After three columns, The Truth About Cars and former Car and Driver columnist Brock Yates have decided to call it a day. I emerge from our agreement with my respect for Mr. Yates' enormous talent, insight, charm and perspicacity intact. Brock's reputation is, was and will be well-deserved. TTAC hopes that he finds a suitable electronic forum for his work soon, so that his many fans can continue to enjoy his wit and wisdom. It's been an honor.

Yates starts off with a bang, tackling the issues of congestion, the environment, urban sprawl and Csabe Scere letting him go. It's worth a read and, hopefully, is just the beginning. [The Truth About Cars]

The car's full name is Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL 6.9, though no one bothers with the 450SEL part. In fact, you can just drop the MB out of the title altogether — 6.9 by itself will suffice. The 6.9 is part of that elite group of cars known simply by their alphanumerics (or, in this case pure numerics). F40. M1. 959. ZR-1. Even a car as fully fly as the M5 doesn't qualify without the the chassis number (e.g. E39). (Which Corvette Z06, for instance?) But 6.9 can mean nothing but a 6.9. Also, with the exception of the wider tires, the only way to tell a 6.9 apart from its baser 450 SEL brethren is a metallic badge on the trunk. Compare that level of stealth with today's badge-festooned über-sedans, all of which look like wolves in shark costumes. Of course you could always select factory option 261 and delete the badge, which is the correct way to fly.

And fly the 6.9 did! But before we get to the specifics, consider what the 6.9 means to pistonhead culture. Sinatra, Telly Savalas and the Shah of Iran each owned one, as did JFK Jr. We've all seen Frankenheimer's Ronin 13-dozen times and therefore all know the director of Grand Prix used both an M5 and an S8 for his magnum auto opus. But what car from Stuttgart could hold its own against the best from Munich and Ingolstadt in one of the greatest odes to the car ever filmed? Only one, really. Too bad they had to add in the fake tire smoke.

First Chase From Ronin

Even more fantastic, after 30 years, Claude Lelouch has finally admitted the car on whose bumper he strapped a camera to film C'était un rendez-vous was none other than a 6.9. For decades, peeps (me included) believed the car tearing through the guts of Paris was in fact a Ferrari 275 GTB. If you walk into the Peterson Automotive Museum today you will find a video of Rendez-vous playing next to a Ferrari 275 GTB/4 with a sign proclaiming its use in the film. Sure, Lelouch did dub in the soundtrack from a Ferrari, but for a big ole two-ton sedan to pull off a Ferrari impersonation for 30 years? Well, that's about as good as a car with extra doors gets.

C'était un rendez-vous

What makes the 6.9 so gosh darn hot? Like all great cars, we'll start with history. In 1966 an engineer named Erich Waxenberger decided to stuff the M100 V8 from the fab MB 600 limousine (owned by both John Lennon and the Pope) into a W109 S-Class chassis. In doing so, he created the world's first Q-Car. This was a watershed moment. While practically everyone gets the appeal of, to quote Brock Yates, "American dim-bulb street racer variety," muscle cars (think McConaughey in Dazed and Confused) it takes a more sophisticated palette to understand just how friggin' right-on a stonking motor in a stock looking sedan is. And Mr. Waxenberger's 6.3 started it all. The 6.3 was produced from 1968 until the oil crisis of 1973, when Daimler-Benz killed it. Make no mistake, the 6.3 was a hell of a car; so much so that I almost put it to a vote against the 6.9. But, after much pondering, I decided the 6.9 is just that much better.

In European trim, the big 6.9-liter mill cranked out 286 horsepower and 405 lb-ft or torque (the Malaise Era US version got its wings clipped to the tune of just 250 horses and 360 torques). If you can set your mental time machines back 30 years and reread the previous sentence, smoke will billow out of your ears. In 1977 a Corvette was limping up 219 hp and 255 lb-ft of twist. A Ferrari 308 GTS? You don't even want to know (205 hp and 181 lb-ft). Only the really exotic stuff (Countach, Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Ferrari 512 BB) was making more power and only 18-wheelers produced as much torque.

