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German Car Blog, Performance, Tuning, Motorsport, and Modification News
Published on 03-27-2012 04:31 PM
This whole VW and Porsche saga just keeps getting more and more confusing. Porsche is facing numerous lawsuits that Volkswagen does not want a part of due to the financial liability that would be involved. Deutsche bank analyst Jochen Gehrke stated that a meeting between the parties, “confirmed our view that a merger of Porsche and VW is not possible." So the merger is off but the manufacturing ties will continue and become more involved. Yes, this is all confusing and who knows what will happen. ...Published on 03-27-2012 04:09 PM
First of all, both of these cars sound awesome and have some of the best naturally aspirated motors in the business. These vehicles both have stock exhausts and they really open up and show what they are capable of when their muffled stock exhausts are dumped. It makes for an interesting comparison though and we have to say the S85 V10 sounds much better stock for stock versus the M156 V8 in the C63 AMG. ...Published on 03-27-2012 03:51 PM
Unfortunately Mercedes had a poor showing in the Malaysian Grand Prix with Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg finishing in 10th and 13th places respectively. It isn't necessarily the fault of the drivers as Michael started in third but was hit on the first lap spinning him out and dropping him to 16th place. The rain intensified and led to tough conditions including a red flag on the 9th lap and a delay of almost an hour. Rosberg and Schumacher need to get going in the next race or this is going to be a very long season for Mercedes. ...Published on 03-27-2012 12:09 AM
Congratulations to Eurocharged as well as the owner of this W211 E55 AMG who goes by the name of e55amgrocket. The screenname is very appropriate considering the results. What is even more impressive is that this record time was achieved on the stock blower with Density Altitude over 1000 feet and 80 degrees at the MIR dragstrip. This means there is still room to improve on what is already a very strong result. Congrats again to Eurocharged for tuning this beast. ...Published on 03-26-2012 11:05 PM
Porsche is likely going to launch a Panamera plug-in hybrid in 2014. It should not surprise anyone Porsche is expanding their hybrid offerings especially after all the research they are pouring in developing the technology for use in their racecars as well as road going vehicles that benefit from the race research. Expect to see many more Porsche as well as VW Group hybrid models that go the plug-in route. "We are really convinced that the future of hybrids won't be pure hybrids, but the plug-in hybrids" stated Rudolf Krabes who is the VW groups head of electric propulsion. ...Published on 03-25-2012 02:31 AM
No M version of the BMW i8 is coming. Kind of disappointing as it would be nice to finally have a halo M car or BMW supercar so to speak. The 1.5 liter turbo 3 cylinder has been upped to 223 horsepower and 295 pound-feet or torque. The total horsepower rating is now 393 horses and 406 lb-ft of torque. That is more like it! The car will also be switchable from front, to rear, to all wheel drive at the drivers discretion. Imagine using all wheel drive only from a stop for example. ...Published on 03-25-2012 12:14 AM
Here it is folks, what many said could not be done. For those keeping score, this marks the third breakthrough by Weistec Engineering (first being the M156 supercharger and second being CARB certification). The Mercedes 722.9 transmission is used in a variety of vehicles and made its debut in 2004. Tuners have struggled to upgrade it with some saying it was impossible due to electronic complications but parts are now available to take the transmission up to the 1000 pound-foot of torque handling range. ...Published on 03-23-2012 02:17 AM
First of all, we want to point out the disparity in the engines here. The Audi has a 5.2 liter direct injected V10 that revs to 8700 rpm and is rated at 518 horses. The GT3 RS 4.0 has a comparatively small 6 cylinder at 4.0 liters that puts out an amazing 500 horses. The Audi should win but does not even with the drag from the aerodynamic enhancements on the GT3 RS 4.0. Why? Well, the GT3 is lighter and routes its power to the rear wheels and not all four. It also puts out a lot of power to the wheels despite only 6 cylinders and 4.0 liters. Very, very impressive vehicle. ...Published on 03-23-2012 01:56 AM
First of all, congratulations to Mike Radowski of Maximum PSI. We know of only one faster street BMW in the United States that edged this out by just 1 MPH. There are only a couple quicker cars in the 1/4 that have run in the low 9 second range. This trap speed puts the vehicle above almost everything out there and with the claim of pump fuel in the video (E85 ethanol was mixed in though) 160 mile per hour trap speeds and 8's appear to be around the corner for street BMW's. ...Published on 03-23-2012 01:01 AM
The GLK did not look like it needed a facelift but it is getting one anyway. The headlight design has changed and it is clearly inspired by the new SL. The main changes we are interested in are those under the hood and the new GLK 250 BlueTec diesel is an interesting new option. The 2.1 liter four cylinder provides 190 horses and 369 pound-feet of torque which will make for a very nice option and offer a considerable increase over the GLK350's 16/22 mileage. ...Published on 03-22-2012 06:18 AM
