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2017 Mercedes-AMG C63 S Coupe First Drive

Remember 2008? The government said companies could make food from cloned animals. Derrick Rose became a Bull, Michael Phelps killed it at the Beijing Olympics, the Giants killed gamblers everywhere by beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl. The money that banks had been dousing in lighter fluid for years finally caught fire courtesy of Lehman Brothers. General Motors admitted it got torched for a $38.7-billion loss in 2007. Oil hit $147 a barrel. Tata introduced the Nano. And Mercedes-Benz gave us the W204 C63 AMG, a sedan we didn't know we'd been waiting for until we drove it. It was hammer in front and hell in back, that naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V8 with 451 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque swearing in Beelzebub's childhood tongue through four oval pipes jutting from a heart of black diffuser darkness. It was everything AMG had always been, howling mad in a straight line. And everything AMG hadn't been, sharp and fast through a turn. AMG booked a lot of goodwill for that endeavor, a substantial success that bred huge expectations. Not only would we not be surprised by the 2017 AMG C63 S, we would expect it to be outstanding. And it is. But not in the way we expected. What we love about the W205 C-Class sedan is the same thing that gives us pause about the AMG C63 S: they both grew up. The coupe shares only the doors, roof, and decklid with the sedan. The C63 Coupe shares only the doors, roof, and decklid with the standard production car. The hood is 60 millimeters longer, and there's a front splitter ready to make nasty crunching noises around town. The trunk gets a trim blade of a spoiler, strengthening the design connection to the S-Class Coupe. Blistered wheels broaden the C63 S Coupe by 2.5 inches in front and 2.6 inches millimeters in back, putting needed muscle on that otherwise svelte rear end and visually bolting the car to the road. Track is wider, too, and standard 19-inchers fill the wheel wells. It's a beautiful machine, and when draped in one of the 80 bazillion shades of matte silver AMG is known for, it's devastating. Our subjective take is that it's swapped personas with the BMW M4. Now it's the C63 S that channels muscular grace, while the M4 takes Bluto as its spirit animal. What's left to be said about Mercedes interiors, other than to give way for the heckling about the COMAND touchscreen placement? This interior does it like all the rest, with the exception of a small steering wheel with an absurdly fat rim.

2016 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix recap: another wild show on and off track

Normally we use this space to provide a lengthy recap of the weekend's Formula 1 race, but we're going to try something different since most folks reading this know what happened at the Shanghai International Circuit on Sunday. Instead, we'll alight on what we saw as the big issues in and around the race. Let us know what you think in Comments. Proper qualifying is back. Thank goodness. It only took a month of embarrassment to fix it. And so is passing! For the third race in a row, big performance improvements at the ten teams behind Mercedes-AMG Petronas and a wider tire selection at this race graced us with opening stints filled with dicing cars. Seeing the McLarens on screen doesn't make us cringe. Manor doesn't only make the global feed when it's being lapped. We've been complaining about parade races for so long that we forgot excitement was possible without rain or wholesale regulation changes. Yes, Mercedes is still the king of the jungle, but there are some other proper midfield beasts on the hunt, too. Malfunctions up and down the grid did help the show in Shanghai, like Lewis Hamilton suffering perpetual troubles, Nico Hulkenberg's runaway front wheel which red-flagged Q2, and Sebastian Vettel's and Kimi Raikkonen's flubbed hot laps in Q3 that let Daniel Ricciardo slip by into second on the grid. Come race day things went all Grand Theft Auto at Turn 1 on the opening lap, sending some of the best cars to the pits. Then came Ricciardo's puncture while leading, then came the Safety Car – all by Lap 5. Nico Rosberg got 38 seconds of airtime on the way to victory – at the start and the finish, and that happened to be his margin of victory, too – otherwise he was a ghost. Everyone else was struggling and juggling. Rosberg's win at the Bahrain Grand Prix put the German at five consecutive victories going back to last year's Mexican Grand Prix. The history books show that any driver who's won five straight contests has gone on to win the championship. With his triumph in China, the German has won the season's first three races, the history books again show that the other nine drivers who've pulled that off have gone on to win the championship. Rosberg, 36 points ahead of his teammate in the standings, is having none of it. He said of the other victors, "But they didn't have Lewis Hamilton as their team-mate." Perhaps Mercedes was right not to make an engine deal with Red Bull last season.

Smart brand will be built in China as a Daimler-Geely joint

FRANKFURT/BEIJING — Daimler will build its next generation of Smart electric cars in China through a joint venture with Geely, as a way to increase economies of scale in a market segment that is struggling to turn a profit. China's Geely built a stake of almost 10 percent in Daimler last year, saying it wanted to forge an alliance to develop electric and self-driving cars to better compete against new challengers such as Uber and Google. Daimler said on Thursday it would build the next generation of Smart-branded city cars at a purpose-built factory in China, and planned to share its expertise in manufacturing, engineering and design with Geely. The high cost of electric car batteries has made it hard for automakers to build affordable zero-emissions vehicles, leading several of them to strike alliances with Chinese partners. Daimler's German rival BMW recently unveiled plans to build electric Minis in China, where production costs are low and demand for small electric cars is rising. Daimler and Geely did not disclose financial terms of their deal. The details of the joint venture will be finalized by the end of 2019, they said in a joint press release. Daimler currently develops and builds Smart cars with Renault at factories in France and Slovenia. The Daimler factory in Hambach, France, will be retooled to build Mercedes-Benz cars. Geely has been expanding rapidly through mergers and acquisitions since 2010, when it acquired Swedish carmaker Volvo from Ford. Last year, Daimler and Geely set up a ride-hailing joint venture in China. Daimler's Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said last month the German carmaker was in talks to deepen its alliance with Geely after the Chinese's group's chairman Li Shufu bought a 9.69 percent stake in Daimler in 2018.