2003 Mercedes Sl 500 - We Finance, Ship, And Take Trades. on 2040-cars

Auto blog

McLaren F1 boss says team will dethrone Mercedes

Motorsports Honda McLaren Mercedes-Benz F1 mercedes-amg

Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet is last year's concept with a soft top

Last year, Mercedes brought an absurd, excessive two-seat coupe to Pebble Beach called the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6. We say absurd and excessive because it was a roughly 19-foot long coupe for just two people. It also packed a 750-horsepower electric powertrain. This year, Mercedes brought pretty much the same car, but now with a soft top and the suffix "Cabriolet." Because the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet is basically the same car as the coupe, it's also dripping with unashamed excess. It's still 19 feet long, it still carries only two people, and it still has 750 horsepower from electric motors. Mercedes claims that power will propel the car to 60 mph in under 4 seconds. Also like the coupe, it has a range of 200 miles on a charge, and with the right charger, can supposedly regain about 60 miles in 5 minutes. There are changes to the car, though. For one, it's painted a different color. Instead of the vibrant red of the coupe, the roadster is a navy blue that Mercedes says helps evoke the feeling of a yacht — more so than the size already did. It also has new wheels with a more conventional multi-spoke look. They're also have rose gold-painted accents. The change to a convertible body style alters the appearance of the Mercedes-Maybach 6 more than you'd expect, too. Now that a significant portion of the vehicle is finished in a contrasting color, the car looks a bit shorter, in a good way. It doesn't look cumbersome. The lack of a fastback also helps keep the tail from looking like it's sagging, as it does on the coupe. The interior of the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet is mostly the same as the coupe, too. It features the same white leather seats that blend into the doors and dashboard. It also has the wild wraparound display and clear center tunnel with light tubes that show the flow of electricity to the motors. Metal highlights are finished in rose gold hue, as is the stitching. The differences include more prominent shapes that imply air vents, as well as a wood floor with aluminum strips to complete the yacht feeling. Also, the buttons that dot the seats have Mercedes logos on them, and they're backlit. We also get a peak under the hood of the Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet. It opens up like pre-war cars with two panels connected by a center hinge. Because it uses compact electric motors and underfloor batteries, there's storage space under the hood.

2015 Mercedes-AMG C63 S First Drive [w/video]

As I mashed the throttle heading into the back straight of a nearly three-mile-long race track, I couldn't help but center my mind on two ostensibly disparate subjects: physics and pistons. If the heart of an automobile is its engine, the heart of the engine are its rotating bits – the crankshaft, pistons and the block they're nested inside. It seems fitting, then, that the internals of the twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 typify the brand-new 2015 Mercedes-AMG C63 sedan I found myself piloting in Portugal. Whereas the last C-Class AMG availed itself of a brute of an engine, employing 6.2 liters of displacement to make its 451 horsepower the old fashioned way, the latest AMG's V8 engine has been downsized radically. I had the opportunity earlier in the day to actually hold the pistons of the new 4.0 Biturbo V8 in my hands, alongside those of the outgoing 6.2. The difference in size is staggering, the new lumps looking downright picayune in comparison to the latter. These eight seemingly diminutive pistons turn combustion into crankshaft-spinning power inside a block that is smaller, lighter and more compact than I'd have thought possible, considering the prodigious output the engine spits out. I had gone into this assignment expecting to pen an ode to lost love; a sonnet of sorrow bemoaning the switch from massive cylinders to wheezing power adders. But I was wrong. In fact, the report that follows may indeed read a little like a love song, except it will heap praise not on what used to be, but instead on what is now possible. The new heart of AMG more than makes up for its reduction in size by relying on turbochargers and smart engineering to turn just 4.0 liters into 469 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque starting at just 1,750 rpm, or as much as 503 ponies and 516 lb-ft in uprated S guise. Foot to the floor, eyes focused on the turn ahead, a hard right-hander named Primeira that requires hard braking and quick reflexes, I had a fleeting moment of clarity: These are some hard-working pistons. A few days on the street and track in and around Faro, Portugal, has convinced me that the new Mercedes-AMG C63 is a better car in any meaningful measurement than it was before. And I'll go one step further. Not only is this the best C-Class AMG ever, it's also my new favorite in the hotly contested segment that includes such knee-benders as the BMW M3 and M4.