Tesla Ends the Model S Era

Tesla quietly closed a 14-year chapter, Lamborghini revealed one of its wildest open-top machines, Waymo got caught in a flood, and a Volkswagen hatchback took a Honda's crown at the Nürburgring. Here's everything that happened.

On the weekend of May 10–11, Tesla completed the final Model S sedan and Model X SUV at its Fremont, California plant, ending production on two vehicles that had been in continuous build for 14 and 11 years respectively. 1 The Fremont factory will now shift to producing humanoid robots.

The Model S arrived in 2012 and, as Car and Driver put it in its first test drive, delivered something the EV market badly needed: "The Model S gets the job done. It's attractive, comfortable, fast, practical, technically fascinating, and not overpriced." In Plaid form it eventually reached 1,020 hp from a tri-motor setup — a long way from the original 85-kWh single-motor launch car. Tesla had planned a special invite-only final delivery event, then cancelled it with three days' notice and no explanation.

Lamborghini's Fenomeno Roadster — the open-top version of the limited-production Fenomeno Coupé — puts a 6.5-liter V-12 alongside three electric motors for a combined 1,065 hp. 2 The battery grows to 7 kWh (versus 3.8 kWh in the standard Revuelto), with the electric side contributing 241 hp. On paper: 0–62 mph in 2.4 seconds, 0–124 mph in 6.8 seconds, top speed above 211 mph. Only 15 will be built. No price was announced — the Revuelto starts at $608,358, so the Roadster is likely to sit well above seven figures.

Lotus released a teaser for the Type 135 supercar, confirming a hybrid V-8 powertrain producing "more than 1,000 PS" — at least 986 hp. 3 The car was originally planned as a pure electric Emira successor, but Lotus reversed course under its "Focus 2030" strategy. Both the reveal and public launch are set for 2028. If it reaches production, it will be the first road-going Lotus V-8 since the Esprit left the line in 2004 — and Lotus quietly renewed the "Esprit" trademark in 2023.

A Waymo autonomous vehicle drove into a flood-inundated street in San Antonio, Texas during a severe storm on April 20. No passengers were aboard. Waymo recalled approximately 3,800 robotaxis on May 12 to update software that failed to recognize flood-road hazards. 4 NHTSA confirmed the company updated its extreme-weather operating limits and flagged flood-prone zones in its mapping data. In its statement, Waymo said it was "refining our extreme weather operations during periods of intense rain, limiting access to areas where flash flooding might occur." The company also remains under separate NHTSA and NTSB investigations involving a child struck near a California school and a stopped school bus incident.

Porsche CFO Jochen Bruckner confirmed during a May 5 earnings call that gas-powered Macan production will end in July 2026 — during that final month, the plant will produce "as much as we can," he said. 5 The gas Macan is Porsche's best-selling model, with 27,139 US sales in 2025 — more than three times the 8,799 Macan Electrics sold that year. A replacement gas/hybrid SUV is not expected until around 2028, leaving a roughly two-year gap in the lineup.

Representatives John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI) introduced bipartisan legislation on May 12 to permanently ban vehicles containing Chinese-developed software or advanced connectivity systems from US roads. 6 The bill would codify and expand Biden-era rules from January 2025. A Senate companion bill from Senators Moreno and Slotkin had already been introduced. US automakers and their trade groups — covering Detroit brands, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Hyundai — publicly backed the measure. Moolenaar called Chinese smart vehicles "a clear national security threat." The Chinese embassy in Washington said the US should "stop overstretching the concept of national security."

Mercedes-Benz recalled 144,049 vehicles from 2024–2026 model years — AMG GT, C-class, E-class, SL-class, CLE-class, and GLC-class — after NHTSA found a software bug that can blank the digital instrument cluster without warning. 7 NHTSA estimates every covered vehicle is affected. The fix is a dealer software update; owner letters are planned for June 26.

Ram recalled 12,736 model-year 2022–2026 Ram 2500 HD pickups because the speed limiter was set too high, allowing them to exceed 106 mph — the top rating of their R-specification tires. 8 The remedy is a Powertrain Control Module software update at dealerships. No accidents or injuries have been reported.

Through five rounds of the 2026 Formula 1 season, Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) leads the drivers' championship with 100 points. 9 George Russell (Mercedes) sits second at 80 points; Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) is third at 59. The bigger story is Red Bull: defending champion Max Verstappen holds seventh with just 26 points, the team's 2026 regulations package having underperformed sharply. Mercedes leads the constructors' standings at 180 points; Ferrari is second at 110.

The Miami GP weekend was shaped in part by mid-season rule changes F1 pushed through after just three races. The adjustments — reducing qualifying recharge limits and capping Boost mode deployment — targeted "superclipping," where heavy energy recovery at full throttle creates dangerous speed differentials between cars on straights. 10 Audi F1 driver Nico Hülkenberg told Car and Driver the changes "on paper, definitely look like a step in the right direction, especially when you look at safety."

Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) won Rally de Portugal on May 10, finishing 16.3 seconds ahead of Oliver Solberg (Toyota). 11 Elfyn Evans crossed the line third and extended his championship lead to 12 points — his 49th WRC podium. The weekend included a serious safety breach when a recovery truck entered an active stage and nearly hit Evans. "Obviously it was a pure shock at the time," Evans said. Rally organizer ACP received a €15,000 suspended fine, and the stage management company was dismissed immediately. Evans leads the standings with 123 points; Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) is second at 111.

