In case there was any doubt that demand for big-displacement, high-output machines continues unabated in the face of calls for environmentally-conscious hybrids and a faltering global economy, Mercedes has announced an ambitious expansion of its AMG performance division. Over the course of the next year, AMG will open a whopping 175 new "performance centers" catering to power-mad consumers around the world.
The new outlets will allow an increased level of involvement for AMG customers as Mercedes moves to distinguish the tuning house's offerings as their own brand. Each outlet will be outfitted with matching décor and whatnot, but more importantly, will offer customers a direct line to AMG's performance Mecca in Affalterbach, Germany, and act as a local home base for the AMG Performance Roadshow. The expansion will focus on 15 key markets, including the United States, Japan, China, and of course, its home market of Germany. As if customers needed any more coercion to fall for a fire-breathing Teutonic masterpiece of engineering.
Typically when "music" is mentioned in the same sentence as AMG, it's in relation to the deep burble emanating from the exhaust pipes. But with all that Teutonic, sound-deadened cabin comfort, customers of the Mercedes tuning division have come to expect an equally impressive performance from inside the cabin. To that end, AMG has signed a new deal with the Danish audio gurus at Bang & Olufsen to provide their high-end automotive sound systems for these high-powered Mercedes models.The deal is the third such agreement brokered by B&O, whose systems already appear in Audis and Aston Martins, spearheading a market proliferation that surely influenced the decision-makers in Affalterbach. Both AMG and Bang & Olufsen were clearly elated by the deal, and you can feel the sheer unbridled joy in the statement from AMG chairman Volker Mornhinweg: "Mercedes-AMG represents high performance and exclusivity. The same is true of Bang & Olufsen's in-car sound systems. Jointly, we are therefore able to meet Mercedes-AMG customers' expectations to sound systems." Contain yourself, Volk.
Fans of the classic Gullwing Mercedes 300 SL have been eagerly awaiting the new Gullwing SLC supercar, which Mercedes' tuning house AMG has been spied working on over the last year. But if emerging reports are to be believed, the SLC won't wear a Mercedes badge at all. The true successor to SLR McLaren will reportedly be the first vehicle to be badged exclusively as an AMG product, forgoing the vaunted three-pointed star altogether.
Reports also indicate that with dimensions of 4650mm long, 2700mm wheelbase, 1950mm wide, and 1250mm high, the SLC will be similar in proportions to a Ferrari F430. Project C197, as the Gullwing SLC is internally known, is expected to make its debut at the 2010 Geneva show, with a cloth-roofed convertible R197 version to follow a year later.
It sits there, all tension and sinew, ready to pounce on lesser cars. Start it up and it barks with a clear V8 voice that thumps off the neighbor's house, setting them discreetly peeking from behind their lace curtains. This is an SLK? Oh yeah. No longer a blocky Benz with dwarfism, the SLK55 AMG ripples with muscle and delivers speed like a spin kick to the temple. A bad-ass Mercedes, indeed.
Some people are just pathological. At first, it was amusing that Fresh C280, a member of the MDStreetScene forums, would claim to own a Mercedes CLS55 AMG. How a 19-year-old affords a car that normally retails for around $100,000 is the first thing that made everyone on the forum suspicious. A story about a digital camera becoming a sewage buoy was also an immediate head scratcher, since the pic he posted supposedly came from said camera. Further cementing the obvious dementia was the claim that the picture was taken during a dyno run in New York. It could be New York, except right now it's chilly early spring in the Empire State, and the dyno run picture clearly shows garage bays with the doors flung open and leaves on trees. It gets better as it becomes clear how many balls this kid's trying to juggle to hold up his story. There's a nice little synopsis that debunks the girlfriend angle – even though it's supposedly her car.
