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2015 MV Agusta F4 RC superbike debuts with AMG livery

MV Agusta, the Italian motorcycle maker with 37 Constructors Championship trophies earned in Grand Prix racing, returned to the World Superbike Championship for the 2014 season. With one annual campaign under its belt, it has released the customer version of its racing superbike, the F4 RR. The street-legal version will come in two power levels depending on the exhaust: either 205.5 horsepower with the standard exhaust, or 212 hp with the 4-2-1-2 Termignoni race exhaust. At 386 pounds dry, the RC is about 33 pounds lighter than the World Superbike entrant, but it's still heavier than the competition from Aprilia, BMW, and Ducati. It is, though, a little more powerful than all of them in its full-fat guise. Compared to the RR, MV Agusta made changes to the RC that include a new cylinder head, crankshaft, and camshaft, larger fuel injectors and lighter pistons, a lithium-ion battery, and magnesium casings. Titanium connecting bolts affix a carbon fiber fairing done up in the AMG livery of the World Superbike ride. If you want one, act quickly and come strong: only 250 will be produced, at $46,000 a pop. If you're not that keen, there's a high-res gallery above. Featured Gallery 2015 MV Agusta F4 RC View 26 Photos News Source: Asphalt and Rubber Mercedes-Benz Motorcycle Luxury Special and Limited Editions Performance world superbike mv agusta f4

Mercedes expected to announce US HQ relocating to Atlanta today

Employees at Mercedes-Benz's US headquarters in Montvale, NJ, are set to gather today for the annual president's reception. Only this year, company chairman Dr. Dieter Zetsche is expected to fly in from headquarters to make a big announcement. That announcement, according to mounting speculation, is that MBUSA is moving to Atlanta. News of the potential move first broke around three weeks ago, suggesting that the German automaker was looking to relocate its US headquarters from New Jersey to somewhere in the South, with the Atlanta area tipped as the front-runner. Now sources are expecting that announcement to be made imminently. Although the specifics of the move have yet to be made public, Mercedes is tipped to be looking at moving into either a purpose-built facility or an existing office space in the Sandy Springs area, specifically near the intersections of Georgia 400 and Abertnathy, where UPS has its headquarters. The move is said to have hinged on a substantial incentives package worth nearly $50 million put together by the Georgia state government. The state of New Jersey is said to have offered similar incentives to keep Mercedes in the Bergen County borough of Montvale, where it employs 800 in its 141,000-square-foot office complex. One advertising company even put up billboards encouraging the company to stay, but if the reports prove accurate, it looks like their efforts may have been too little and/or too late. Mercedes wouldn't be the first automaker to move to the South, where numerous foreign carmakers have been also setting up factories. Toyota is also preparing to move its US headquarters to Texas, and though already based in Georgia, Porsche is preparing to move into a new $100 million facility, complete with on-site test track, closer to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport that has grown into a major international hub. The move on Mercedes' part would put its US base of operations closer to its factory in Tuscaloosa, AL, and the port near Savannah, GA, from which it ships out the former's production overseas.

Daimler exec hypothetically discusses 3-cylinder engines for small hybrids

Is three the magic number of cylinders for Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler and its efforts to build smaller powertrains for its compact hybrids? Potentially, yes, the German automaker could see the need for three-cylinder mills, Automotive News reports. The company doesn't have any plans for them as of yet, though. Daimler executive Bernhard Heil talked with Automotive News about the challenges of using four-cylinder engines in a front-wheel-drive setup and said that three-cylinder engines could work in transverse-mounted powertrains for hybrid cars. For now, though, the company doesn't actually have any plans to go in that direction, Mercedes-Benz spokesman Christoph Horn said in an e-mail to AutoblogGreen. Horn wrote that Heil "actually said that if ever MB would use a three-cylinder engine than [it would be] in a configuration where space is restricted, such as when using a hybrid power train in a compact car." Of course, the only compact "hybrid" that Mercedes-Benz has is the 2015 C-Class, but that refers to the "hybrid" body is made of 48-percent aluminum, up from the current nine percent, as well as steel. It has nothing to do with the powertrain. Beyond that, there's always the Mercedes-Benz S500 Plug-in Hybrid that the company unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show last fall, but that model, which will debut in Europe later this year and arrive stateside next year, has a 3.0-liter turbocharged V6 and an 80-kilowatt electric motor that propels the plug-in from 0 to 62 miles per hour in 5.5 seconds. Not exactly three-cylinder territory, that.