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Watch Schumacher's hot lap of N"urburgring in Mercedes F1 car

In advance of the Nürburgring 24-hour race last weekend, Mercedes-Benz put on a demonstration that had Michael Schumacher playing catch-up in a Formula One car against four examples of AMG metal. There were four cars sent off in staggered starts before Schumacher: an A45 AMG, E63 AMG 4Matic, SLS AMG Black Series, and an SLS AMG GT3 car. "Mr. Formula One," as the German television commentators call him, left three minutes after the SLS AMG GT3.
There are two videos of Schumacher's lap, the first is on-board footage - and even though there were several GoPros on the car the POV never cuts away from the front wing. You can hear the throttle and tell he's not pushing it, you can also tell how bumpy the track is. The second video is footage from the German Sport1 channel - with commentary in German - that shows all the cars taking off and takes the aerial view of proceedings. He looks to be going a lot faster in that one. You can compare and contrast yourself with the videos below.
Oh, and it's worth noting that, even with the likely restricted car, and the made-for-TV environment, Schumi turned in a quick lap. The nose camera shows the F1 car start to slow down on the back straight, near the start/finish line, right around the modern-length track record time of six minutes and eleven seconds.

Maybach lost upwards of $500k on each vehicle sold

Daimler is shuttering Maybach in 2013 after seven years of production. In that time, the company's ultra-ultra-luxury arm managed to sell just 3,000 units, and CAR reports Daimler lost somewhere around $500,000 on each and every one of them.
Even with a ludicrous price tag of over $370,000 for an "entry" Maybach 57, the brand couldn't quite recoup the dizzying $1.33 billion Daimler poured into it since its (re)inception. Rumors ignited over a possible tie up with Aston Martin that would have resulted in a range of new and attractive models, but Daimler has instead decided to snuff out Maybach altogether.
We can hardly blame them.

2017 Aston Marin Lagonda could live on Mercedes M-Class platform

A few weeks ago, we brought you news from the launch of the Aston Martin Vanquish Volante that the British brand, which is formally known as Aston Martin Lagonda, was still planning on going ahead with a Lagonda-badged crossover. Now comes word that that vehicle could very well be based on a Mercedes-Benz M-Class.
When the first Lagonda Concept debuted at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, it sat on a Mercedes-Benz GL-Class platform, some four years before Aston Martin and Mercedes-AMG deal was inked. And with that partnership, which will see Aston Martin gain access to AMG electrics and "bespoke, V8 powertrains," the opportunities for platform sharing are many.
Dr. Ulrich Bez, the boss of Aston Martin, told the UK's AutoCar, "I look at what Porsche is doing with the 911 as its core business and then it is able to do models like the Cayenne based on the Volkswagen Touareg. It is good business." We've said many times that we'll tolerate exotic CUVs and SUVs if it means keeping the beloved core models alive, which has been the case with Porsche. We see no reason Aston Martin wouldn't be able to do the same.