2006 Mercedes-benz Slk350 Hard Top Convertible 2-door Roadster 3.5l Excellent on 2040-cars

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Mercedes considering convertible SUV

Mercedes has been focusing a lot of attention lately on revitalizing and expanding its crossover and SUV lineup. So what's next for high-riding Benzes? It could be a convertible. According to Daimler's sport-ute and sports car chief Wolf-Dieter Kurz, the company is closely considering a drop-top SUV of some sort. "We will find a market," Kurz told the Australian website CarAdvice. The trouble is that "the convertible is a very slim niche in terms of the SUV portfolio." The biggest problem could be China, where luxury SUVs remain hugely popular – but where convertibles, by and large, are not. "There are lots of discussions," said Kurz, "but we didn't have any decision yet." The last time Mercedes offered a convertible SUV was with the short-wheelbase version of the Gelandewagen, pictured above. It was available (in some markets anyway) for 34 long years as part of the G-Class lineup, but was discontinued in 2013. That left the Jeep Wrangler and Land Rover Discovery as the only convertible SUVs to speak of currently available. Nissan tried its hand with the Murano CrossCabriolet, but that was phased out as well, while Land Rover prepares to take another stab at it with the upcoming Evoque convertible. It'd be interesting to see what approach Mercedes might take, and where it would position the model. Related Video:

Mercedes-Benz engines with 48-volt systems coming in 2017

As part of a big green push announced yesterday, Mercedes-Benz is jumping into the world of 48-volt power. The company will launch a new family of efficient gasoline engines next year and will begin rolling out 48-volt systems with it, likely in its more expensive cars first. Mercedes will use the 48-volt systems to power mild-hybrid functions like energy recuperation (commonly called brake regeneration), engine stop-start, electric boost, and even moving a car from a stop on electric power alone. These features will be enabled through either an integrated starter-generator (Mercedes abbreviates it ISG) or a belt-driven generator (RSG). (RSG is from the German word for belt-driven generator, Riemenstartergeneratoren. That's your language lesson for the day.) Mercedes didn't offer many other details on the new family of engines. There are 48-volt systems already in production; Audi's three-compressor SQ7 engine uses an electric supercharger run by a 48-volt system, and there's a new SQ5 diesel on the horizon that will use a similar setup with the medium-voltage system. Electric superchargers require a lot of juice, which can be fed by either a supercapacitor or batteries in a 48-volt system. Why 48-volt Matters: Current hybrid and battery-electric vehicles make use of very high voltages in their batteries, motors, and the wiring that connects them, usually around 200 to 600 volts. The high voltage gives them enough power to move a big vehicle, but it also creates safety issues. The way to mitigate those safety issues is with added equipment, and that increases both cost and weight. You can see where this is going. By switching to a 48-volt system, the high-voltage issues go away and the electrical architecture benefits from four times the voltage of a normal vehicle system and uses the same current, providing four times the power. The electrical architecture will cost more than a 12-volt system but less than the complex and more dangerous systems in current electrified vehicles. The added cost makes sense now because automakers are running out of ways to wisely spend money for efficiency gains. Cars can retain a cheaper 12-volt battery for lower-power accessories and run the high-draw systems on the 48-volt circuit. The industry is moving toward 48-volt power, with the SAE working on a standard for the systems and Delphi claiming a 10-percent increase in fuel economy for cars that make the switch.

Mercedes-AMG GT3 opts for big displacement without a turbo

There was a time when there were numerous categories in sports car racing: GT1, GT2 , GT3... but these days they've all been amalgamated into the latter. That's left a GT3 class packed with competitors and possibly more contentious than ever before. What you see here is Mercedes' new challenger, in official form after being leaked earlier today by the French website Le Point. Replacing the SLS AMG GT3 that won its class (among other races) the Nurburgring 24 Hours in 2013 is the new Mercedes-AMG GT3. Set to be revealed at the Geneva Motor Show, it's the racing version of the new Mercedes-AMG GT, and aside from looking the business, it has the makings of a highly competitive entry. As you can see, it sits closer to the track surface than the road-going version, and packs more extreme aero – including a front splitter you could serve dinner off of, little winglets to deflect the air away from the front tires, deep side sills, a massive rear wing and (though we can't see it presently) what promises to be a very large rear diffuser. It's also got more ventilation to feed the engine and cool the brakes, and a stripped-out cabin with full roll cage and a steering device that's long since evolved beyond resembling an actual "wheel." To save weight, Mercedes has redone many of the panels out of carbon fiber, but one of the most intriguing elements is what you'd find under that woven hood: instead of adapting the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 from the road-going GT, AMG has slotted in the larger atmospheric 6.3-liter V8 from the outgoing racer – coupled to a six-speed sequential gearbox. With its new GT3 entry, Mercedes surely hopes to take a slice of the customer racing market that Porsche in particular has developed into a successful and profitable business over the years. Racing fans, however, will be more interested to see how this puppy fares at Le Mans, the Nurburgring, the Blancpain sprint and endurance series, the United SportsCar Championship, the FIA World Endurance Championship and countless national series around the world. It'll have tough competition on its hands, though, from the likes of the Porsche 911 RSR, Audi R8 LMS, Bentley Continental GT3, Ferrari 458 Italia GT3, McLaren 650S GT3, Lamborghini Huracan GT3 and countless others that battle for glory on a racetrack somewhere on any given Sunday. World premiere in Geneva for spectacular AMG racing car All-out attack : the new Mercedes-AMG GT3 Affalterbach.