Yet unlike American muscle of the time, the engine wasn't simply big. Sure, the 6.9 sported a bored out lightweight V8, but you know those Germans. The exhaust valves were sodium filled, the intake valves were nitrided and all featured chrome stems. The engine was fully dry-sumped (using over 12 quarts of oil!) because that was the only way to give the car proper ground clearance, for the big old engine block dropped further down than the centerline of the crank. The cylinder heads were aluminum and the valve lifters were hydraulic.

The suspension was also hydraulic, recalling another Fantasy Garager, the Citroen SM. In fact, the two systems are similar, with a compressor hitched to the 6.9's timing belt providing the massive compression (2100 to 2900 psi) needed to make such systems fly. Er, float. The 6.9 also sported the world's first set of antilock brakes. This meant that you could cruise safely and quite comfortably all day long at the 6.9's top speed, just shy of 150 mph. The aforementioned Yates hooned the big Mercedes for 100 miles around Road Atlanta, doing nothing more than adding 5 psi to the tires. The 6.9 was simply unflapped. To quote:

I estimate that there aren't a dozen production sedans in the world that could be driven really hard for 10 laps or 25 miles around Road Atlanta without suffering severe mechanical ailments.

Therefore I posed what seemed to be a legitimate challenge for the 6.9 — 100 miles around Road Atlanta; 40 laps at speed. If such a distance could be accomplished without difficulty, the capacities of this automobile would far surpass anything outside a few lightweight, two-seaters and beyond the realm of comprehension for a heavy, four-door luxury sedan...

... It was over in one hour and twenty minutes, with an average speed just over 72 mph. The car rolled into the pits and aside from a slight, completely normal hissing sound as the hydropneumatic suspension readjusted itself, the 6.9 was behaving as if nothing had happened — much like a strong, young thoroughbred after an early morning exercise. This incredible machine had just been flogged for 100 miles on one of the most rigorous stretches of road to be found anywhere and it was now appearing to shrug its shoulders and await the next challenge! Barring a slight scuffing on the left side tires - owing to the predominance of right hand corners at Road Atlanta, and some black flecks of brake lining on its alloy wheels, the 6.9 looked as if it had just returned from a low speed tour through Central Park.

Massive power, utter stealth and the ability to turn 100 miles on one of the America's toughest tracks into a stroll in the park is the stuff they make dreams out of. Yates goes on to explain that he was hitting around 125 mph on the back straight. I remember just barely being able to get a 400 horsepower Maserati to 125 mph on that same straight. $40,000 is a good chunk of change for a car today. In 1977, that was a few dollars more than a Rolls-Royce and more than twice what a Jaguar cost. It also happens to be the price Mercedes wanted for a 6.9. Was it worth the money? Not only will we answer yes, but we want one in the Fantasy Garage. Happy voting.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

The Jalopnik Fantasy Garage, So Far:
RUF RT12 | 1978 Aston Martin V8 Vantage | Honda 1300 Coupe 9 | 1931 Daimler Double Six 50 Corsica Drophead Coupe | Ferrari 288 GTO | Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 | 1970 Buick GSX 455 | First Generation BMW M Coupe | Bugatti Veyron 16.4 | Ford GT | Citroen SM | Porsche 928 | Jensen FF | DeTomaso Vallelunga | Audi Quattro S1 | Buick GNX | Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R | Honorary Fantasy Garager: The LS1 Powered Rotus | Lamborghini LM002 | Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe | Ferrari 250 GTO | Bentley Speed Six | Talbot-Lago T150C SS Figoni et Falaschi Raindrop/Teardrop Coupe | Porsche 917 | Audi RS4 Avant | Maybach Exelero | Lamborghini Miura

Brock Yates runs down his favorite automotive books for the Wall Street Journal. Topics? Henry Ford, Harry Miller, Moss, Dan Gurney and Daytona, but to name a few. Say what you will about Yates, and many have said plenty, but the man knows his history, so when dude drops science on the past of motor racing, it might behoove you to listen up. – Davey G. Johnson

Good From Start to Finish [Wall Street Journal via 0-60]

Related:
Brock Yates on Hist Car and Driver Departure [Internal]

After retiring the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy dash, which famously terminated a bit above Pedro in Redondo Beach, Brock Yates launched the One Lap of America. Now, with renewed interest in point-to-point rallying due to the Gumball, the Bullrun, the Player's Run and the upcoming documentary about the 1983 US Express, which set a transcontinental record of 32 hours, 7 minutes, Yates is looking back to get in the game he invented. According to ForbesAutos, Yates may revive the Cannonball as early as this spring. Is that sound we hear Chuck Mallett sprinting to his garage? And will the Polizei take up the gauntlet Yates is about to throw down? Hang on, kids. It might get a bit bumpy.

