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Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 to debut in Monterey

Mercedes surprised the car world last week when it teased an enormous, Maybach-badged coupe concept. Now we have a name and a debut date. Mercedes released the info in a second teaser image posted to its Facebook page. Called the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 – "Vision" equals concept and "6" denotes the length in meters – the new two-door will debut at Pebble Beach on Thursday. So yeah, here's another reason to get excited about Monterey Car Week. As for the teaser image, it's a head-on shot as opposed to the profile view that Mercedes released last week. The new view supports our theory that the super-skinny mirrors are cameras, and the shot also reveals new styling touches. The most noticeable are the very thin, un-Mercedes-like headlights – they flank a prominent, heavily polished waterfall grille that marks a significant departure from recent Mercedes products. A traditional Mercedes hood ornament sits above the grille's small "Maybach" designation. Kicking up the exposure in Photoshop doesn't reveal too much more detail – unlike last week's profile image – aside from a set of chrome strips that run along the sides of the hood. Autoblog's Monterey Car Week crew ships out for the left coast soon – expect more on the festivities, including the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6's debut, later this week. Related Video: News Source: Mercedes-BenzImage Credit: Mercedes-Benz Maybach Mercedes-Benz Coupe Concept Cars Luxury Pebble Beach mercedes-maybach vision mercedes-maybach 6

Man makes record-setting drive across the US in 28 hours, 50 minutes

Records, as the say, are made to be broken. Whether that's cramming the most hot dogs down your gullet, running a faster mile, or yes, driving across the United States, odds are that there's someone out there wants to eat more, run faster or drive harder. Speaking of that last example, the record for driving from a set location on the east coast, in particular the Red Ball Garage in Manhattan to the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach, CA, has been one that has fascinated gearheads since a guy named Cannonball Baker made the trek from New York to LA in 53 hours, 30 minutes, in 1933.
The competition saw its glory days when Car and Driver's Brock Yates came up with the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash (more affectionately known as the Cannonball Run), although the record was most recently set by Alex Roy and his 32-hour, seven-minute trek behind the wheel of a BMW M5 in 2006. Now, there's a new champion, who made the trip from east to west in a scarcely imaginable 28 hours and 50 minutes, behind the wheel of a 2004 Mercedes-Benz CL55 AMG. That's works out to an average speed of 98 miles per hour over the course of 2,813.7 miles.
His name is Ed Bolian, and Jalopnik has a writeup of the epic voyage that details everything from the history of the Cannonball Run to Bolian's preparation and trouble finding co-drivers, to the trip itself. It is well worth a read.

2015 Mexican Grand Prix is a lot like old times

The last time Formula One visited Mexico, in 1992, 26 cars powered by eight engine manufacturers (counting Honda and Mugen-Honda separately) lined up on the grid; it would have been nine engine makers but the Brabham-Judd cars failed to qualify. In 1992 Lewis Hamilton was seven years old, Sebastian Vettel was five, Max Verstappen was still five years away from being born. Two of the current Sky Sports F1 commentary team, Martin Brundle and Johnny Herbert, were drivers. The starting three were Nigel Mansell on pole – 39 years old, this the year he'd win his only World Championship – and Riccardo Patrese both driving Williams-Renault cars, followed by Michael Schumacher in a Benetton-Ford. Only 13 of the 26 starters would finish. The circuit is has been reworked to today's safer standards, the track surface is brand new and slippery, but the atmosphere and packed grandstands haven't changed. Nico Rosberg was another point of consistency, scoring pole position for the fourth race in a row to beat his now-World-Champion teammate Hamilton by almost two-tenths of a second. The last time Rosberg turned pole position into a victory? The Spanish Grand Prix back in May. Vettel locked up third for Ferrari, followed by the Infiniti Red Bull Racing duo of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo. Williams went two-up as well, Valtteri Bottas in sixth ahead of Felipe Massa in seventh. Max Verstappen turned in a great late lap to reserve eighth place, Sergio Perez did all he could in front of his home crowd to get ninth, teammate Nico Hulkenberg the caboose in the top ten. In that 1992 race the first three on the grid finished the race in the same order after Mansell dominated, and it was almost the same in 2015. If Rosberg had driven the whole season like he drove today the Driver's World Championship would still be up for grabs. He got a great start and held his line through the first corner, coming out ahead of Hamilton through the initial kinks, pulling away as soon as he got to the straight. Hamilton was never more than a few seconds behind, but every time the Brit inched closer the German found a few more tenths to keep his distance. The field got bunched up when the Safety Car came out on Lap 53 after Vettel spun and got stuck in the barriers, but Rosberg handled the restart perfectly. Both drivers made small mistakes in the last few laps while driving on the edge, but Rosberg earned a strong victory, crossing the line two seconds ahead of his teammate.