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McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari call for unfreezing F1 engines

Formula One is a hugely expensive sport. Not only do you have enormous salaries and logistical expenses, as you would in any other sport, but each team also spends huge sums developing their own chassis from the ground up – and so too do the participating automakers in developing the engines. One of the ways the series organizers mitigate those costs is by freezing development. So once the new crop of V6 turbo hybrid powertrains were developed, that was it. But now three of the of the sport's leading teams are calling on the FIA to unfreeze engine development. Their reason? Unfair advantage. There's little question that Mercedes did the best job of developing its "power unit" to meet the new regulations that took effect at the beginning of this past season. That's how the Mercedes team won all but three of the grands prix this season and finished with at least one car on the podium at every single race. It's also a big part of how the teams that bought their engines from Mercedes this season managed to consistently outperform the other non-works-supported teams. That clear advantage is why Red Bull, Ferrari and now McLaren are calling for engine development to be unfrozen. Their argument is that, under the current locked-down status quo, their engine suppliers (Renault, Ferrari and Honda, respectively) cannot possibly catch up. So unless the FIA and Formula One Management want the next few seasons to be the kind of absolute blow-outs that this past season was, these leading teams argue, the powers that be are going to have to make some changes. For its part, Mercedes naturally counters that unfreezing engine development would send costs spiraling out of control. But then of course it stands to lose the most by re-opening engine development. If those three teams, however, closely intertwined as they are with the three other engine suppliers participating in next year's championship, manage to solicit enough support from the other customer teams and bring the matter to a vote, Mercedes may very well find itself out-numbered. News Source: ESPNImage Credit: Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Motorsports Ferrari McLaren Mercedes-Benz F1 engine

The 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class interior is the new standard [w/video]

You can choose from 64 ambient light colors in the 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class. Sixty-four. It's this sort of personalization that highlights Mercedes' approach with its new midsize sedan, a car I'm comfortable saying will once again secure its place as the most luxurious car money can buy in that class. It's the true Mercedes of the segment. All you have to do is look inside. If the cabin of this new E-Class looks familiar, it's because it builds on a successful Mercedes-Benz formula. There's a wealth of luxurious materials at your fingertips; leathers and trims from the S-Class trickle down to Mercedes' midsize E, and work in perfect harmony with beautifully sculpted surfaces. If I told you the pictures above show a new S-Class Coupe, you'd (probably) believe me. That's exactly how I felt during an intimate preview of the new E-Class' interior at one of Mercedes' research and development buildings in Sindelfingen, Germany. After hearing Merc's suits talk about the mission of the new E-Class, my iPhone was confiscated, and I was ushered behind a dark curtain where I met a lightly camouflaged car. Sitting inside, my first impression was the same as when I first met the current S-Class a couple of years ago: wow. Much like how the new C-Class is often referred to as a "baby S-Class," the same can be said of the new E, with even more validity. Here's why. Everything On The Big Screen The first thing you notice is the flat, dual-screen display that makes up the instrument panel and central infotainment headunit. This large piece of tech is a "Mercedes interior signature," according to lead designer Hartmut Sinkwitz. All versions of the E-Class have this setup, but in two different levels of execution. Base models get traditional fixed speedometer and tachometer gauges, with a seven-inch color display between them and an 8.4-inch color display off to the right for the COMAND system. Uplevel cars, like the ones you see here, get two 12.3-inch screens, with a huge range of customization options, and a revised main menu interface for COMAND. With that premium system, three different skins can be selected for the gauge cluster. The standard configuration – Classic – is exactly what you expect from a new Mercedes, with a clean, two-gauge design and different driver-selectable information screens in the middle. But new for the E-Class are two other views, branded as Sport and Progressive. Sport still uses the two-gauge setup, but uses different fonts and colors.

Maybach and Aston Martin alliance talks fall apart

If you have, like us, been salivating at the notion of a new generation of Maybach and Lagonda ultra-luxury crafts built by Aston Martin, we've got some bad news: According to reports emanating from Germany, talks between AML and Daimler have broken down.
The proposal under negotiation would have seen Daimler outsourcing production of the next family of Maybach models to Aston Martin, which in return would benefit from Mercedes-Benz platforms and engines - not only for its svelte GTs, but also for its own future Lagonda line of limousines and luxury SUVs. That, and a boatload of money - or at least that's what AML was reportedly seeking, an issue that served as the stumbling block over which the deal reportedly collapsed.
That's not to say the two parties couldn't still reach some sort of a compromise, but short of that, Daimler may opt to either shut down Maybach altogether, find another partner, or take another stab at building new models internally.