Cannonball Comeback? [ForbesAutos]

Related:
More on the Cannonball Run [Internal]

Holy cannoli. As if the auto journalism world couldn't get any more chaotic, Brock Yates has signed on to spill the beans (in even greater detail) on his departure from Car and Driver, on Farago's The Truth About Cars. He'll also be getting back into the qwerty game on TTAC, contributing other commentary and reviews for the site. Next thing you know, Farago will be starring in "Cannonball Run IV" or "Speed Zone II," depending on what manner of movie geek you ask.

Related:
I'm Brock Yates, Byatch! [internal]

Brock Yates is one of the more divisive figures in automotive journalism. In fact, we feel like a redundant dunce in even saying that, but whatever. Still, we were really shocked when Sweet Peet D. mentioned that Csaba Csere had let Yates go. To us, being thirtysomethings, Yates is more an icon of Car and Driver than David E. ever was. He was the magazine's mascot; he was one of the primary reasons we got into automotive writing. We didn't always agree with the cut of his jib, but we almost always found his words chewing on. His retort to Csere's May, 2006 C/D column posted on the One Lap site wasn't something we noticed 'til today, but we thought it was worth reposting. Check it after the jump.

"Let's set the story straight. Csaba Csere claims I took "early retirement" from Car and Driver. Here's the truth. He came to my home and fired me. He said I was too expensive. A few days later he made me a cheap alternative offer that I refused. My long tenure with the magazine is over. Kaput. A cheap shot that will not be forgotten. That's the way it happened."

Without Yates, Car and Driver has lost even more of the personality that has been slipping away from the magazine over the last year or two. And it's a shame, because it was hugely influential to us, and is still the gold standard for technical specs. Then again, we also hoped the Rolling Stones would never make Voodoo Lounge. YMMV.

A few words from Brock [One Lap of America]

Related:
Big Changes Afoot at Car and Driver [Internal]

Yesterday, Scotto regaled us with the tale of Ken Block's car crapping out, no doubt leading Block to lament in a Rollins-esque tone, "Hey wait a minute! My Subie doesn't work!" To which Scotto undoubtedly replied, "It's broken!" But in true never-say-die-die-my-darling fashion, the boys from Vermont SportsCar showed up with a new mill, wrenched all night and got the boys back on the road to Georgia, where according to the man they call "Brinskan" via BlackBerry, "Ken just raced and finished his first event, he looked quick but have not seen a ranking yet." The story behind the breakage after the jump.

It's Sunday. We're broken down in the top of Massachusetts Illinois looking for a hotel room. The show race is off. Shit's pretty heavy.
-Jawbreaker "Tour Song" intro

The safety crew hooks a long yellow tow strap to the STi's front stress-bar mount and tows it off-track and back to the paddock. A few remaining spectators welcome Ken with racer sympathy. "Dude, I know this track, and I will tell you, you were one of the only to nail that first set of turns right," says Dylan Petersen, a track local. "It's a shame you didn't get to finish." Ken looks defeated. Though a compliment, it's like being told that you could have had knocked the dust off your high school prom queen if only you had just asked.

The STi is starting back up, but doesn't seem to wanna build any boost. Our first guess is the new mapping for the ECU has gone nutty since no leaks can be found in the piping. Checking this, I burn my thumb on the hot side of a GT32. Twisting the clich and literally adding injury to insult. Dylan, aside from being a track local, happens to run DS1 Motorports, a Subaru tuning shop 30 minutes away. If this was a Disney film, he would have a glowing light surround him. Suspecting fouled plugs, our guardian angel heads to his shop to grab some NGK Iridium IXs and tools since obviously VT SportsCar didn't trust Ken or I with anything more complicated than the equipment needed to hang a painting. Actually when I asked Clint, the team manager; "What about tools?" he shot me an ever-so-friendly Vermont look that said "Please, don't touch my fucking car...Thanks!" C'mon, I can wield a spanner just as well as a pen. Anyway, while waiting for Dylan, we make friends with the only person left at the track. The dude's name escapes me, but the tasty ribs he feeds us will have the mouth watering for days.

