WEBMINING> Drifting Mercedes Benz W123 Wagon
I’ve always had sort of a thing for wagons. They have a kind of comforting appeal that reminds us of our childhood – camping trips and such. This turbocharged Mercedes W123 wagon provides no such comfort. This thing is a beast!
:: Justin Shreeve
SHOPAHOLIC> GMG Racing Open House
For you MotorMavens readers out there who aren't familiar with GMG (a Porsche tuning company), here's a little info. Founded in 2001 by James Sofronas and Fabryce Kutyba, GMG quickly rose up in the ranks as a premier tuning facility through racing in the SCCA World Challenge GT Series and ALMS race series. The guys were able to draw on their extensive racing background (with knowledge gained through painstaking R&D) to bring racing performance to their customers' street cars. GMG's primary focus is Porsches, but their shop doesn't shy away from Ferraris, Audis and Volkswagens - they cater to all German/Italian automobiles. Read more...
WEBMINING> DTM Mercedes 190 RM1 V8 Judd
The sound of the full-throttle beast in this video brings a smile to my face every time I watch this.
This Mercedes Benz 190E is powered by a Judd 3.5L V8 F1 engine (Ex Brabham F1 car from the early 90′s). It is a race car which was used in the French Super Touring Car Championship and built after FIA changed their rules and regulations on painted bodies. (I know, that millimeter of paint does add weight, especially when lead was one of the key ingredients.) The power that this behemoth of a car made back in the early 1990s, when most cars didn’t even break the 200hp mark was astonishing. This DTM Benz 190E made an amazing 564 horsepower at a screaming 9900rpm, and coupled with a Hewland 6-speed sequential gearbox, doing 0-62mph only took 2.7 seconds! Talk about knocking you back in your seat!
Unfortunately, this car never made it to a racing series on the track, as it was only built for show purposes and exhibitions (ie: Goodwood Festival of Speed). Believe me, you won’t be disappointed by this short 2 minute video. I may warn you, watch it at your own risk: side effects may include, anxiety, uneasiness, stomach cramps, and blurred vision. Please turn your speakers way up for this, as just the sound of the 190E screaming past at full throttle is like a symphony written by the best composer in the world. Enjoy!
:: Tamer Omran
WEBMINING> AMG Benz at 1972 Nurburgring
Okay. So apparently, this week, I’ve been on a bit of a European/DTM kick. We see so many Japanese cars all the time on Motor Mavens, I thought it would be kinda cool to mix it up a bit and shine a bit of light on some of the awesome race cars that have been famous in the European motorsports scenes for quite some time.
Last time I was in London, I saw this awesome die cast vintage Mercedes Benz race car (it was 1/43 scale, if I remember correctly…), and through the technology of Tumblr, I just happened across these photos of this awesome AMG Benz, which originally appear on this Vintage Photo page on LiveJournal. I don’t know enough about these cars (if one of our readers knows a lot about this subject, please write us!), but I love them. A lot. They just look so cool; big bodied vintage luxury cars going at it with smaller, sportier coupes… SO DAMN COOL. (more…)
WEBMINING> DTM AMG Amazing
Since our new Eurofiend contributor (Tamer Omran) got me thinking about the DTM racing series in Germany, I thought I’d post up this cool photo I found on Tumblr. I believe it was originally posted by Gearheads and Monkeywrenches. This here is a gorgeous white DTM Mercedes AMG, driven by a female driver by the name of Susie Stoddart. (more…)
WEBMINING> DTM Battle for Deutschland
Wow, this has got to be one of the best videos i have ever seen on YouTube. I just happened to stumble upon this 2009 DTM recap video, as I’ve been really hooked on DTM cars lately.
For those of you not really familiar with DTM, heres some history behind it. The DTM Series (or Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, which translated, means German Touring Car Masters) started out in 1984 and was only exclusive to Germany. In the early years, race fans found DTM racing very exciting, due to the fender-to-fender action and violent crashes. Unfortunately, the original DTM series came to an abrupt halt after the 1996 season… so Thank God the series was revived in 2000.
In my opinion as a Euro-car nut, I don’t think any race series even compares to DTM, but I’ll let you be the judge of that. This video is from last year, but it’s still incredibly exciting to watch. Watching the Mercedes AMG C-class and the Audi A4 duke it out… I just don’t think it gets much better than this.
:: Tamer Omran
WEBMINING> Jay Leno Drives LA Circuit w/ SLS AMG
Okay, so you’ve already seen the photos of the red Mercedes SLS AMG that I shot at the LA Auto Show. You’ve even seen the video of our favorite late night television personality (well, aside from those hot chicks on the TV commercials that are always asking us to call them) Jay Leno comparing the new SLS AMG to his own 1955 Mercedes 300SL Gullwing on an installment of Jay Leno’s Garage. Man!
