ee-YOW!!

What you see here is, essentially, a real-world crash test of the much loved (by some) Mercedes Benz Smart ForTwo city car.

This comes by way of CarScoop by way of Jalopnik, and it happened somewhere in North America (there’s some discussion going on as to whether it’s the USA or Canada). Seems that this particular Smart ForTwo got rear-ended by a friggin’ GMC box truck (gross weight of around 10 to 12 thousand pounds) and THEN it got creamed in an offset frontal impact by a FULL SIZED GMC van (and those weigh in at, what, 5500 or 6000 pounds?).

Yes, It might be small, but it’s a small Mercedes Benz, and those guys know how to build them tough.

I know form personal experience. I used to own an 84 300 turbo diesel. We called it The Bismarck because, “it’ll take a lucky shot from the Royal Navy to stop this thing.” Seems like that can be applied here as well. Yes, I know. Physics, size, crush-space, mass, momentum, etc.. But small and light doesn’t mean “unsafe”; it just means that safety is more of an engineering challenge.

The SLR McLaren, the beastly exoticar from Mercedes, just got beastlier

Mansory, the expensive, high-end, exoticar modifier, is responsible.

This is Mansory’s newest project, and perhaps the ultimate modified Mercedes.

And don’t be thinking that it’s just another Brabus-type aftermarket package, ’cause this is beyond anything Brabus, or anyone else, could have ever done.

Its debut at the 2008 Gevena Auto Show caused quite a stir, mainly among the rich who could not wait to get their hands on one. The rest of us common members of the John Q. Public could only sit back and dream.

From the nose to the fenders, from the design all the way to the paint and interior, this car has been completely remade. It now sits lower, has an overall more exotic and aggressive body, and has a new name— the Mansory Renovatio. Frankly, I’m surprised that no one has written about this car yet, as it is so insanely cool. Continue Reading…

“McLaren Readying Ferrari F430 Adversary” or so says the good folks at CarScoop. This has been in the wings, and on again/off again (depending on the relationship between McLaren & Mercedes) for awhile.

My first thought was, “Yeah, McLaren wants it to build a Ferrari F430 adversary, but they got a long way to go to beat that, given that Ferrari has been kicking their ass around the world for the past nine years .”

Look, I’ve got nothing against the McLaren F1; very impressive car in every respect (although Mario Andretti said the car was “aerodynamically spooky”, and the last time he said something like that was when he was racing CanAm, and THAT GUY knows whence he speaks). It’s just that lately, McLaren have been showing themselves to be struggling to maintain 4th place in the constructors championship, being stomped by the likes of Renault & BMW, let alone being able to challenge the likes of Ferrari.

Anyway, the main details come from Autocar in the U.K which basically boil down to this:

The new car, codenamed P11, will be in showrooms by March 2010, the official unveiling is slated for autumn 2009. The P11 will be available in both open-top and hardcore versions of the base model. It will be noticeably lighter and more compact than the Ferrari F430. The Mclaren P11 will be powered by a 550bhp V8 engine, built by Mahle (who bought out the old Cosworth business) in Northamptonshire, possibly based on an existing Mercedes unit. The Spider version of the P11 is expected to appear in March 2011.

OK Ron, let’s see what you can do.

My brother’s girlfriend has one of the latest SLKs, the type that looks like a midget version of the current SL (seems like they planned it that way, doesn’t it).

He said it’s actually a fun car, once you forget about how it looks.

‘Surprisingly quick, given how much it weighs,’ he said. And that’s not all that surprising, since it’s a Mercedes. ‘And it’s got that cool power top. That’s pretty neat.’

Indeed … and so, Merc has decided to update the SLK, and they’ve addressed some of the previous versions styling “issues”, but not completely.

It still has the same nose treatment meant to be evocative of their F1 cars, but they’ve altered the lower valance/air dam area and gone for … well, it sort of looks like their trying to make it even MORE like an F1 car.

New headlights, rounded things here, trimmed things there.

You know, the typical makeover process, circa 2008.

Mercedes calls the whole thing intelligent dynamism, for what that’s worth.

As long as it performs OK, a driver can overlook a number of aesthetic transgressions.

VCars brings up a list of the top 10 fastest production cars in the world, ranked by top speed. I’ll go over the list briefly, but be sure to visit VCars’ list for more info and pictures. All the cars you would expect are on the list, ranked from fastest to slowest (though calling any of these cars slow is blasphemy.) We start the list with the king of fast.

Update: I’d like to clarify that this list only includes production cars. I’ve had a lot of comments mentioning the Lingenfelter Corvette, etc being faster, but that ultra-fast Vette is not in production. I’d also like to clear up that this list was created on March 30th, 2007. The SSC Ultimate Aero has since broken the record as the fastest production car in the world, and I plan to address this in my next list. Be sure to subscribe to the AutomoBlog RSS Feed to stay up-to-date.

Bugatti Veyron

Top Speed: 252.2 mph

1001 Horsepower

No surprises here, the fastest and most powerful production car ever makes the top of the list. I wonder when Koenigsegg will decide to take the #1 position and beef up the CCX.

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To celebrate the anniversary of the original 1957 300SL Roadster, Mercedes has created a limited edition SL550. Powered by a 382-horsepower, 5.5 liter V-8 engine, this SL has a luxurious Pewter metallic exterior, Cognac Brown Leather Upholstery, and Black Ash wood interior trim.

I’m not usually a fan of the pewter finish, but in a world of silver Mercedes’ it looks pretty darn good. Another highlight of the new SL is the 18-inch Twin-Spoke wheels. Pictured below, these wheels are not available on any other SL.

Hurry up and get one, apparently there aren’t that many that are going to be made. More specifications after the jump.

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