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Mercedes-AMG gears up for 2016 DTM with new C63 Coupe

Mercedes was once a force to be reckoned with in DTM. The Silver Star marque won six drivers' championships and nine constructors' titles since the modern Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters series rebooted in 2000. But though it's currently leading the standings, the last time it won the championship was in 2010. Audi and BMW have traded bragging rights each year since. What you see here, then, is the vehicle by which Benz hopes to recapture its former glory in the German tin-top racing series. Presented alongside the Edition 1 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the new touring car is based – stylistically at least – on the new C63 AMG Coupe, but is designed specifically for the race track. Underneath the largely carbon-fiber bodywork sits a 4.0-liter V8 engine driving 483 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque through a six-speed sequential gearbox to the rear wheels. It's suspended by pushrod-actuated by double wishbones and features a mechanical diff (but no traction control) and carbon-ceramic brakes (but no ABS). In short, the new C63 is all business. And it looks about ready to take on Germany's most famous racing circuits and those of some of its neighbors – from Hockenheim, the Nurburgring, and the EuroSpeedway Lausitz to Zandvoort, the Red Bull Ring, and the Moscow Raceway. Audi and BMW had better watch their mirrors. Mercedes-AMG DTM Team present 2016 race car - Looking ahead to the 2016 season: How the new DTM car fielded by the Mercedes-AMG DTM Team will look - Inspired by the DTM: AMG launch Edition 1 Mercedes-AMG C 63 Coupe - Five questions to Head of Mercedes-AMG DTM Ulrich Fritz - Overview: How Mercedes-Benz DTM vehicles have evolved - Ulrich Fritz: "Our aim with this vehicle is, of course, to continue the Mercedes-Benz success story in the DTM." The 2015 DTM season reaches its climax in September. But even before the final three race weekends of the year at Oschersleben, the Nurburgring and Hockenheim, the Mercedes-AMG DTM Team are providing an insight into what lies ahead for the race series, revealing the new car that they will enter for the 2016 campaign. Design adaptations to the 2016 Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM first began last year. The dynamic-looking headlights and the twin blade grille typical of the AMG are two of the car's most striking features. The first tests with the new vehicle will take place during the winter as part of preparations for the 2016 season.

VW joins Daimler's protest of new A/C refrigerant as EU deadline for compliance passes

The case of Dupont and Honeywell's refrigerant R-1234yf is doing the exact opposite of keeping things cool. The two chemical companies have spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars developing R-1234yf to replace R-134a, the new refrigerant shown to be 99.7-percent kinder to the environment than the one it is meant to succeed. Part of that development has been years of testing by governments, outside safety agencies and automakers to approve the chemical for use in cars. It passed the protocols necessary for the European Union to declare that new and significantly revised cars from 2013 onward needed to use R-1234yf, and mandated that every car as of 2017 must use it.
Enter Daimler AG. The automaker created a head-on collision test with a B-Class at their Sindelfingen test track that would lead to the pressurized refrigerant being sprayed on the engine. The result in 20 out of 20 test was that the refrigerant burst into flames as soon as it hit the hot engine, while Daimler says that R-134a does not catch fire in the same test. Another unexpected result of the R-1234yf test was the release of hydrogen flouride, a chemical far more deadly to humans than hydrogen cyanide, emitted in such amounts that it that turned the windshield white as it began to eat into the glass.
Said a Daimler engineer in a Reuters piece, "It was scarcely believable. The most complicated lab tests conducted using the most sensitive measuring instruments around found nothing and all we do is drive a car around a couple of times, open a tiny hole in the refrigerant line and the next thing you know the car is on fire." So Daimler said it wouldn't use the refrigerant, and it recalled the cars it had already shipped with R-1234yf.

Mercedes-AMG GT S pit against Porsche 911 Turbo in Evo Deadly Rivals test

When Mercedes-Benz announced that its all-new AMG GT would start at $129,900 deeply undercutting the $200,000-plus of its predecessor, the SLS AMG, immediate questions focused on how it'd stack up against the latest crop of high performers that occupy the mid-$100,000 range. Evo, over in the UK, didn't have to wait all that long. The latest installment in the outlet's "Deadly Rivals" series compares the AMG GT with the latest Porsche 911 Turbo. On paper, the test is sure to be interesting. The Mercedes uses a 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged V8 with 503 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque, while a seven-speed AMG Speedshift dual-clutch shuffles power to the back axle. The 911 Turbo's formula is more of a known quantity – 520 hp from a twin-turbo, 3.8-liter flat six with the company's own PDK working in unison with all-wheel drive, torque vectoring and rear-axle steering. Of course, we're not going to spoil the results for you. Take a look at the video up top, and let us know what you think of Evo's latest track battle.