At Watkins Glen on May 10, Shane van Gisbergen (TrackHouse Racing) scored his first 2026 Cup Series win. 12 Michael McDowell finished second, Ty Gibbs third. Tyler Reddick leads the championship with 567 points, 129 ahead of Denny Hamlin.

In IndyCar, Christian Lundgaard won the Indianapolis GP (round 6 of 18). Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing) leads the standings with 237 points, 27 clear of Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti Global).

At Laguna Seca, Laurin Heinrich executed a last-lap pass to take the GTP class win in IMSA and move to the top of the points standings. Corvette's Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg continue to lead GTD PRO. 13

Racing designer Peter Brock — founder of Brock Racing Enterprises, whose teams produced championship-winning cars in SCCA and Trans-Am competition — serves as Grand Marshal at this Sunday's Benedict Castle Concours in Riverside, California. 14 New for 2026: Meguiar's Exotics on the Green, a curated display of hypercars and modern exotics on the castle grounds. Fast & Furious actor Sung Kang will be on-site, and the first 1,000 guests receive a free poster for his upcoming film DRIFTER. The Saturday evening Gala runs May 16. More than 50 awards will be presented.

A 1932 Duesenberg Model J LaGrande dual-cowl phaeton, owned by Sonya and Bill Miller of Frankfort, Indiana, took Best in Show at the Greenbrier Concours d'Elegance at The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. 17 The car — third-generation family-owned, bodied by designer Gordon Buehrig — was chosen from 80 cars across 10 classes. A new Malaise Era class made its debut at the 2026 edition, with a 1980 Dodge Mirada taking that class win.

The Nürburgring Nordschleife — a 12.9-mile former public road in Germany's Eifel region that manufacturers use informally as a performance benchmark — had a particularly active week for production-car records.

On May 8, a Volkswagen Golf GTI Edition 50 lapped in 7:44.523, taking the front-wheel-drive production car record from the Honda Civic Type R (7:44.881) by 0.358 seconds. 18 Development driver Benjamin Leuchter set the time in a car producing 321 hp from a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder, with adaptive dampers, a lowered ride height, and semi-slick tires. The Edition 50 is a 50th-anniversary variant not available in the United States.

A day earlier, on May 7, a Porsche Taycan Turbo GT fitted with the new Manthey Kit — the first track upgrade package ever applied to an electric Porsche — lapped in 6:55.533, becoming the fastest four-door electric car on the Nordschleife, 12 seconds quicker than its own previous record. 19 Development driver Lars Kern drove the run. The kit triples downforce from 95 kg to 310 kg at 200 km/h, and briefly allows up to 730 kW (979 hp) in Attack Mode. It becomes available to order in June as a retrofit for all Taycan Turbo GT Weissach Package cars.

Of the roughly 1,000 Porsche Fuhrmann Type 547 four-cam engines estimated to survive worldwide, Jeff Adams of Speedsport Tuning in Danbury, Connecticut has personally rebuilt about 200 of them — one in five of all that remain. 20

The Type 547, designed by Ernst Fuhrmann in the 1950s, powered Porsche's first outright race victory at the 1956 Targa Florio, gave birth to the Carrera name, and was the engine in James Dean's 550 Spyder. Its distinctive engineering detail is the "Königswelle" — or king's shaft — four vertical shafts that transfer crankshaft rotation through crown gears up to the overhead cams. It requires exceptional precision during assembly, and its power delivery is unlike almost anything else. "The powerband of this engine was such that a driver had to retrain their brain on when they were going to shift," Adams told Road & Track.

Each rebuild takes around 450 hours of labor and costs up to $150,000. Completed examples sell for well over $200,000. Adams bought his first Porsche — a 1958 356A — at age 17 with his father. His approach is strict originality: no hot-rod modifications, every project documented in a shop book. In the early years he drove 356s to Porsche Club of America events and got laughed at by 911 Turbo owners. Those dynamics, he says, have largely reversed.

Every car with a driven axle has a differential — a gear assembly that lets two driven wheels rotate at different speeds when cornering. An open differential solves that problem cleanly, but it sends power to whichever wheel has the least resistance. On slick ground, that's usually the wheel already spinning uselessly.

Limited-slip differentials (LSDs) solve this by building in a controlled resistance that distributes power more evenly. 21 The clutch-type LSD — the oldest design — was first developed by ZF in 1935 for Ferdinand Porsche's Auto Union race cars. Friction plates slip only when the speed difference between the two wheels exceeds a threshold. General Motors' "Positraction" (Posi), developed by Eaton in 1957, brought the same principle to production cars.

The Torsen (torque-sensing) design, patented in 1951 by Vernon Gleasman, uses helical gears rather than clutch packs — it responds to torque bias, not wheel speed, which makes it smoother and more predictable. Eaton's Truetrac is the modern commercial version. Eaton Senior Product Engineer Jeremy Wudy describes it as doing "most things for most people most of the time" — the sensible default for a car that needs to work both on track and in everyday driving.

At the aggressive end, locking differentials ("lockers") like the Detroit Locker — patented in 1941 and still used widely in off-road and drag racing — stay locked by default, only releasing the faster wheel when the car turns. They are highly effective and unforgiving on dry pavement. Modern trucks often use electronic or automatic lockers (GM's G80 MLocker, for example) that engage only below a certain speed, providing off-road capability without the on-road compromise.