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Mercedes pays tribute to 1955 Mille Miglia with special-edition SL

The Mercedes-Benz SL is one of the longest-running nameplates in the business, and its history has been marked with numerous achievements. But few were as impressive as the 1955 running of the Mille Miglia, and Mercedes pays tribute to that race and the results it achieved there with this latest special-edition roadster. Called the SL Special Edition Mille Miglia 417, this roadster starts with the eight-cylinder SL550 with dynamic stability management and adaptive damping and adds on several highlights. Red trim adorns the front spoiler, the stripe across the matte carbon rear spoiler, the brake calipers and the rims of the black AMG Performance wheels. The red pieces accent the matte black paint, while the interior features AMG Line sports seats with carbon-finish leather and red trim, along with a red and black nappa leather steering wheel and carbon trim. The SL arrives 60 years after the Mille Miglia in which a 300 SL driven by American gentleman racer John Fitch - bearing the number 417 and starting at 4:17 a.m. - led a 1-2-3 class finish, landing fifth overall and leaving many purpose-built racers in the dust. The special edition is confirmed for the US, arriving this fall with pricing to be announced closer to launch. SPECIAL EDITION SL "MILLE MIGLIA 417" Exclusive SL passion February 17, 2015 - Stuttgart -- Mercedes-Benz celebrates the 60th anniversary of a memorable motor racing success with an extraordinary special model of the SL Roadster. Its name commemorates the unexpected victory of a 300 SL in the production sports cars class at the 1955 "Mille Miglia", one of the world's most challenging long-distance races. What's more: the SL Special Edition "Mille Miglia 417" provides a special experience of the unique symbiosis of maximum comfort and motor racing spirit that traditionally characterizes every SL. The Special Edition adds a distinctive note, among other things, with red exterior highlights and fine materials in the exclusively appointed interior. The Mercedes-Benz SL Roadster is more than an icon. Passion shapes its character and its charisma – in the past and today. Legendary vehicles and their stories dominate the model history. One of them is told by the SL that started the famous "Mille Miglia" in 1955 with race number 417 at 4:17 am. After 11 hours, 29 minutes and 21 seconds it had completed the race distance of 1597 kilometres on public roads from Brescia to Rome and back.

F1 title fight gets closer | 2016 US Grand Prix recap

We ran into an old friend at the US Grand Prix: an on-form Lewis Hamilton. Reliability and proper clutch actuation helped the Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver resurrect the kind of performance we haven't seen since July at the German Grand Prix. After demolishing the previous qualifying record around the Circuit of the Americas, he put the field in his mirrors as soon as the lights went out, was never bothered by anyone behind, and crossed the finish line 4.5 seconds ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg. The drive was exactly what Hamilton needed to keep his molecule-thin Championship hopes alive. Rosberg, however, did exactly what he needed to do as well by finishing second. The German had a sketchier path to the checkered flag than Hamilton, getting pushed back to the third at the start by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo. Worse, Ricciardo appeared to have the pace to keep Hamilton honest ahead and hold Rosberg behind. Red Bull and Mercedes matched one another's pit stops, and it was clear the German would need more help to pass the Aussie. Rosberg didn't have to make his own luck, Ricciardo's teammate Max Verstappen made the luck for him. Ricciardo pitted on Lap 26, ceding second position on track to Rosberg. On Lap 30, Verstappen's gearbox failed while headed down the back straight. The Dutch teenager said the team told him to try to get the car back to the pits, so he dawdled through a few corners before following more team orders to pull over and park. Verstappen's parking spot and bad gearbox meant marshals couldn't push the car off the track, they needed to use a crane. That brought out a Virtual Safety Car, slowing the whole race down and allowing Rosberg to run a longer stint while losing less time on old tires. When the German came in for new tires on Lap 31 he emerged ahead of Ricciardo, and they ran that way to the end of the race, much to Ricciardo's disappointment. Sebastian Vettel claimed fourth for Ferrari, a placing perhaps due only to Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen retiring from the race. An otherwise anonymous weekend for the scuderia called attention to itself on race day when Raikkonen had to call it a day after a botched pit stop, and Vettel couldn't make any impression on the teams ahead. Fernando Alonso rode home to a brilliant fifth for McLaren. During the first stint while rummaging around outside the top ten, the Spaniard complained about his lack of pace. By Lap 15 Alonso was tenth, on Lap 34 he was eighth.

McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari call for unfreezing F1 engines

Formula One is a hugely expensive sport. Not only do you have enormous salaries and logistical expenses, as you would in any other sport, but each team also spends huge sums developing their own chassis from the ground up – and so too do the participating automakers in developing the engines. One of the ways the series organizers mitigate those costs is by freezing development. So once the new crop of V6 turbo hybrid powertrains were developed, that was it. But now three of the of the sport's leading teams are calling on the FIA to unfreeze engine development. Their reason? Unfair advantage. There's little question that Mercedes did the best job of developing its "power unit" to meet the new regulations that took effect at the beginning of this past season. That's how the Mercedes team won all but three of the grands prix this season and finished with at least one car on the podium at every single race. It's also a big part of how the teams that bought their engines from Mercedes this season managed to consistently outperform the other non-works-supported teams. That clear advantage is why Red Bull, Ferrari and now McLaren are calling for engine development to be unfrozen. Their argument is that, under the current locked-down status quo, their engine suppliers (Renault, Ferrari and Honda, respectively) cannot possibly catch up. So unless the FIA and Formula One Management want the next few seasons to be the kind of absolute blow-outs that this past season was, these leading teams argue, the powers that be are going to have to make some changes. For its part, Mercedes naturally counters that unfreezing engine development would send costs spiraling out of control. But then of course it stands to lose the most by re-opening engine development. If those three teams, however, closely intertwined as they are with the three other engine suppliers participating in next year's championship, manage to solicit enough support from the other customer teams and bring the matter to a vote, Mercedes may very well find itself out-numbered. News Source: ESPNImage Credit: Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Motorsports Ferrari McLaren Mercedes-Benz F1 engine