2017 Mercedes-benz Slc300 300 on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Lewis Hamilton blasts to pole position for British Grand Prix

SILVERSTONE, England - Lewis Hamilton took pole position for his home British Grand Prix for the third year in a row on Saturday with a sensational lap that left him one step away from Michael Schumacher's Formula One record. Hamilton's championship-leading Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel, who has a 20-point advantage after nine of 20 races, qualified third. The Mercedes driver was half a second quicker than Ferrari's second placed Kimi Raikkonen and his time of one minute 26.600 seconds was so outrageously quick there were gasps before the crowd erupted. "I always try to leave the best to last," the Briton told retired champion Jenson Button in post-qualifying interviews on the grid. "I had to make sure I got that lap in. I couldn't do it last weekend (in Austria) so I made sure I could here." Hamilton still faced a nervous wait after race stewards announced they were investigating an incident involving French driver Romain Grosjean, who complained he had been blocked earlier in the session. They swiftly decided to take no further action. The Briton's mastery of a damp but drying track lit up an overcast afternoon and the pole was the 67th of his career, sixth of the season, and gave him every chance of equalling Schumacher's record 68 before the August break. The triple world champion has won the last three British Grands Prix and can equal the late Jim Clark's feat of four home wins in a row, and five in total, on Sunday. Saturday ensured he has already matched Clark's 50-year-old record of five British Grand Prix pole positions. "I feel amazing in front of a great crowd like this. I hope you liked the lap," Hamilton told the grandstands full of cheering fans. "I generally like it to be dry, but I like it when the conditions are tricky." Hamilton's Finnish team mate Valtteri Bottas, winner in Austria, was fourth fastest but has a five-place penalty following a gearbox change. That promoted Red Bull's Dutch teenager Max Verstappen, who has suffered five retirements in the last seven races, to the second row. Renault's Nico Hulkenberg and his former Force India team mate Sergio Perez filled the third row. There was good news for beleaguered McLaren, who raised a cheer when Fernando Alonso made the most of improving conditions to set the fastest time in the first phase of qualifying, with Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne qualifying ninth.

Mercedes expected to announce US HQ relocating to Atlanta today

Employees at Mercedes-Benz's US headquarters in Montvale, NJ, are set to gather today for the annual president's reception. Only this year, company chairman Dr. Dieter Zetsche is expected to fly in from headquarters to make a big announcement. That announcement, according to mounting speculation, is that MBUSA is moving to Atlanta. News of the potential move first broke around three weeks ago, suggesting that the German automaker was looking to relocate its US headquarters from New Jersey to somewhere in the South, with the Atlanta area tipped as the front-runner. Now sources are expecting that announcement to be made imminently. Although the specifics of the move have yet to be made public, Mercedes is tipped to be looking at moving into either a purpose-built facility or an existing office space in the Sandy Springs area, specifically near the intersections of Georgia 400 and Abertnathy, where UPS has its headquarters. The move is said to have hinged on a substantial incentives package worth nearly $50 million put together by the Georgia state government. The state of New Jersey is said to have offered similar incentives to keep Mercedes in the Bergen County borough of Montvale, where it employs 800 in its 141,000-square-foot office complex. One advertising company even put up billboards encouraging the company to stay, but if the reports prove accurate, it looks like their efforts may have been too little and/or too late. Mercedes wouldn't be the first automaker to move to the South, where numerous foreign carmakers have been also setting up factories. Toyota is also preparing to move its US headquarters to Texas, and though already based in Georgia, Porsche is preparing to move into a new $100 million facility, complete with on-site test track, closer to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport that has grown into a major international hub. The move on Mercedes' part would put its US base of operations closer to its factory in Tuscaloosa, AL, and the port near Savannah, GA, from which it ships out the former's production overseas.

Next Mercedes-Benz C-Class spotted in the snow

The entry-level Mercedes-Benz C-Class has long felt like nothing more than, well, just that. Aside from the potent and delicious C63 AMG models, there hasn't been much to set the C-Class apart in the entry-level luxury/sport segment, leading to the model being regarded by many as "The Cheap Mercedes." No, it's certainly not a bad car, but for our money, it hasn't stood up particularly well to competitors like the BMW 3 Series or Audi A4.
So with the handsome new CLA-Class coming to round off the entry-level end for Mercedes-Benz, big plans are in store for the C-Class. We can see some evidence of that in this latest set of spy shots from our friends at CarPix. According to earlier reports, the new C-Class will be "far more dramatic" in the visuals department, and while the sedan's sculpting is still covered by camo, the much sleeker headlamp design we see here is, at the very least, a good start. The car's overall size is expected to grow a bit to further distance itself from the CLA, though thanks to lightweight materials, curb weight isn't expected to increase.
Just like the current model, the new C-Class is expected to use four- and six-cylinder engines, both gas- and diesel-fed, and overall power output for the global engine range should span from 120-ish on the low end to as much as 330. These new engines are expected to be mounted lower and farther rearward than before, offering better balance for both rear- and 4Matic all-wheel drive configurations. And as for that AMG? Rumors suggest a turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 will fall underhood.