It isn't necessarily the Gold wrap that is bad here. Some cars have pulled off gold wraps quite well like this X5M. This car doesn't do it as well though. Tyga considers himself "creative" but we've seen gold wraps before, a while ago, so it isn't quite as creative as he seems to be telling people it is. The Cashmere interior may be something nobody is doing with a Gold wrap but that is likely for a reason. He ties the black rims in well, we'll give him that. ...Published on 03-22-2012 02:52 AM
N63 V8 tuning has been rather tough to come by. For now, Dinan has been pretty much the only option, at least in the USA. Evotech is not a USA based tuner (they are out of Germany) but it is nice to see the N63 getting more attention from various parties. This is a Stage II tune from them on an F10 550i put on their MAHA dyno. The baseline was 393.7, right inline with the crank rating, and the tune raised this to 522.4. Certainly impressive and we are starting get used to these MAHA dyno graphs. ...Published on 03-22-2012 12:02 AM
For whatever reason the US market is not big on wagons. On paper, they make much more sense than SUV's but the market is what it is. These models are respectively the rarest on their platform which they are based. The E63 wagon actually being more rare in the USA than the much more expensive Mercedes SLS. Ok, so we know these models are rare and that they don't sell well but which is faster? The E63 AMG Wagon with the twin turbo M157 V8 or the 6.2 liter supercharged CTS-V Wagon? ...Published on 03-21-2012 11:14 PM
Now, we are not sure if this Jeep is actually putting out 1000 horses but that is the claim being made. With the way it rips this R8 V10, itself a very fast car, and holds it off through the mile it clearly is making a lot of power. It also traps higher at 167.7 MPH versus the 163.78 for the R8 V10. The R8 was asleep at the light with a poor reaction time and just does not have the power to run this Jeep down through the mile especially when the Jeep is pulling harder despite its comparatively poor aerodynamics and weight. A very impressive SUV. ...Published on 03-21-2012 10:58 PM
This is pretty impressive for a stock 991 Carrera S especially considering it was run at Palm Beach International Raceway in Florida which is not the fastest track. There is no slip which is disappointing so we can not see all the details but the 60 foot appeared to be a very nice 1.79. The car is a PDK and was launched using launch control which clearly worked quite well. At a faster track with drag radials we could see this car dip into the 11's stock very easily, impressive. ...Published on 03-20-2012 06:21 PM
Congratulations to BenzBoost member ecampbell as well as Weistec Engineering for their feature in the April 2012 issue of the Mercedes Enthusiast magazine. This is a magazine based out of the UK so it may be tough to find the issue in the USA although we definitely recommend members keep their eyes out for it or order it online. This is the same Black Series BenzBoost had the pleasure of sampling in July of last year before it underwent further modification. Merc Enthusiast has similar glowing impressions of the car. Check out the article here: http://www.weistec.com/press.html or in the photos below. Once again, congratulations to Weistec and ecampbell. ...Published on 03-20-2012 07:10 AM
In case you were wondering, yes, the Porsche 917 is still coming and still undergoing development. The concept debuted in Geneva 2 years ago and immediately gained attention throughout the industry since it took the relatively boring hybrid concept and turned into something that actually made car guys, real car guys, salivate. Wired got some exclusive time with the car and below is our summary of their take on it so far. ...Published on 03-20-2012 04:00 AM
Here is a comparison from German publication AutoBild in which they compare the new F10 M5 to the E63 AMG with the Performance Package option as well as the Jaguar XFR and Cadillac CTS-V. The M5 comes out on top with the fastest laptime as well as the quickest acceleration figures. This is surprising considering how close the standard 63 AMG's with the new M157 twin turbo V8 are to the F10 M5 let alone those with the Performance Package. ...Published on 03-20-2012 03:46 AM
Automotive news and reveals move pretty fast these days. Last week we reported that Mercedes intended to launch a new SL65 AMG with the reveal taking place next month at the New York Auto Show. Mercedes decided for whatever reason to reveal the vehicle online early before the show which more and more manufacturers seem to now be doing with their vehicles. The car looks absolutely fantastic. ...Published on 03-20-2012 02:37 AM
The Carrera GT has been out of production for some time now but it is not exactly a common car with a huge sample of dyno's. When one pulls up to a dynojet it is sure to peak interest in what the Porsche supercar will put down. This completely stock Carrera GT (not exactly a lot of modifications available for it either) put down 548 horses to the wheels on a dynojet at the TX2K12 event. From a 5.7 liter naturally aspirated V10, that is pretty damn good. Video of the dyno run is below. ...
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