fund-raising campaign to finish his movie — and in the teaser below, shows just how far he'd have to go to track down Strummer's old wheels.

Read More »from Searching for Joe Strummer’s lost wheels in “I Need A Dodge”

Long before Charlie Sheen made it a catchword, "Winning," starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, was a movie released in theaters on this date — May 22, 1969. While a great racing flick in its own right, featuring real footage from two Indy 500s, "Winning" is often overshadowed by Newman's other movie from 1969: "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Check out the official movie trailer after the jump:

Read More »from May 22: “Winning,” starring Paul Newman, was released on this date in 1969

A McLaren MP4-12C Spider will accelerate from a dead stop to 60 mph in about 3 seconds, so Jon Wheel needed a fast lens to capture this one in motion in Exeter, Pennsylvania. If you want to share your own automotive daydream, add it to the Motoramic group on Flickr, or send us a message via Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Read More »from McLaren MP4-12C Spider in volcano yellow: Flickr photo of the day

If you're unfortunate enough to visit Jurassic Park, it's the quick-footed velociraptor that draws ultimate fear. Evading such a nimble, aggressive creature requires a vehicle that's bigger, tougher, and generally more intimidating than anything else on the road. You might think the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor fits the bill pretty nicely, but Hennessey Performance disagrees: How do you carry eight people in one? In that case, you need to drop $149,500 on the Hennessey VelociRaptor SUV.

Read More »from Hennessey mutates the F-150 Raptor into the barbaric VelociRaptor SUV

Barely a week after Sony previewed Gran Turismo 6 as the capstone of the outgoing Playstation 3, Microsoft revealed a peek today at its new Xbox One system featuring a new Forza Motorsport 5 game. The trailer doesn't spill much about specific improvements to the game, instead showing a McLaren P1 racing its F1 forebear around what appears to be Prague with close-ups of metallic paint and half-damp tires. That's still enough to get every couch-bound gamer asking which is better, and whether the new Forza will be enough to win Microsoft some converts.

This garage full of exotic sports cars isn't a parking deck in Las Vegas or the valet stand at the Mall of the Emirates. Rather, its the temporary collection of Borro, a new sort of high-end lender which offers short-term loans to the wealthy against their assets — whether those are Ferraris or fine art. And as you can tell from above, business has never been better.

Read More »from Pawning your Porsche, the latest trend for hard-up elites