The Cars of Mercedes-Benz’s ‘Welcome’ Ad

When it comes to post-1965 American iron, I’ll put my ability to to name a year, make and model up against the best of them. It’s the legacy of growing up turning wrenches in the family garage, and I still identify people more by what they drive than by their names. Bizarre, perhaps, but it works for me. Unfortunately, I lack the same skill when it comes to identifying vintage German cars. Sure, we had a few customers who owned Mercedes sedans and roadsters, but not nearly as many as those who drove American or Japanese cars. When Mercedes ran their “Welcome” Super Bowl ad, most of the cars in it were a mystery to me, and probably to you as well. The video below should help to clear up some of that mystery. Read more

Mercedes’ Super Bowl Ad Is The Stuff Of Nightmares

I’ve got to give a nod to Mercedes’ Super Bowl ad, which seems to have gotten lost in the hype surrounding the other ads and Christina Aguilera’s butchering of the national anthem. It was cool to see Mercedes roll out some vintage iron in honor of their 125th birthday, like the SL (230, I think) that had Janis Joplin tuned in on the radio or the 300 SL that was rounding up sheep. The Patent Motorwagen being passed by their latest concept was also a cool visual, but the idea of sentient motor vehicles is the stuff of nightmares if you ask me. Video below. Read more

Cars With Launch Control: Houston, We Have Lift Off!

[original post date: 02/10/2009] I honestly believe that the new Nissan GT-R has sparked quite an interest and crave for launch control. Many cars way before the Nissan GT-R have had their own system for a launch control either in a SMG transmission in the E46 BMW M3 or the Volkswagen’s early DSG found in the GTI.

The ultimate crave for launch control baffles me but you have to understand that I would take a full manual transmission any day over a, what Jeremy Clarkson calls them, floppy paddle gear box. Even with Nissans woes with grenaded transmissions in the GT-R, launch control is still a big hit. Even Hitler “had to launch it”.

Ever since the introduction of drive-by-wire, auto manufacturers have been toying with new electronics that improve upon the over-all safety of a vehicle. New systems come standard in many vehicles now such as dynamic skid control or also known as vehicle dynamic control or electronic stability control (name varies from each manufacturer). Many of these new systems utilize a combination of computer operated units from the ABS braking, traction control and accelerator control. I am sure if manufacturers thought they could play with these systems and make a car safer then why not develop a precise method for accelerating a vehicle with a computer to make it faster.

It is all a numbers game if you think about it. I am sure many car enthusiasts, including yourself, may have experimented with dropping your clutch at a certain RPM to get the full potential out of a launch from a dead-stop. Even you guys with automatics have almost perfected holding the brake pedal while stomping on the accelerator in preparation for a ‘launch’. What if your car could do this for you? Well, many new exotic and sports cars can but it does take the use of a special transmission or a manual transmission that is controlled by a computer, except in Porsches’ case with their newest launch control system on a full manual transmission.

Where did this idea and technology come from?

If you think about it, F1 cars among other racing cars were already using a type of the technology that we see in today’s cars fitted with dual clutch transmissions and SMG (Sequential Manual Gearbox) units. Racing is where it begins… most times. From the F1 cars now shifting well under 60 milliseconds to the Nissan GT-R’s dual clutch shifting time of around 200 milliseconds, computers have taken cars to a new level of performance where a human just simply cannot match yielding a much higher level of performance.

Cars with Launch Control

Many of the baby boomers know ‘launch control’ to be something only NASA quotes in the control room during a space shuttle launch. Now we can all experience a ‘horizontal’ launch in many of today’s technologically advanced performance vehicles.

So which cars have launch control? Below is a short list that we have compiled of all vehicles with an available launch control. If we missed any please post a comment below and let us know.

Please note: Some of the vehicles included on the list may only have a staging RPM setting which some may call “launch control” but it is not as involved as a fully automated launch control or uses a sequential shifting transmission (paddle shifter) such as in the Nissan GT-R.

• Audi R8
• Audi TT
• BMW M3
• BMW M5
• BMW M6
• Bugatti Veyron
• Chevrolet Corvette/ZR1
• Ferrari 360cs
• Ferrari 599 GTB/GTO
• Ferrari F430/Scuderia
• Ferrari 458 Italia
• Lamborghini Gallardo/LP560
• Lamborghini Murcielago/LP640
• Lexus LFA
• Mercedes Benz McLaren SLR
• Mercedes Benz SL63 AMG
• Mercedes Benz SLS AMG
• Mitsubishi Evo Lancer Evolution/MR
• Nissan GT-R
• Porsche 911/Carrera/S/GT2
• Volkswagen GTI/Golf/Rabbit/R32

Various videos demonstrating launch control below after the jump…

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Mercedes-Benz B55 Is A Commuter Car I Could Love

The Mercedes Benz B Class isn’t a notable car to the automotive enthusiast. Designed for the EU as a “family size” version of their diminutive A Class commuter, the B Series (and it A Series sibling) are the only Mercedes-Benz vehicles built in a front wheel drive configuration. Mercedes describes the car as a “Compact Sports Tourer”, but even the fastest version tops out at 193 horsepower, which isn’t exactly “Sports Tourer” territory in my opinion. The car has been launched in Canada, but it’s yet to trickle down into the United States; officially, the reason is the strong Euro, but I suspect Mercedes sees the B Class as a hard sell in this country.

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Playboy Selects “The Hottest Rides Of 2011″, We Offer Our Rebuttal

Let’s keep this simple: if you want to look at gorgeous, semi-naked women or read insightful reporting, go to Playboy.  If you want accurate information on cars and trucks, come to Automotive Addicts.  We don’t do the whole pictures of naked women thing (although we have been known to look at them admiringly), because it’s just not what we do best.  Likewise, when Playboy publishes a list of the “Hottest Rides” of the year, you need to read it with some skepticism.

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A Unique One-Off Mercedes-Benz W212 E63 AMG

Luckily one of our good friends owns a E55 AMG and has access to the AMG Private Lounge where he discovered new images of a unique E63 AMG – courtesy of the AMG Performance Studio in Affalterbach. He was first tipped off from the many forums that have posted images of this vehicle such as L4p and TeamSpeed. We can only hope that underneath the bright orange exterior is a beastly modified V8 engine to complement the new looks! Hopefully we will have some specs to share with you soon.

Enjoy the images below!

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2010 Mercedes-Benz E550 Review & Test Drive

The all-new 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-550 sporty luxury sedan breaks new safety and design barriers to become one of the market’s best engineered and smartest sedans, a definite ‘trend setter’.

This all-new E-Class model is the ninth-generation of this highly successful model line with a total of more than 10-million produced over the past 60-years.

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Mercedes Benz CLS 550 and Vossen VVS-085 20 inch Wheels Collaboration

Our sponsor Vossen Wheels is back at it again. They are fitting some of the hottest cars with a set of their new monoblock wheels. Here is a late model Mercedes Benz CLS 500 fitted with Black Machined Vossen VVS-085 20-inch wheels. These wheels undoubtedly add to the aesthetic appeal of what was already a nice car to begin with. Now this CLS 550 complete with a set of Vossen Wheels is on another level. Enjoy the images below.

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