2009 Mercedes-benz C300 Lux 4matic Awd P1 Sunroof 50k!! Texas Direct Auto on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Autoblog's adventures at the Nurburgring 24-Hour race [spoilers]

The brand-new Audi R8 LMS, said to share 50 percent of its components with the street-legal R8 shown off at Geneva, has won its very first race at the 2015 Nurburgring 24-Hours. The No. 28 car driven by Christopher Mies, Edward Sandstrom, Nico Muller, and Laurens Vanthoor for the Audi Sport WRT team out of Belgium finished only 40.279 seconds ahead of the No. 25 BMW Sport Team Marc VDS Z4 GT3 in second place, for the smallest winning gap since the race began in 1970. Those two cars traded the lead throughout Sunday morning and were less than a minute away from one another for the last two hours. They were part of a total 35 lead changes during the entire race – a record for the event – and both did 156 laps. Third place went to the No. 44 Falken Tire Porsche 997 GT3, one lap down. The Audis did what they always do: lurked close to the front, stayed out of trouble, then pounced when everyone else faltered. For the opening stretches the BMW Z4 teams owned it, running 1-2-3 for a while, but all of them hit trouble. When morning came and the race got over its yellow-flag fever, the No. 28 Audi was in front and stayed there. It was the third Nurburgring 24-Hour win for Audi in four years, the brand's first win only coming in 2012. Last year's winner, the Phoenix Audi team that set a race record by doing 159 laps, had both of its cars retire. One hit an oil patch about 12 hours in, spun and was hit by another car behind, taking on too much damage to continue. The other retired with engine issues. Other Notes Three cars crashed out of the race while leading, after the rains that weren't supposed to happen, happened about 90 minutes in. The No. 20 Schubert BMW Z4 led the first 50 minutes of the race, hopped a crest at Pflanzgarten, landed in a pool of water, and hit the wall on the 30th lap. Then the No. 30 Frikadelli Porsche, with a driver team that included ex-'Ring Taxi driver Sabine Schmitz, hit the No. 31 Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 on the approach to Carrousel and crashed out. Then the No. 1 Phoenix Audi, last year's winning car, took the lead but hit the wall after that oil patch near Pflanzgarten and was out of the race. Aston Martin celebrated a class win in the SP8 category with the No. 49 Vantage GT4 N430. This being the tenth anniversary of the Vantage running the Nurburgring-24, this year's car was painted in the same colors as the racecar from ten years ago.

Maybach crossover looking more likely, Smart crossover possible

Mercedes-Benz executives are still making positive noises about the chances of a Mercedes-Maybach SUV. Following Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche's answer of "most likely" at the Geneva Motor Show, Mercedes Cars head of sales and marketing Ola Kallenius told Autocar that a Maybach SUV based on the next-generation GLS is "the more likely scenario." That's the same Kallenius that told Automotive News just last November that "we have no plans for it [a Maybach SUV]." It's a subtle shift, to be sure, but it's still a shift. The GLS – introduced as the latest-generation GL in 2013 – is still undergoing testing for its its mid-cycle refresh, so a Maybach version is a few years off. That would, coincidentally, give Mercedes time to see how the other super-luxe entrants are faring, and prepare its charge accordingly. Autocar expects that should it be built, it will come when the GLS shifts to the S-Class platform and most likely get the twin-turbo V12 from the Mercdes-Maybach S600 sedan, although the company's 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 is possible if there are strong intentions for the Chinese market. Also on Stuttgart's agenda of dreams is a Smart crossover, according to the report. It could be Smart's best chance at profitably extending the range, based on the mania for tiny utes, and that would help both Daimler and the ForTwo's Renault Twingo sibling. It sounds like this is a ways off, though, due to coming up with an engineering solution for the Smart's engine packaging. Related Video:

2015 Brazilian Grand Prix is the same as it ever was

At this point, we hope Nico Rosberg is planning to carry his current qualifying form into the 2016 season and back it up with the same kind of race-day cojones he showed winning the race in Mexico City two weeks ago. The Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver got it right enough again on Saturday afternoon to take his fifth consecutive pole position ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton by almost a tenth of a second. It's the same one-two from Brazil last year. The bad news for the rest of the field is that the winner in Brazil the last seven years has been one of the two drivers on the front row. Last year it was the Williams duo that lined up behind Mercedes, this year it's Ferrari. Sebastian Vettel plays the stalking horse, securing third in his Ferrari ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen in fourth. Williams driver Valtteri Bottas actually qualified in fourth, but he had to serve a three-spot grid penalty for passing under red flags in Free Practice 2, so he started sixth. That promoted Sahara Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg up to fifth. Daniil Kvyat was the quickest representative from Infiniti Red Bull Racing, getting into seventh even with a Renault power unit that's weak on some of the key stretches at the Interlagos track. Felipe Massa had the second Williams in eighth, in front of the second Red Bull driven by Daniel Ricciardo in ninth. Toro Rosso hasn't confirmed its drivers for next year but Max Verstappen keeps making it hard to look elsewhere, taking 10th. Rosberg is working nearly the same trick he pulled last year: drive like a second driver for most of the year, drive like a world champion for the last quarter of a season. He pulled away at the start and covered Hamilton just enough on the run to the first corner to keep Hamilton on the outside. By the end of Turn 1 the German had the lead and didn't give it up for the rest of the race outside of pit stops. Without overwhelming pace to pass and unable to follow closely, Hamilton could do nothing except ask his team for a different strategy to go for the win. When Mercedes told him "No," trying to protect Rosberg's second place in the championship ahead of Vettel, that was the race. Just like last year, Rosberg and Hamilton finished one-two. Vettel, Raikkonen, Bottas, Hulkenberg, and Kvyat drove lonely races to finish in positions three through seven.