2001 Mercedes Benz Clk430 Convertible on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Cigarette Racing unveils the AMG GT S-inspired 50-foot Marauder

The Cigarette Racing stand at the Miami Boat Show this morning hosted the latest in the eight-year collaboration between Mercedes-AMG and Cigarette Racing: the AMG GT S parked next to the fast-boat it inspired, the Cigarette Racing 50 Marauder GT S Concept. The vinyl ester resin and fiberglass go-fast boat is more than a matching Solarbeam yellow paint job with the coupe that inspired it. Like other carmakers who have partnered with companies outside the industry - such as Nissan's recent tie-up with NASA - there's an exchange of technology involved; Cigarette said that working with AMG on composites and bonding helped them drop 1,000 pounds off the Marauder GT S Concept compared to the standard Marauder twin-engine, which comes in at 14,200 pounds. Customers who order standard Marauders can request the weight reduction (for a price), but we were told that unless they plan to spend most of their time above 100 miles per hour, the extra weight contributes to a smoother ride. Mercedes head designer Gordon Wagener penned the exterior paint job and worked with Cigarette to design the cockpit trim, which would have seen him in familiar surroundings: Cigarette Racing owner Skip Braver is a long-time AMG customer, and the boat company based its bespoke department on the AMG Design Studio in Affalterbach. Every one of its boats is handbuilt in its factory in Opa-locka, Florida using some of the same processes seen in automaking, like bar codes to track the progress of hulls and components, computer controlled paint samples with digital files that can be sent around the world for matching, and doing all the stitching in-house to keep tabs on quality control. The engine compartment holds two, nine-liter, four-valve, DOHC, quad-cam, twin-turbocharged Mercury Racing engines with all-aluminum blocks, each one of them good for an electronically-limited 1,550 pound-feet of torque, and either 1,350 horsepower or 1,550 horsepower depending on whether you run regular 91-octane fuel or 116-octane race fuel. So yes, that's 3,100 hp and 3,100 lb-ft at once, if you go all out. Mercury says they're the most powerful powerful emissions-certified gas-powered marine engines you can buy. The engines don't have knock sensors, though, so you have to turn a key to register the kind of fuel you're putting in, and you can switch from one to the other when two 150-gallon tanks are down to 10-percent full.

The mood at this year’s Paris Motor Show: Quiet

The Paris Motor Show, held every other year in the early fall, typically kicks off the annual cavalcade of automotive conclaves, one that traverses the globe between autumn and spring, introducing projective, conceptual and production-ready vehicle models to the international automotive press, automotive aficionados and a public hungry for news of our increasingly futuristic mobility enterprise. But this year, at the press preview days for the show, the grounds of the Porte de Versailles convention center felt a bit more sparsely populated than usual. This was not simply a subjective sensation, or one influenced by the center's atypically dispersed assemblage of seven discrete buildings, which tends to spread out the cars and the crowds. There were not only fewer new vehicles being premiered in Paris this year, there were fewer manufacturers there to display them. Major mainstream European OEM stalwarts such as Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Nissan and Volkswagen chose to sit out Paris this year, as did boutique manufacturers like Bentley, Aston Martin and Lamborghini. This is not simply based in some antipathy on the part of the German, British and Italian manufacturers toward the French market — though for a variety of historical and societal reasons that market may be more dominated by vehicles produced domestically than others. Rather, it is part of a larger trend in the industry. Last year, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would not be participating in the flagship North American International Auto Show in 2019 — and that it might not return. Other brands including Jaguar/Land Rover, Audi, Porsche, Mazda and nearly every exotic carmaker have also departed the Detroit show. Some of these brands will still appear in the city in which the show is taking place, and host an event offsite, to capitalize on the presence of a large number of reporters in attendance. And even brands that do have a presence at the show have shifted their vehicle introductions to the days before the official press opening in an attempt to stand out from the crowd. In many ways, this makes sense. With an expanding number of automakers, with diversification and niche-ification of models and with wholesale shifts that necessitate the introduction of EV or autonomous sub-brands, there is a growing sense that, with everyone shouting at the same time, no one can be heard.

Mercedes fits new C-Class with AMG kit

It's only been a week and a half since Mercedes-Benz revealed the new C-Class, and it'll likely be a while yet before the replacement for the C63 AMG comes along. But if you want to see a preview of what it'll look like, look no further than the AMG aero kit that has just surfaced.
Expected to debut on the new C-Class at the fast-approaching Detroit Auto Show, the AMG Line Exterior Pack adds a new bumpers front and rear, side skirts, dual exhaust tips, mesh grille, aluminum window frames and - most importantly - 18-inch alloys packing upgraded brakes and fitted to a lowered sport suspension. All of which will help any C-Class look the part, even if the engine remains stock.