Foul ball... Er, I mean fouled plugs? Nope. Worse yet, bits of aluminum are found. Verifying our fears, Dylan pulls the dipstick and it glistens like glitter. Okay, for anyone whose knowledge of motors stops with where to put the oil, this is bad, it's the automotive equivalent of shitting or pissing blood. To compound the situation, the motor is knocking...also very bad. But what can be expected from an engine flogged on the 2005 Gumball 3000 Rally?

Ken walks away for the conversation he is about to have with VT Sportscar owner Lance Smith. Dylan and I huddle trying to scheme how we can have a new motor in the bay by morning. Ken returns and suggests we sleep on it, but he is afraid we may be out of the race. We go to find a hotel and I suggest we press on regardless. It doesn't take much for Ken to agree and we devise a plan.

By the time I rise from much-needed slumber on Sunday morning, VT SportsCar has already found an engine donor—the black camo Gumball STi. The motor is on its way here, along with two mechanics. We have about 18 hours to do nothing. We both stay glued to our PowerBooks, desperately trying to get an entire week's work done in a day. I fail miserably. Dylan, on the other hand, pulls the motor out of the STi and preps the car for a heart transplant. During the process he finds pieces of a rod bearing in the oil pan. Awesome!

At 7 a.m. we are woken up with good news, the guys showed up early and the car is running; we should be good to head out in an hour. We have to be in Savannah, GA tomorrow morning. That's 1000 miles away, and except for a 100 mile stretch between Tennessee and North Carolina that I was lucky enough to pilot , they are all straight and boring.

Two hours before midnight—our expected ETA at the hotel, a South Carolina Trooper bags Ken doing 102 in a 60. We get off we a reduced summons using the "Yeah, so we are doing this Charity race..."

Related:
More of Scotto's One Lap action [Internal]

Erwin G. "Cannon Ball" Baker was a legendary long-distance record setter in the first half of the last century who traversed the nascent roadways of the nation on what were essentially sponsorship dares from manufacturers. He later became NASCAR commissioner, and when the idea for a cross-country road race popped into Yates' mind in the '70s, the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash was born. (Yates claims not to know why he compounded Cannon Ball's sobriquet, at least that's how we remember the story.) The One Lap of America is an outgrowth of that, ostensibly legal, but offering a copious opportunities for mad hoonage along the way.

Erwin George Baker [Wikipedia]

Related:
More One Lap [Internal]

From the May/Final Issue of mph

Welcome Brock [note irony here]
In his first [and last] column for mph, the soul of automotive journalism, Brock "The Assassin" Yates, Tells Us How He Got Here

WARNING: Quit reading this immediately.What follows is a brief r sum of a wasted life spent hanging around automobiles. In the event you are tempted to travel a similar road—while resisting a thrilling career riding a desk as an accountant,computer geek,or tax analyst—I'm telling you, messing with cars is a dead end.

Look at me. Since about the time the printing press and the internal-combustion engine were invented, I got hooked on these machines. In high school I built a 1932 B Ford five-window coupe hot rod.Then my dad,who loved cars,bought an MG TF and a Jaguar XK120 roadster, in both of which I nearly killed myself.

Somehow,after a stint in the Navy, I began racing and writing,the former with Formula Juniors and the latter for a little California paper called Competition Press (now known as AutoWeek).From there it was a move to Manhattan where Car and Driver was based, to become managing editor (although I knew absolutely nothing about either managing or editing).

With it came racing, including a couple of seasons with the then-booming professional Trans-Am series. My best ride was a factory-supported Camaro that put me into the same fender-bashing fields as Parnelli Jones,Mark Donohue,Peter Revson,George Follmer, and a mob of other serious shoes. In that wild bunch I managed a few decent top-ten finishes and then went on to write a book,"Sunday Driver,"that somehow made the New York Times bestseller list.

Of course, the single black mark on my career was the creation of the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash in 1971—the infamous cross-country race,New York to L.A.—that led to five major motion pictures (including Cannonball Run,which I wrote) and several idiotic copies, both here and in Europe.