It didn't take long for total pwnage to occur when Fresh C280s fellow Maryland car enthusiasts did a little detective work. The car is actually owned by a CarDomain member named Xavier, who hails from Florida and showed up with proof of ownership around 30 pages in. All of the pictures posted to the MDStreetScene bulletin board were stolen from the actual owner's CarDomain page. This is weirder than the guy who thought up direct exhaust injection. The makings of a character study are all there – apparent delusional schizophrenia, a longing to be somebody, a sad little existence, and completely self-inflicted massive public humiliation. There's even a cameo by a famous lolcat. It doesn't get better than this, folks, the thread is only a day old so far. Check it out for yourself, it gets good around page 6. Oh, and Fresh C280's quote at the bottom of his posts is oddly prescient.
Two doors, no top, red leather interior, ceramic brakes, and 538 horses is a combination you once expected to be named for an Italian city or racing personage. No more. And while the alpha-numeric SL63 might not be all that Germanic in itself, it gets no more Teutonic than the hyphenated moniker "Mercedes-Benz" that precedes it. Now that Merc is making cars as fast as those of its Latin neighbor, perhaps the SL63 -- being a tad more comfortable -- is the car you drive to go check on the progress of your bespoke Italian supercar. Check out the hi-res gallery of the Bahn-burningest droptop.
The Schumacher brothers, now both out of F1 where they were the most successful German drivers in the sport's history, are racing in every which direction. Following reports that Michael may be trying his hand at MotoGP motorbike racing comes confirmation from kid brother Ralf that he's moving to the popular DTM German touring car series.
The news comes after Ralf's previous test with the Mercedes AMG team in DTM at Portugal's Estoril race track, where he apparently found his niche after losing his ride in F1. The younger Schumacher will make his race debut at Hockenheim on April 13 behind the wheel of a 2007-spec Trilux AMG C-Class, not unlike the one Mercedes is selling at auction. After learning the ropes of the touring car scene, Schumi Jr. could fill the void left by the Mika Hakkinen's departure.
If you're a fan of Mercedes supercars like the CLK DTM and the CLK AMG Black Series, and were intrigued by Sauber's upcoming auction of retired F1 cars, you'll love this. Mercedes-Benz, which usually holds on to its retired race cars, is preparing to auction off one (yeah, just one) of its DTM cars. The vehicle in question is the AMG C-Class racer in which Gary Paffett took the checkered flag last year in Oschersleben.
With an opening bid set at €300,000, the car will be sold to the highest bidder on April 4 by Christie's auction house to raise money for social sports projects for youth, funded by sponsor Laureus' "Sport for Good" foundation.
Stand anywhere near where an AMG Mercedes is driving and you'd have to be deaf not to hear it. But Mercedes-Benz is convinced that too few potential customers have heard of its performance range, so it's launching an awareness campaign around the United States that seeks to raise the profile of its top shelf performance models.
The project involves the establishment of AMG Performance Centers, a focused advertising campaign and a product-demonstration road show. An initial pilot project will involve seven dealers in California, Florida and New York, but by the end of the year, Mercedes expects that its top 30 dealerships – representing 80% of AMG sales in the US – will sign on to the program. Mercedes will subsidize dealerships on the cost of setting up separate AMG areas within their dealerships and training service personnel, as well as bringing the road show to town, which will demonstrate limited edition AMG models – we're thinking Black Series here – to select customers.
The terms "performance" and "diesel" used to be mutually exclusive, but times, they are a-changin'. Audi's dominance of LeMans with its R10 TDI and the recent unveiling of the R8 V12 TDI concept might be giving Mercedes a reason to turn towards oilburners for some of its high-po offerings. AMG has made a name for itself by providing, among other things, torque-rich engines that sometimes have to be electronically limited due to their tire (and differential) decimating potential. AutoExpress supposedly has it on good authority that plans are in the works to offer diesel models with an AMG badge, but both Mercedes and AE failed to provide any details about what vehicles or engines would be used. It might be a forgone conclusion that new CAFE standards in the U.S. are causing automakers to rethink their performance offerings, but in the meantime, we're going to throw this in the rumormill and see what comes out the other end.
