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March 07 News |
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Tried & tested
The new Mercedes C-Class has completed the most comprehensive test programme in
the Stuttgart manufacturer's history. Over a period of three and a half years, the
prototypes and pre-production models have clocked up a total of 15 million test
miles all over the world. The tests performed on the test rigs at the Mercedes-Benz
Technology Centre in Sindelfingen were equally extensive and intensive. Here the
body and chassis were subjected to one exceptionally tough test after another to
simulate the loads and stresses of an entire car lifetime within a matter of weeks.
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What women want
The world's first auction
targeted exclusively at women made more than £250,000
pounds at Bonham's auction house in London. What Women Want was made up of over
300 lots including clothes, jewellery, works of art and furniture, although the
most expensive individual sale was of a 1970 blue Mercedes convertible car, which
sold for £27,600. More than half of the lots were sold and 80 percent of the people
in the room were women. On average, women represent around 10 percent of buyers
at auction house sales. But there were no takers for some of the lots at the auction,
such as a Smart car formerly owned by pop star Robbie Williams, which had a £10,000
price tag. |
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F1 launch
The launch of this year s McLaren Mercedes team was predictably huge. With Vodafone
joining as title sponsor, the event took on gargantuan proportions on a bespoke
circuit around the Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias in Spain, coincidentally
the homeland of their stellar signing, newly crowned world champ Fernando Alonso.
Alonso and new teammate Lewis Hamilton form one of the youngest driver line-ups
in the history of the sport. |
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Shocking show car
Alpine is well known for their great-sounding car electronics, and for some shockingly
overdone show cars. Their most recent project started with a Mercedes R350 on which
to build a showcase for their new gadgets. The team looked to the CLS's roofline
as inspiration and borrowed from Bentley for design cues trying to keep the car
as classy as possible. The radically altered R-Class rides on 30" wheels wrapped
with Pirelli rubber. For entry, they took the suicide door idea to the next level
with one door per side that pivots inward, allowing access to the two front seats.
Control over the steering and electronics is located in a central hub between the
front seats. The builders stripped the R350 to the basic frame before beginning
the build, being careful to leave all the Mercedes drivetrain and electronics intact.
They did, however, remove the electronics from the car's ride-levelling system.
While the suspension air bags are still installed, ride levelling is totally manual
and must be used to raise the car an inch to let the tucked front wheels steer lock
to lock. |
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Pollution parking charge
A local authority in an upmarket corner of London has become the first in Britain
to tackle CO2 pollution by charging owners of gas-guzzling cars more to park outside
their homes. Richmond upon Thames, which has a high concentration of expensive four-wheel-drives
and top-end saloons, aims to set a trend towards punishing drivers of vehicles that
emit the most pollution. Owners of the cleanest, electric cars will pay nothing
to park in
roads outside their homes, according to new measures announced by the
council. But drivers of the biggest sport utility vehicles, such as the M-Class
will pay around three times as much as they pay now. |
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Mega-Sprinter
Brabus, the German tuner whose specialty is finding ways to make Mercedes products
move more rapidly than the factory engineers ever intended, has tuned the Sprinter.
The V6 engine is increased from 3.5 to 4.0-litres, and belts out 310 horsepower
and 295 lb-ft of torque. A stainless exhaust with sporty chrome tips rounds out
the under-the-skin upgrades. Naturally, the tuner doesn't stop there, and they offer
a full range of visual enhancements such as new wheels, a fog light in the front
bumper, and fully customized interiors.
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I'm not going without my E-Class
Drive an E-Class once and you'll want to drive it forever seems to reflect the
mindset of the participants in the E-Class marathon who have decided to purchase
the very vehicles they drove from Paris to Beijing. Before they could embark on
their second career as private cars or show vehicles exhibited by sponsorship partners
and Mercedes subsidiaries in various countries, these reliable business saloons
once again had to travel thousands of miles. But, in contrast to the demanding outward
journey, this time they were travelling as well-protected cargo.
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