Car Throttle

Over the last decade, McLaren and Mercedes-Benz have been closely intertwined. A little over 10 years ago, the company that was then DaimlerChrysler purchased a 40% stake in McLaren. Mercedes officially announced the “end of a great era” with the final "crowning glory" model being the SLR McLaren Stirling Moss. Long before this though, developmental plans had to be put in place. Mercedes begun to divest itself of McLaren had its new SLS supercar developed by its performance subsidiary AMG. Then, McLaren announced its intention to compete head-to-head Ferrari and Lamborghini again by way of the MP4-12C. But what caused the divergent paths? Before, it seemed as bit puzzling, but it is less so now. The head of Mercedes Formula One, Norbert Haug, said the split was due to McLaren's

Fellow bloggers over at Autoblog recently took part in a Mercedes-Benz event to recreate the Carrera Panamerica in Mexico. The piece is interesting and definitely worth a read. In addition, while on the trip, they created  footage of the SLS as it winds through Mexico. It gives a good glimpse of what it was like to be on the trip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLmAhvdq8Z4&feature=player_embedded#

There is a lot of cool car advertisements out there, like a recent Citroen C3 Commercial that had the car swinging in the air. However, while a cool advertisement, it was clearly computer generated. Some, like Honda's famous "Cog" commercial, might appear to be fake way, but are actually real. For a list of some of the best, check out CarThrottle's Top 50 Car Advertisements article. Mercedes-Benz has now released this new commercial featuring the SLS AMG, appearing to defy gravity. Real or not? Some people are debating over it. For us though, we'd definitely have to go with fake, as cool as an advertisement as it is. What do you think though? Let us know in the comments section. httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49HdqtWHEoo

With McLaren branching out developing a complete lineup of supercars, Mercedes-Benz decided it was time develop a new one of its own. Uniquely, the job was tasked to Mercedes' in-house performance division, AMG. AMG is best known for it's performance variants of Mercedes models, but this was an all-new, dedicated model apart from anything else currently in the Mercedes lineup. European pricing information on the car has been announced has been announced. It is surprisingly less than what what was projected, coming in at 149,000 euros (around $223K USD at current exchange rates), before the 19 percent value added tax that brings retail price for the standard car to 177,310 euros ($266K). For America, the price before VAT should be closer to the pricetag we will get.

If you cringe at watching expensive cars being destroyed, look away! Mercedes-Benz is a brand that has prided itself on the safety of its vehicles and in a variety of innovations over the years. The company recently demonstrated a renewed commitment to that with it's Experimental Safety Vehicle 2009 that is based on what is arguably already the world's safest sedan, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. That expertise is being carried over across the lineup, even to high-performance cars like the SLS AMG. The demonstrations in the video aren't your typical car crash test - the car is even dropped on its roof. Given the gullwing doors, passengers exiting the vehicle might be a particular concern if the car was to land on its roof. Mercedes has created a

Magna International is a Canadian parts supplier for many car companies around the world. As you may know, the recent GM financial crisis prompted the sale of Opel. After a long and arduous bidding process Magna International emerged as the victor. The fact that the company also gets contracts to produce vehicles for other manufacturers has many potential clients worried there is now a conflict of interest. Trade secrets could be compromised as they are being shared with a competing manufacturer, or so the thinking goes. It was a cause for concern at Magna that people would steer clear of critical services that it offers. Apparently, Mercedes-Benz isn't concerned about any of that. Magna's Austrian Steyr subsidiary has received the contract to build the body of the

The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Gullwing has hardly just been introduced and tuners are already hard at work on modifying it. Mercedes-Benz tuner Lorinser is the first to put out it's own interpretation of the car's styling. While the SLS AMG is already inspired by the original, Lorinser takes thing a step further. Wait - make that a few steps further. The first pays homage to the original Gullwing that was designed for motorsports. Instead of using aluminum though like that car, this one uses carbon fiber. "If carbon fibres had been available then, the lightweight concept of the 300 SL would definitely have contained this material", says CEO Marcus Lorinser. This model replaces the Mercedes star with the 15th century Lorinser family crest.  I like it! Then

By now, we've gotten a really good idea of what the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG will look like. Various renderings and spyshots have popped up and they all point to a really promising new supercar. I was never a big fan of the Mercedes SLR McLaren because I didn't think it's styling was worthy of it's price and status. Now the SLS AMG on the other hand, looks excellent. It seems like this might be a picture of the actual production car, not just a rendering. It has echoes of classic vehicles like the Mercedes-Benz 300SL, and ditches the double-headlight design found on Mercedes vehicles of the past few years. It truly does look recognizable as a 300SL, just brought up to date. I especially love the gullwing