The big blast came when superstar driver Dan Gurney and I drove a Ferrari Daytona coast-to-coast in just under 36 hours.When asked how fast we went,Gurney told the L.A.Times,"We never exceeded 185 mph."That was true, in that the Daytona ran out of steam at 176 mph on I-10.

Other great rides in the Cannonball for me came twice in a Dodge Challenger,built by NASCAR pro Cotton Owens, that I still own and that will soon appear in these pages as we build a series of Cannonball Challenger replicas using old E-bodies but with 300C chassis and the new 6.1-liter Hemis.

Then there was the Dodge ambulance.The same ambulance used by Burt Reynolds,Farrah Fawcett, Dom DeLuise,and Jack Elam in Cannonball Run. My beautiful wife,Pamela; movie director and stuntman Hal Needham; and an L.A.doctor named Lyell Royer used the actual vehicle (packed with a monster motor built by drag racer Dick Landy) in the Cannonball in March 1979.As luck would have it, the transmission blew up 50 miles short of the Redondo Beach finish.

But the Dodge was not only in the movie, it was also used as a chase vehicle when Needham attempted to break the land-speed record at Bonneville. While the Cannonball lives on (and you'll read more about the latest madness in these pages in the near future) the old ambulance remains a mystery.

Needham donated the legendary machine to a NASCAR wives' charity and now it has disappeared. Was it scrapped? Is it lying under a haystack in some North Carolina barn? Was it repainted and being used by somebody who has no idea of its value?

Trust me, based on the giant bucks being unloaded at the major classic-car auctions like Barrett-Jackson and Christie's, I would guess that the Cannonball ambulance is worth six—maybe seven—figures to a collector or museum if found.

That's your assignment: Go find the Cannonball Runambulance and roll in dough. It's gotta be out there someplace.

You were warned. Like I told you, reading this will mess up your brain. You're gonna need to find the ambulance.

We'll admit that over the last couple of years, we haven't enjoyed Car and Driver or Automobile as much as we once did. With their young talent pools having been cherry-picked by David Pecker and his posse to put together mph and Dan Neil having filled his plate in Los Angeles, there's a certain spark that's missing. And while Primedia's cost-cutting measures are legendary (we recently heard an anecdote that a low-level editorial position at Hot Rod pays $15,000 a year less than it did two decades ago), Hachette, according to Sweet Peet D. is putting the screws to Csaba Csere to trim costs. What does this mean? It means, bye, Brock!

Now while we don't always agree with Brock Yates, and sometimes even vehemently disagree with him, we've always respected and admired the guy, and his on-again/off-again association with C/D over the years is one of the great love stories of writer and publication over the last four decades. Some might say Yates is old and out of touch; we say he's a link to the past, and for all of the teasing we've done to him, there are few men in this industry that we admire more. Bad swing of the hatchet, Hachette.

What's more, apparently longtime C/D staffer Tony Swan's been pushed into an earlier-than-planned retirement, and Automobile's Mark Gillies has been brought in as Csaba's Number Two. So where does this leave Automobile? Frankly, it gives the mag a chance to reinvent itself, which for all of its yearly redesigns, it hasn't truly managed to do in the last couple of years. We're curious to see how all of this shakes out in six months or so.

What's more, David E. Davis has a new mag in the works. Why? There are already too many car magazines. Do we really need another?

On the Table [Autoextremist, 2nd & 3rd items]

Related:
Calling Captain Chaos: Errors in the Cannonball Run [Internal]

Could one of the greatest so-bad-it's- freaking- awesome films of all time actually have mistakes in it? So say the people at Movie Mistakes, claiming that there are a number of egregious errors in Dom DeLuise's finest hour, directed by Hal Needham and penned by Brock Yates (Hi Brock!). To wit: "JJ and Victor's ambulance's engine sounds are dubbed, and a few times you can hear the sound of shifting a manual transmission when the ambulance is shown to have an automatic." However, that can't be true. Dick Landy built that engine, and Dick Landy would never deceive us.

The Cannonball Run [Movie Mistakes]

Related:
German Police Thwart Europe's Cannonballers [Internal]