Man hit by three cars while sitting on road

KANSAS CITY (AP) - A 37-year-old man was in critical condition yesterday after he was hit by three vehicles, which all drove away, police said.

Witnesses told police the man sat in the middle of a road with his back to oncoming traffic before he was hit about 3 a.m. yesterday in the Westport entertainment district in Kansas City.

The drivers might not have known they hit a person, police said. At least two other drivers told police they initially thought something in the road was a black trash bag, which they narrowly missed hitting before realizing it was a person.

The three vehicles that might have hit the man were described as a late 1990s or early 2000 mid-size General Motors sport utility vehicle, champagne or gold in color, with Missouri license plates; a green or teal Ford F150 truck, possibly with a pinstripe; and a small dark-colored compact car, possibly a Pontiac Sunfire.

Mercedes' changes are more than skin deep

To really appreciate the major changes in Mercedes-Benz's 2007 E-Class, you'll have to look beneath the surface.

Of course, there are cosmetic changes as well: new taillights, a chrome bar across the rear of the car, a different gearshift lever and steering wheel. But the instant you turn the key in the ignition, you know this is not the old E-Class.

CL-Class continues tradition of beauty, performance

This time it's the new CL-Class hardtop, which is just arriving in dealers' showrooms as you're reading this.

You have to see it to believe it. Shamelessly sleek, with flowing, voluptuous lines and huge wheel arches dominating some of the most beautiful alloy wheels you'll ever see, this car is nothing short of a work of art. It comes in two versions -- the CL 550 powered by a 382 horsepower V-8 and the outrageously fast 510 horsepower CL600 with 612 pounds feet of tree stump-pulling torque. Either one will take your breath away -- trust me.

Take a look at the new navigation system, too. It has a 20 gigabyte hard drive, can provide detailed driving directions , has voice prompts and lots of other cool features, too. The stereo system has 600 watts and 11 speakers, and hands-free communication with either an accessory phone cradle or Bluetooth adapte are included in the long list of equipment.

Driven: Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722

What must it be like to have so much wealth that you could buy any car you wanted? It wouldn't matter to you that a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren costs twice as much as even a mega-expensive toy like a Ferrari 599, because you'd probably have both. And if Mercedes offered an even faster, even more expensive version of the SLR, then you'd probably have to have that as well. Mercedes has now done exactly that. If you think a 208mph maximum speed and a 3.8-second 0-62mph time are really a bit feeble in the modern world, and that too many of the carbonfibre uber-GTs have fallen into footballers' hands, then clearly you need the new, enhanced version. Just 150 examples of the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 Edition will be built, with 650bhp instead of the usual 626, a torque rise to 605lb-ft from 575, and an extra 1mph on the top speed.