This morning, I actually took the time to browse the internet, and spent some time on another one of my favorite blogs this morning – CrankAndPiston. As I looked through their webpage, I saw this video that our friend Phil McGovern posted up, featuring Jay Leno driving the “Los Angeles City Circuit” with the SLS AMG. What’s the Los Angeles City Circuit, you might ask? Well watch this video to see. It features Mr. Leno taking us through one of his favorite routes through the Hollywood and Los Angeles. As soon as I get back home to LA after the holidays, I’ll have to try driving this route myself.
Enjoy!
:: Antonio Alvendia
Jay Leno’s Garage
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WEBMINING> Jay Leno Drives the SLS AMG
I’m not sure if all of our readers watch the new (reformatted/renamed) Jay Leno Show, or Jay Leno’s Garage… but personally, I’m a big fan of Jay Leno, but unfortunately I’ve never had the chance to run into him, even though the studio where they tape his show is less than five minutes away from my office.
Everyone who knows about Jay Leno knows that he is a huge fan of automobiles, and has a humongous car collection; he has so many cars that he even has his own personal hangars at the airport that are solely dedicated to housing his incredible collection of cars. It’s like having a bunch of Hot Wheels die cast, only Jay’s collection is 1:1 scale, and he can drive every single one of them!
Well, since he is Jay Leno after all, Mercedes gave him a chance to test drive their new SLS AMG Gullwing on the streets, and again since he is Jay Leno, he was able to have a film crew document it. (He didn’t need to shoot it guerrilla style by himself with a Canon point&shoot camera, like some other car lovers we know.) He even started out the video with a clip of his own 1955 Mercedes 300SL Gullwing!
That’s soooo dope! Once Toyota comes out with the FT86 in the USA, I need to shoot one of those with one of my own AE86s!
::Antonio Alvendia
Jay Leno’s Garage
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WEBMINING> Mercedes SLS AMG DTM Concept
SLS AMG DTM, OMG! This morning when I was checking my email, I noticed that AdamB18C, one of our readers, sent an email in telling us about the new race car concept rendering of the Mercedes SLS AMG DTM that was just rendered by Mattro Design.
It’s no secret that several of us in the Motor Mavens camp are infatuated by the sleek, sexy lines of the SLS AMG, so seeing a DTM inspired mockup of the car definitely has us hyped!
In the rendering, a careful eye will show that Mattro has revised the following:
-Front fascia, grill
-Echoes of the 1950s 300SL Panamericana paint scheme above the headlights, BUT carbon fiber vents instead
-Headlight modification with yellow LEDs added
-Front splitter
-Front canards
-Vent “gill” removals
-Rear spoiler
-Trunk mod (BMW Vorsteiner CSL style)
-Race mirrors
-Race Decals/Paint scheme
-Modified rockers
-Side exhaust (fire included)
Also, check out the cool shift knobs on sale at the Mattro Design website. I think they’re pretty cool because they actually have weight, which gives a better shifting feeling (in my opinion anyway). I have a pretty large collection of shift knobs for my cars, and I gotta say, I tend to prefer the heavier shift knob, especially since the TRD shifter on my AE86 rattles like crazy since TRD removed the weight in the actual shifter. There are some times that more weight in a car are desirable, and in my opinion, this is one of them. I think I’m going to try one of those Mattro shift knobs out.
::Antonio Alvendia
Mattro Design
ZeroToHundred
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CARSPOTTING> 2011 Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing
If the car in the above photo looks familiar to you, it's because it reminds you of the most gorgeous, curvy (and rare!) Mercedes Benz collector's item from the 1950s... the 300SL Gullwing. The red car in these photos is the 2011 Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing Roadster, which was the first car ever to be designed and built completely by AMG. Mercedes originally signed off on the Gullwing project with AMG way back in 2006, but the car would not be deemed ready until its pre-production mules had gone through years of secret endurance testing all over the world, including the Green Hell itself, Nurburgring's North Course. (Nordschleife). Read more...
COVERAGE> Kop Hill Hillclimb 2009
On the 26th and 27th of September, organisers decided to do a Kop Hill Commemorative Run to bring the sounds and sights and even smells (mmm, Castrol R) back to Kop Hill again. Over 250 cars and bikes were there, ranging in age from the 1900s right up to 1980s and even some very special modern cars. Read more...
SHOPAHOLIC> The Vintage Racers of Racecraft
WEBMINING> Belgian Benz on Bags
I have what some would call a soft-spot for German engineered autos. While I may be partial to a ‘certain’ manufacturer, I really adore them all. I was checking out one of my favorite websites, Speedhunters, and came across this crazy Belgian 250S. It just struck a chord with me. You would be hard-pressed to fuse class and charisma any better than this.
Check out the full feature on this 1967 Mercedes Benz 250S on Speedhunters.
:: Andy Sapp
