Mercedes-Benz Shooting Brake Concept

Just a month ago, Merc teased us about a shooting brake concept that’s supposed to hint on the new CLS. And boy do the Germans work fast.

Here’s the Shooting Break Concept that’s set to debut in the upcoming Beijing Motor Show.

The car’s powered by a new 2.5L V6 that dishes out 306 hp and a max torque of 273 lb-ft. The powerhouse also sports Merc’s BlueEFFICIENCY technology for better fuel economy.

As for the styling, the Shooting Brake Concept offers a very modern take on the shooting brake structure. The Concept seems to have drawn from the F800 Style and the SLS AMG.

The slew of quality concepts to be unveiled at the Beijing show does affirm China’s role in the automotive industry.

Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe Confirmed

Ending all speculation regarding the replacement for the CLC, Mercedes has confirmed that it will be coming out with the Mercedes C-class coupe.

The C-class coupe will be a two-door version of the existing C-class and is set to take the place of the CLC. In an effort of steamlining their line, the coupe will also fill in the gap left by the CLK which has been killed off earlier this year.

The announcement of the new car came with the plans on expanding the production line of the current Bremen plant which is set to build the C-class saloon, estate, coupe, and GLK.

As far as the styling goes, the C-class coupe is expected to draw from the lines of the saloon but will have the more aggressive styling brought about by the CLK’s unique body shell.

Keen fans would probably point out that the current E-class coupe is also a two-door based on the CLS but unlike the E-class, the C-class coupe will only be made in hardtop form.

Mercedes-Benz Working on External Airbags

“External airbags” just make me think of bewbs all the time. For some reason the idea of real automotive airbags deployed outside the car hasn’t quite created the proper signfier-signified relationships in my brain.

And get this, the external airbag deployment might not be where you’d be expecting it. When your brain finally reconciles the mental image of externally-deployed airbags, you might be thinking it’s supposed to protect pedestrians.

Nope. Merc’s testing to deploy airbags underneath the car. It’s supposed to act like an anchor to help the car slow down when a supporting system detects that a collision is inevitable. Pretty neat.

Other safety geekery that Merc’s experimenting on – headlights that automatically adjust brightness so it doesn’t blind drivers in oncoming vehicles, reflective tire sidewalls, and inflatable seat cushions.

Mercedes-Benz Goes Hydrogen with F800 Style

Green is the color of inevitability. With public perception and legislation requiring automakers to cut their fleet-wide fuel consumption and emissions . Here’s part of Mercedes’ showcase at the upcoming Geneva motor show – the F800 Style.

The car features a couple of green powertrain lineups including a hydrogen fuel cell zero-emissions 100kW motor that develops 214 lb-ft of torque. The hydrogen setup can go 375 miles in between refills. The plug-in hybrid features a 3.5L V6 gasoline engine that dishes out 299 hp and a 80 kW electric motor. Power is channeled through a seven-speed gearbox.

The car’s lines previews the future of Mercedes’ design language and serves as a teaser for the revamped CLS styling as well.

The car also packs a few other nifty technologies like the Range on Map feature on the sat-nav which shows the vehicle’s remaining range 360-degree depicted on the map and the Distronic Plus Traffic Jam Assistant which detects if the car in front pulls off and prevents the F800 from following it blindly. The F800 also features Merc’s PRE-SAFE 360 which applies the brakes if it detects possible rear-end collisions.

Formula 1: Mercedes GP W01 Unveiled

Not long after Ferrari and McLaren unveiled their new F1 race cars, here’s Mercedes GP unveiling the W01 Formula One car. And we’ll be seeing more of these in the coming days as the test sessions have begun.

Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg will be driving the car next season. Interestingly for Schumacher, this will be the first time in three years that he will be driving contemporary F1 tech. Much has changed engineering-wise with F1 cars today thanks to new rules.

Just last week, we got to see last year’s Brawn GP car use the Silver Arrows livery from the 1950s. The new car carries the same paint job.

Noticeable on the car is the nose which is reminiscent of the front-end design of Red Bull last year. Red Bull placed second in the constructor’s cup second to Brawn.

Brabus Mercedes-Benz GL 63 Biturbo

So the Mercedes GL isn’t really the type of car that you plow off the road at a whim since it’s really more of a big car for the road. So what’s the point in giving the GL a massive shot of steroids.

Well, that’s just the thing with tuners especially with the likes of Brabus. Meet the Brabus Mercedes-Benz GL 63 Biturbo.

The car’s basically a GL but has an eight-cylinder engine from the ML 63 AMG with a couple of turbos added for good measure. It’s tweaked and tuned to dish out 650 hp and up to 625 lb-ft of torque. That’s in the ball park of the Ferrari Enzo. The engine is mated to a Speedshift 7G-Tronic automatic gearbox and permanent 4WD.

However, since this is a crossover we’re talking about, the Brabus GL 63 doesn’t necessarily go like the Enzo. But it’s pretty fast and pretty quick, able to go full out at 186.4 mph and a 0-62 mph sprint in 4.7 seconds.

Since Brabus doesn’t simply tweak the engine, the car also gets a bit more styling with 23-inch forged wheels (21s and 22s) come as choices, bits and pieces for the exterior and a spiffy interior styling.