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Ecclestone wonders if F1's upcoming turbo V6s should get augmented sound [w/videos]

While every team on the Formula One grid is worried about making a good showing in this year's championship at the same time as they develop a brand-new car for next year's championship, Bernie Ecclestone and F1 circuit promoters have a different concern: how next year's cars will sound. The current cars use 2.4-liter, naturally-aspirated V8s that can reach 18,000 revolutions per minute and employ dual exhaust, next year's engine formula calls for 1.4-liter turbocharged V6s that are capped at 15,000 rpm and are constrained to a single exhaust outlet. Ecclestone and promoters like Ron Walker believe the new engines sound like lawnmowers and that the less thrilling audio will keep people from coming to races. If Walker's Australian Grand Prix really is shelling out almost $57 million to hold the race, every ticket counts. As a fix, according to a report in Autoweek, Ecclestone "suggests that the only way to guarantee [a good sound] may be to artificially adjust the tone of the V6s."
However, neither the manufacturers nor the governing body of F1, the FIA, think there will be a problem. Ecclestone fears that if the manufacturers "don't get it right" they'll simply leave the sport, but the only three carmakers and engine builders left next year, Renault (its 2014 "power unit" is pictured), Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari are so embedded that it would stretch belief to think they'd leave the table over an audio hiccup - if said hiccup even occurs. And frankly, these issues always precede changes to engine formulas, as they did when the formula switched from V10 to V8; fans, though, are probably less focused on the engines and more on the mandated standardization of the sport and the spec-series overtones that have come with it.
No one knows yet what next year's engines will sound like, but we've assembled a few videos below to help us all start guessing. The first is an engine check on an Eighties-era John Player Special Renault with a 1.5-liter V6 turbo, after that is Ayrton Senna qualifying in 1986 in the Lotus 98T that also had a 1.5-liter V6 turbo, then you'll find a short with a manufactured range of potential V6 engine notes, and then the sound of turbocharged V6 Indycars testing last year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Any, or none of them, could be Formula One's future.

Aston or Bust? Maybach's fate to be decided next month

2011 Maybach 62 - Click above for high-res image gallery
What will become of Maybach? That question has been rattling around the halls of Daimler headquarters in Stuttgart for some time now. But all questions will be answered, and answered soon: according to reports, the German automaker is currently evaluating prototypes and propositions for its top-end marque, and will make its decision next month.
So, what are the options? On the one hand, Daimler could kill the Maybach brand altogether. It was a notion ill conceived and even more poorly executed, taking an old platform and building a new flagship atop it. In that way, it was sort of like the Chrysler Crossfire, only far more costly to both the buyer and manufacturer. On the other hand, Daimler could opt for the long-time-coming proposition of contracting the production (and possibly much of the development) of a new generation of Maybachs to Aston Martin.

2015 Mercedes-AMG C63 S Review

"It's about great cars on great roads." The late David E. Davis, Jr., said this of Winding Road when he took the reins as editor-in-chief in 2006. Our mission at that magazine was to not just review cars, but to describe the emotional experience of piloting brilliant machines down beautiful roads. "The art of driving," per David E. This all comes flooding back into my mind as I pull out of a Shell station onto Angeles Crest Highway, just south of the 210 freeway in La Canada Flintridge, CA. I'm in the 2015 Mercedes-AMG C63 S. I've got a full tank of fuel, the whole day to myself, and I'm staring down one of the finest driving roads in the country. Prior to this moment, I spent two days bombing around the greater Los Angeles area in this sinister-looking C63 S. This car is a villain, and looks appropriately so in black paint with the $750 AMG Exterior Night Styling pack. The C-Class as a whole is far more upscale in this latest generation, with its long hood, cab-rearward design, and short rear deck. "Baby S-Class" is not an exaggeration. Thankfully, the addition of AMG bits don't detract from the new C's more premium aura. Where a BMW M3 just looks like a brash 3 Series, the C63 is more like a C400 with a trick up its sleeve. The 4.0-liter V8 is an exceptional engine. Start the engine, and there's no question you're blessed with the power of AMG. Any worries I had about the new, twin-turbocharged, 4.0-liter V8 not providing enough aural delight are gone, especially with the $1,250 AMG Performance Exhaust. At start-up there's a low, burbly sound quality, typical of a V8. At full throttle, it's loud, angry, and passionate. I will always miss the naturally aspirated, 6.2-liter M156 V8 from the last C63, not only for its noise, but for its character. That said, I eagerly welcome Mercedes' new turbocharged techniques. The 4.0-liter V8 is an exceptional engine. In C63 S guise, the M178 lump makes 503 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque, the latter of which comes on in full force as low as 1,750 rpm. That's a ton of power for the 3,935-pound C63. But it never feels like there's too much to handle. Power comes on progressively, and when I mash the throttle on a straight stretch of pavement, the car is composed and controlled. And quick. Seriously quick. Zero-to-sixty-in-under-four-seconds quick. The balance between viciousness and grace is perfectly met in this new C63.