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Erebus Motorsport Mercedes E-Class V8 Supercar completes the field [w/videos]

Ford, Holden and Nissan introduced their V8 Supercar challengers a while back. Erebus Motorport, whose racing program got the green light not even 120 days ago, has finally shown off the Mercedes-Benz E-Class racer that will complete this year's field of entries. The first AMG race car ever to be built outside of Germany, it's an Australian-built tube-frame chassis specced to the series' Car of Tomorrow rules, fitted with body panels that channel the E63 AMG.
Supported by AMG Customer Motorsport, the 5.0-liter engine is provided by HWA in Germany, the racing arm of AMG. Regulations dictate that it have roughly 650 horsepower, a redline between 7,000 and 7,500 rpm and a torque curve that matches the parity baseline set for all cars.
Lee Holdsworth, Tim Slade and Maro Engel will drive the three team cars, each with different sponsors. Their first showing will be at the Clipsal 500 on March 3 in Adelaide, here in the US we'll get to see them in May at the Circuit of the Americas. Check out the videos below of the Erebus car starting up at its launch, and footage of all of this year's cars doing pre-season testing on track together.

Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes also under diesel emissions scrutiny

The controversy over Volkswagen's diesel emissions scandal isn't limited to the US. In Europe, where diesel engines are far more popular, the issue is shining a harsh light on the NEDC emissions test. As already known, the evaluation does a poor job of reflecting real-world production of NOx, and it appears a significant number of automakers are affected. The Guardian in the UK has been reporting on real-world test results from a company called Emissions Analytics. After the latest round of checks, vehicles from Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Mazda and Mitsubishi were found to generate far more NOx than they should. The newspaper also published similar results for Renault, Nissan, Hyundai, Fiat, Volvo, Jeep, Citroen, VW, and Audi. On average, the figures are about four times over the limit of producing the pollutant. Unlike VW and its defeat device, these automakers aren't actually breaking the rules. The vehicles perform up to the NEDC lab test for emissions, but those results simply aren't translated to the street. "The VW issue in the US was purely the trigger which threw light on a slightly different problem in the EU - widespread legal over-emissions," Nick Molden from Emissions Analytics said to The Guardian. A big fight to decide the future of this issue appears to be on the horizon. Automakers claim that they can't meet the next round of tightening emissions regulations and are asking for compromises. Although, spokespeople for Mercedes and Honda told The Guardian that the brands would be in favor of the stricter rules. Meanwhile, some European governments began backtracking their support of diesels well before this scandal came to light. The added scrutiny certain hasn't helped the future of the oil-burner. Related Video:

Mercedes working on fuel cell GLC

Autocar reports that Mercedes-Benz is working on a hydrogen fuel cell powertrain that is expected to go into the just-introduced GLC-Class crossover. Mercedes admits it is working on the technology and has the goal of a 600-kilometer range (373 miles), with a refueling time of three minutes. The company has not said, however, what vehicle its hydrogen tech will go in. The compact crossover is the rumored candidate partly because Mercedes feels the cost of the powertrain means it only makes commercial sense in more expensive vehicles. Autocar says we could see the GLC F-Cell introduced at the Frankfurt Motor Show in the fall of 2017 before it is offered for lease or sale in 2018. At the moment the price is figured to come in around 50,000 pounds ($75,950 US). The price of a conventional GLC in the UK right now is 34,950 pounds ($53,089 US). The Toyota Mirai is on sale in the UK currently with a retail price of 66,000 pounds ($100,254 US). Mercedes has used its B-Class platform as its hydrogen fuel cell vehicle since 2002. We don't know if the B-Class F-Cell will continue once this new offering arrives, but it's clear that the small hatchback alone wouldn't be the best challenge for rivals like the "larger-sized sedan" on the way from BMW and Audi's performance-minded H-tron efforts. If the GLC is the model in question it would also give Mercedes another differentiator from the pack; only Hyundai offers a crossover in that segment, the Tucson Fuel Cell. Related Video: