Mercedes' smallest convertible will be getting a significant refresh for the 2012 model year and will bring feature the brands more upright, pedestrian-friendly grill. The retractable hard top will remain in place but the car will also get a significant butt-lift to match the nose job. The interior will also get revisions emulating the SLS including round vents and simplified controls.

Yesterday, a high price and a peek under the skirt that resulted in some disappointment resulted in the Prince becoming a pauper as 62% of you told us twenty large was too much for a single-cam wannabe. Today's contender is the real deal, and it has but a single cam as well, however it keeps it on the down-low.

Upon the transfer of ownership of Auto Union from Mercedes Benz to Volkswagen, development of new Audi cars was halted. But much like a German Unibomber, Ludwig Kraus continued in secret to advance the progress of the C1 platform- to be known as the 100. VW leadership gave the car a green light for production having been impressed by a fully realized prototype, as well as some unflattering photos of them that Kraus claimed to possess. Well, that last part may or may not be true.

The 100ls arrived in 1968 and came to the U.S. the following year as a four-door sedan and two-door coupe. Handsome and conservative, the 100 looked like the form a front-drive Mercedes might take, and with good reason as the car is filled with elements of MB ownership. The 1.8-litre four cylinder is similar to the Benz fours of the time- although the Audi four is canted over at 40 degrees. Even its numerical nomenclature is Benz-ish.

The 100 did reasonably well here in the U.S., paired in dealerships with the much pricier Porsches, but durability issues and unfavorable exchange rates eventually drove down sales. That's unfortunate, because, had it been more popular, perhaps Audi could have been persuaded to bring over the lovely fastback version- the coupé S, an example of which is our subject today.

The Coupé S received a bored 1.9-litre version of the 100's four, bumping power to 113-bhp from the 1.8's 100 and making for acceleration that still belied the car's bodystyle as a fastback. The seller of this clean 1971 edition claims it to be one of only two in the States, and that may be the case as I've never seen one here, and I've lived here all my life. Also noted is the replacement of the Solex carbs with more modern Webers, but that the originals will come with the purchase. Unspoken, but obvious in the pictures, is that the seller is not an ace photographer. Still, he does have a taste for obscure and interesting cars, of which the Coupé S is in spades. In the car's favor is that, while extremely rare, parts shouldn't be, other than internals for the 1.9.

There's no Buy It Now option, so rabid Audi fanatics (you know who you are) will need to do the bid-wait two step on this auction, and while the starting point is $15,000, that doesn't meet the reserve, which remains a mystery. But lets use fifteen large as our baseline today, because this is too interesting a car to leave un-ruminated upon.

So, what do you say, are you willing to plunk down $15,000, plus whatever, for as rare an Audi as you are likely to find here in the states? Or, does that price make this an Auto Union that'll have to be without you?

You decide!

eBay or go here if the ad disappears. This week we are thankful for camp6ell for the tip

Help me out with NPOCP. Click here to send a me a tip, and remember to include your commenter handle.

Unlike most claimer races, in which any schmoe on the premises may claim a car for a specified sum, the fine print of the 24 Hours Of LeMons rulebook states that "At the end of the competition, the organizer—and nobody else, you lazy, better-car-wantin' bastids—may elect to purchase any vehicle from its owner(s) for $500. In other words, don't spend a lot on a cheater, cause if you do, you ain't gonna own it much longer." While Chief Perp Jay Lamm had considered claiming a car in the past (often with much encouragement to do so from the LeMons Supreme Court), he'd always chickened out with some lame excuse like "I have too many damn hoopty-ass cars at my house now, where am I going to fit another one?" Not this time! Since the Paraguayan Benz is essentially unregisterable, the engine will end up in a Model A owned by one of the Assistant Perps, while the rest of the car will likely be traded for a couple of boxes of rusty Alfa Romeo parts.

The good news for Team Diplomatic Immunity is that they went home with two major trophies: the Heroic Fix, for their 8-hour heater-hose replacement, and the coveted I Got Screwed trophy, for having their nice car snatched away from their clutches.

That's right, it really is possible to obtain a great big Benz with a V12 engine, dent-free body, and cherry interior for 500 bucks. Now, some of you may be asking yourselves, "How in the hell could a car that sold new for $130,000 just over a decade ago possibly make it past the LeMons Supreme Court without getting issued so many penalty laps that the judges get carpal tunnel syndrome from writing so many zeros on the inspection sheet?"

We had a hard time believing it ourselves, but here's how it went down: the car was brought into the country by a Paraguayan diplomat (it still has diplomatic plates), and then some hazily-defined event took place that resulted in a drug-smuggling bust and the involvement of police personnel from several nations. After that, the car became permanently radioactive in the eyes of the DMV, with dealer after dealer attempting to wash it clean of its sins and register it for street use. No dice! Finally, all the optimism evaporated and the last dealer washed his hands of the car, selling it for a grand to... the same LeMons team that once ran a Jaguar XJ-S. They sold the driver's seat for 500 bucks, and that was that. The heater works, the roll cage was installed without trashing the beautiful wood-and-leather interior, and we bought the whole story. There's talk that one of the LeMons Perpetrators may get the Chief Perp to claim the car (as is his, and only his, right) so that he can drop the engine in a '27 Ford Tudor. The team members say they don't want to see this car ever again, once the race is done, so things might work out well for all concerned.

Mercedes-Benz have been racing cars for over a century now, but since 1955, they have been doing it in disguise: as AMG, as Sauber, as McLaren.

This is set to chance in 2010: Brawn GP will become Mercedes-Benz’s factory team as Mercedes Grand Prix.

The new team, headed by Ross Brawn, will have quite a history to match. The most famous Mercedes-Benz racing cars are the Silver Arrows, named for their unpainted aluminum bodies: two groups of cars which competed in the 30s and the 50s and won most of the races they were entered in.

Here they are.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: W25
Year: 1934–1936
Engine: 3.3-liter straight-8
Power: 354 HP
Claim to fame: The first Silver Arrow

The rise of Mercedes-Benz’s grand prix team paralleled the Nazis’ ascent to power in Germany. After Adolf Hitler became Germany’s chancellor, he was approached by a Daimler-Benz executive and they agreed to a deal where the German state would sponsor the Mercedes-Benz racing team, which was then in deep financial trouble. There is dispute about the precise amount of sponsorship, with various sources pegging it between 10% and 40% of expenses.

The W25 was created for the 750-kilo formula: cars could weigh no more than 1650 pounds. It is not precisely clear how they lost their German racing white to became silver, but the most widely quoted story is that team manager Alfred Neubauer and driver Manfred von Brauchitsch devised the scheme to strip the car of its paint to squeeze it below weight regulations.

In any case, after early teething problems were overcome, it was a very successful car, winning many races in 1934 and taking the 1935 European Grand Prix Championship for Rudolf Caracciola. In its last year, it was eclipsed by Auto Union’s Type C, driven by Bernd Rosemeyer.

Like every Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrow which would follow, the W25 had a supercharged engine which emitted a characteristic whistle under acceleration. If you’re interested, Jenson Button drove it at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, where I captured the whistling on video.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: W125
Year: 1937
Engine: 5.6-liter straight-8
Power: 646 HP (← not a typo)
Claim to fame: Most powerful Grand Prix for decades

The W125 was supposed to be a stopgap for the 1937 season, before new rules for 1938 would come into effect, but what a stopgap it’s turned out to be! Developed by young engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut, who could drive it on the Nürburgring at race speeds, it rectified the W25’s handling problems and received an engine which would not be matched for power until Can-Am cars became truly mad, a good three decades later.

Rudolf Caracciola used the W125 to retake his European Grand Prix Championship title from Bernd Rosemeyer. As displacement rules changed for 1938, the car was retired after its single successful season.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: W125 Streamliner
Year: 1937
Engine: 5.6-liter straight-8
Power: 646 HP
Claim to fame: Won fastest ever Grand Prix race

This was a version of the W125 entered for the ludicrous AVUS race, held on two straight stretches of Autobahn with banked corners to connect them. The cars reached speeds of 240 MPH on the straights. Hermann Lang, who won the race in the car pictured, described the sensation as more akin to airplane acrobatics than auto racing.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: W125 Rekordwagen
Year: 1938
Engine: 5.5-liter V12
Power: 736 HP
Claim to fame: Holds land speed record on public road

Mercedes-Benz also used the W125 to run speed records attempts on Germany’s newly built Autobahns. On a January morning in 1938, Rudolf Caracciola drove this W125 at 268 MPH on a measured mile between Frankfurt and Darmstadt. To this day, it remains the highest speed ever achieved on a public road. Caracciola would describe the experience of running under overpasses at such speeds as trying very hard to stick a piece of thread through an eye of a needle.

This image is also testament to the troubled relationship Mercedes-Benz has with its past, where great racing success happened to coincide with Nazi power. Look close and you’ll see a swastika airbrushed into moderate oblivion on the driver’s headrest.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: W154
Year: 1938–1939
Engine: 3-liter V12
Power: 425 HP
Claim to fame: Beat Auto Union

For 1938, Mercedes-Benz designed a brand-new car, in keeping with the new regulations, which limited displacement to three liters. The resulting W154 was a low-slung technological marvel, running on a mixture of methyl alcohol, nitrobenzene, acetone and sulfuric ether, a gallon of which would propel it for a mere 2.8 miles. Auto Union’s rival Type D was no match for it, and Rudolf Caracciola used the car to take his third and last European grand prix crown.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: W165
Year: 1939
Engine: 1.5-liter V8
Power: 254 HP
Claim to fame: Took revenge on sneaky Italians

In the 1920s and 1930s, Tripoli—the Libyan capital, then part of an Italian colony—was host to a glamorous grand prix with high prices. By colonial tradition, it was an Italian home race. Following Hermann Lang’s back-to-back wins in 1937 and 1938 for Mercedes-Benz, the Italians suddenly changed the rules to allow only 1.5-liter cars for the 1939 years—cars which Alfa Romeo and Maserati, as opposed to Mercedes-Benz, happened to possess.

With only 8 months to go, Mercedes-Benz had their work cut out for them. A skunk works was formed, which took the 3-liter W154 and downsized it for Tripoli, finishing the car just in time. Hermann Lang didn’t waste the opportunity and rounded out his hat trick of Tripoli titles to the Italians’ great irritation.

Four months later, Europe was at war and motor racing came to a halt.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: W196 Type Monza
Year: 1954
Engine: 2.5-liter straight-8
Power: 257 HP
Claim to fame: Returned Mercedes-Benz to Grand Prix racing in high style

Barely a decade after World War Two, the Mercedes-Benz team was back in action. Team manager Alfred Neubauer and engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut returned to lead a new team, luring Maserati’s world champion Juan Manuel Fangio to drive their new car, the W196. The team debuted at the 1954 French Grand Prix, where they proceeded to take a 1–2 win.

The streamlined body was good for high-speed tracks like Rheims and Monza but unsuitable for most other circuits. After two races, Mercedes-Benz dropped the streamliner and introduced an open wheel version of the W196 which was used for the rest of their time in Formula One.

Photo Credit: Louis Klemantaski

Name: W196
Year: 1954–1955
Engine: 2.5-liter straight-8
Power: 257–290 HP
Claim to fame: Won back-to-back Formula One World Championships

The W196 was one of the most successful cars ever constructed for Formula One. It debuted and exited with a victory and won a total of 9 races between the 1954 French Grand Prix and the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. During that period, it was only beaten three times.

Of those nine wins, eight went to Juan Manuel Fangio and one to Stirling Moss.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: 300SLR
Year: 1955
Engine: 3-liter straight-8
Power: 310 HP
Claim to fame: Won World Sportscar Championship

You probably know this car already! The 300SLR was a two-seater version of the W196, with the engine enlarged to three liters. In 1955, Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson drove it to an incredible victory at the Mille Miglia, averaging 100 MPH over one thousand miles of Italian public road, a record which still stands.

The 300SLR also won the RAC Tourist Trophy and the Targa Florio, which was enough to beat Ferrari for the 1955 World Sportscar Championship title.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: 300SLR, Le Mans version
Year: 1955
Engine: 3-liter straight-8
Power: 310 HP
Claim to fame: Killed 85 people, caused Mercedes-Benz to withdraw from motorsports

On June 11, 1955, it went all wrong for Mercedes-Benz. Running a customized high speed version of the 300SLR in Le Mans against the Jaguar D-Types, Pierre Levegh’s 300SLR catapulted into the air and slammed headfirst into a wall of spectators, killing scores. The car was made of a highly flammable magnesium alloy called Elektron, which did not help things. The burned-out husk you see on the picture is what remained of Levegh’s car.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: 300SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé
Year: 1955
Engine: 3-liter straight-8
Power: 310 HP
Claim to fame: Fastest road car of the 1950s

Had Mercedes-Benz not retired at the end of the 1955 season, this is the car they would have raced at Le Mans. A coupé version of the 300SLR race car, it was instead used by Rudolf Uhlenhaut as his daily driver. The car could run at 170 MPH on the public road, which Uhlenhaut, a driver of almost Formula One quality, exploited to the last drop.

As the 300SLR itself was based on the W196 Formula One car, a way to imagine its devastating speed would be to install a canopy on Jenson Button’s championship-winning BGP–001 and use it as a daily driver.

New Formula One cars are usually introduced in January, so expect the next Silver Arrow to crop up sometime in January 2010. We’ll be here to tell you all about it.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Despite the price difference, the $85,750 E63 and the $200,000 (est) SLS actually have a fair bit in common. Most obvious is the 6.2-liter AMG V8, here developing only 518 HP to the SLS's 571, but they both also use AMG's new Speedshift seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Whereas that gearbox is tuned to be quicker shifting and is mounted in rear transaxle style on the SLS, we actually prefer the smoother tuning on the E63; it allows the sedan to pass as a refined luxury car when you're not in attack mode, a trick the SLS doesn't manage.

In fact, keep the rotary shift map selector in C (for "Controlled Efficiency"), the adjustable dampers on the softest of the three modes and the stability control all the way on and the E63 does as good a job at luxury as any other sedan in the the Mercedes range. We actually prefer the less ostentatious E to the look-how-much-money-I-have S-class not just because we don't look like Albanian sex traffickers when we drive it, but also because the uncluttered E-class interior brings with it a certain austerity that evokes a more classic sense of luxury.

Cruising along the highway, there's nothing to indicate that you're driving a 4,300 Lbs sedan that can hit 60 MPH in just 4.4 seconds. You can't feel the 2.2-inch wider front axle, the beefed up subframe bushings or the thicker sway bars. You can feel the wider, more low profile tires and their tendency to track over road imperfections but that's not as pronounced as the sense of power the car creates in its driver.

C mode allows the engine to make use of its low-RPM torque for seamless acceleration without frequent downshifts to access the high-RPM power, something that makes barging through traffic feel like second nature. Drive the E63 on the highway and you're the master of your domain, it's faster than any car around you even though you can't hear the engine or feel the road's bumps.

Pull off the highway onto a back road, push the damper button once and switch the transmission to Sport+ (we tend to skip sport as it's an unhappy medium between relaxed and responsive) and you're suddenly driving a car that feels smaller, lighter, tauter and higher revving. Acceleration goes from seamless to kicking you in the ass and you can suddenly feel everything the road is trying to tell you. With stability fully on, you're making fast, smooth, event-free progress.

Want more fun? Try manual shifting, two lights showing on the adjustable damper button and ESP in "Sport." Like all auto transmissions the E63's is too prone to unexpected kickdown while you're pushing the limits, so shifting yourself through the steering-wheel mounted paddles eliminates that tendency and also lets you exploit the full power band without some computer deciding what's optimal. On their firmest setting, the dampers make the car respond even better and feel even smaller, while the more liberal stability control allows a couple degrees of slip, allowing you to have some fun and actually drive the car yourself, but still keeps you from plummeting over that thousand-foot cliff.

So far, so impressive. Then you get to the race track. While the E63 is still a very fast car and more than capable of easily lapping a track, the ability of the adjustable suspension, fancy gearbox and big V8 to overcome the physics of a big, heavy sedan are somewhat diminished in this environment. Unlike some competitors like the CTS-V, the E63 lacks a track-focussed stability control mode, so you're stuck with something that's either too conservative to really get the power down out of slow corners or nothing at all standing between your $1,000 a month payments and a tire wall. There's an optional performance package that bumps the speed limiter from 155 to 186 MPH, adds ceramic brakes, stiffer suspension and, much more importantly, a limited-slip differential, but while it noticeably improves the E63's ability to put its power down, you're still left with a car that's happier on road than track.

Exterior Design: ☆☆☆☆

The 2010 Mercedes E-Class is already subtly handsome thanks to its new-found boxiness and the AMG addenda — flared wheel arches, deeper front splitter, new LED running lights, badges, four square tailpipes — adds a nice sense of aggression. Anyone smart enough to tick the "Badge Delete" box gets an extra star.

Interior Design: ☆☆☆☆☆

Our favorite Mercedes interior hits all the classic Mercedes austere, squared-off, notes while adding super supportive bucket seats, a transmission-tunnel mounted gear selector and a manlier steering wheel. Make sure you spec the glass roof, the standard interior can feel a bit dark, but the extra light eliminates that. Don't choose the carbon interior accents, this isn't a tuner Integra.

Performance: ☆☆☆☆☆

Not only is the E63 fast (0-60 in 4.4 seconds, an optional top speed of 186 MPH), but it feels fast thanks to loads of torque throughout the rev range, yet a still definite peak coming in the form of top end power. The four-mode gearbox does a good job of offering drivers a range of responses and even a manual mode that gives you full control. Brakes are pop-your-eyes-out strong and we couldn't make them fade. Six figure speeds are disturbingly easy to reach and will likely become a threat to your license.

Ride: ☆☆☆☆☆

The E63 is never going to be the outright handler that smaller cars like the C63 and M3 can be thanks to their smaller size and weight. But, rather than trying to play that game it creates its own, combining ability and luxury in a hitherto unprecedented combo that sacrifices neither. It's kind of silly to expect that such a big car could be great on the track, but its so capable and fun on tight mountain roads that after driving it there you simply come to take track ability as a given. All that and it's also supple, quiet and smooth. Other cars have adjustable dampers and whatnot, but no other system offers this breadth of adjustment. The suspension didn't bottom out while landing an 80 MPH jump, which gives us loads of confidence in its ability to soak up anything else.

Toys and Tech: ☆☆☆☆

All the toys of the standard E-Class, plus all the new AMG buttons that help you alter the driving experience. We've never liked COMMAND, Mercedes' flawed attempt to copy iDrive, which is the only thing keeping the E63 from a five star rating. Somehow we always manage to turn navigation off mid-journey, then struggle to figure out how to turn it back on. Literally everything is adjustable on this car, even the speed at which the seat's bolsters inflate to support you in corners.

Value: ☆☆☆☆

Sure, with a starting price of $85,750 and the ability to tick boxes to reach a price north of $100,000, the E63 isn't cheap, but it does both speed and luxury better than much more expensive cars in the Mercedes lineup. Rather than thinking of it as an expensive E-class we like to think of it as a cheap S-class that also drives like an SL63. That's a bargain in our book.

Overall: 90%

Our favorite vehicle in the entire Mercedes lineup, the E63 makes us feel like we could be either an elderly European plutocrat or Lewis Hamilton, all depending on our mood and which buttons we push. If we had lots of money, but only the ability to by one car to satisfy all our vehicular needs, and those needs didn't include driving on a race track, this would be the car we would buy. We just wish we could afford one.

Suitability Parameters: Who Should Buy This?
● Speed Merchants
● Technogeeks
● Very Serious Businessmen
● Albanian Sex Traffickers with a need to travel incognito

Suitability Parameters: Who Shouldn't Buy This?
● Penny Pinchers
● Treehuggers
● Anyone who can squeeze into the CTS-V's tiny interior

Also Consider:

● BMW M5
● Cadillac CTS-V
● Porsche Panamera
● Audi S6

Vitals:

Model Year: 2010
Make: Mercedes
Model: E63 AMG
Trim: N/A
Price, Base/As-Tested: $85,750/$85,750
Engine: 6.2-liter 32-valve V8
Horsepower & Torque: 518 HP @ 6,800 RPM, 465 Lb-Ft @ 5,200 RPM
Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch manumatic
Curb Weight: 4,300 Lbs (est)
0-to-60: 4.4 secs (manufacturer quoted)
Top Speed: 155 MPH (limited) or optionally 186 MPH (limited)
Crash Testing, Front/Rear/Side: not tested/not tested/*****
Fuel Economy, EPA: 13/20 MPG

Expect the Convertible to share Coupe's V6 and 388 HP V8 engines and its uninspiring driving dynamics. While the new E-Class Sedan is a welcome return to Mercedes values of old, the Coupe feels and, inside at least, looks cheap. Still desperate to own one? You'll have to wait till early 2010 for the privilege. [via CarScoop]

I stopped by a couple of my local self-service wrecking yards yesterday, just to see what new and interesting clunkerization victims I might find. Not long ago, we saw a glut of clunkicided Japanese luxury machines, and now it's Mercedes-Benz's turn. This is just a small sampling of the dozens of big Benzes with the telltale pink paint on the engines. You want really nice body and interior parts for your spared-from-clunkdown Mercedes? Come on down!

Just for fun, let's price a few more of the cars we see here (2009 dollars in parentheses).
1990 560SEL: $73,800 ($121,871)
1988 260E: $37,250 ($64,837)
1988 300TE: $46,980 ($85,713)

The big lift took a crane and a team of riggers, as well as a lot of short video cuts and generically corporate instrumental tunes. It's cute how they left the cars gullwing doors open for the entire "flight."

[Mercedes-Benz Passion]

The root of the problem seems more to do with the occasional vagueness of the English language more than in any outright lie. The Mercedes ad states "CO2  emissions for the range are down to 139g/km*, which means its better for the environment." The asterisk points out this only applies to the E-Class sedan with a small diesel engine and manual transmission, as the range for C02 emissions actually goes up to 261 g/km with different configurations. Out of 24 possible engine/wheel/transmission/bodystyle possibilities only two were as low as 139 g/km.

According to ASA, "We concluded that the body copy of the  ad misleadingly implied that the  whole E-Class Saloon range had emissions of 139 g/kg or similar and the claim was likely to mislead."

Mercedes argues they ensured that the claims could be substantiated, and they are, but ASA disagreed and have said the ad can no longer appear in the current form. What do you think? Does this ad cross the line or is this just another example of British speech laws being overly burdensome?

You can read the full complaint here. Here is a transcript of the copy:

"CO2  emissions for the range are down to 139g/km*, which means its better for the environment.  It also means you pay less tax.  And theres something else thats lower than youd expected as well.  The price."  The asterisk linked to a footnote which stated "CO2 emissions: 139-261/km ... Based on E250 CDI SE manual available at launch.  Model shown is a Mercedes-Benz E250 CDI Sport.

[Image via EasyCarBlog]

See, if you're serious about Porsches- and what Porsche zealot isn't?- you want a book about Ferdinand Porsche, the father of the brand, to pack some heft! You'll need a level of detail that's so overwhelmingly, in fact alarmingly, obsessive that you'll learn something new on every page.

This is such a book. Nearly 500 pages, a bonanza of Über-Geeky technical details (ever wonder how Ferdinand managed to make the connecting-rod arrangement work in a W9 aircraft engine in 1917?), and eleventy-million vintage photographs. On top of that, you get eight gorgeous, porn-grade foldout color pages with cutaway illustrations by artist Wolfgang Franke, featuring such machines as the 1922 Austro-Daimler ADS-R and the 1936 Auto Union C-Type. This thing- which weighs about as much as a manhole cover- is definitely one of the most beautiful car books I've ever seen, and it will make the other car books on your coffee table look like Go, Dog Go.

But hey, now that I've mentioned Porsche's role in designing the Auto Union race cars, we've got to address the most troubling aspect of Genesis Of Genius: its treatment of Ferdinand's activities once Hitler and the National Socialist Party came to power. Here's what we get on that subject: deafening silence. The narrative reaches the early 1930s and then… starts… treading… very… carefully… among… the… land mines. For example, the Auto Union racers were pure propaganda tools for the Third Reich, just like their athletes in the '36 Olympics- surely Porsche had some comments on the subject at the time? Not in this book. As Ludvigsen states in the preface: "This account of Ferdinand Porsche's career stops short of detailed description of the well-known achievements that some consider his greatest, the Auto Union racer and the Volkswagen. Thus we've characterized these years as the Genesis Of Genius." A cop-out? Sure! Perhaps acceptable in a straight-up wank job of a book aimed at the most devoted of single-interest car geeks, but we're dealing with a high-quality, obsessively researched and well-executed biography here and such omissions say something- is ominous too strong a word?- about the author's expectations of his readership.

So, because I'm an elitist biography snob who gets offended when the subject's warts get airbrushed out (I'm reading this book at the moment), I'm going to deduct a rod from the highest possible 5-rod rating (in honor of the Mercedes-Benz OM617) and give this book four rods. Murilee says check it out!

Images reprinted with permission from Ferdinand Porsche—Genesis of Genius by Karl Ludvigsen, © Bentley Publishers, all rights reserved.
[Bentley Publishers]

Once again, the amazing Scroggs has come through with some excellent vintage racing footage, and he's also found this highly interesting article about AMG's early racing efforts for us. That's good news, because I'm off judging the Lamest Day 24 Hours Of LeMons in Ohio at the moment and may not have internet access to provide live coverage; this way you still get to see an improbable race car going for the win in a punishing endurance race:

You can tell that Porsche and Mercedes-Benz were just itching to start showing triple-digit speeds and tire smoke in their ads when Ronald Reagan finally 86'd those Malaise Era restrictions on hoonage in car ads. Sorry, Audi fans, we'll have to find some good vintage ads for you next time (though there is an Audi 4000 ad mixed in at the end of one of the Porsche commercials).
When you're done here, you might enjoy our favorite Datsun ads, then continue with our top Toyota, Renault, General Motors, British Leyland, Ford/Lincoln/Mercury, Honda, Citroën, AMC/Jeep, and Chevrolet ads.

1984 Porsche 928S	1994 Porsche 944	1988 Porsche 928S4
1980 Porsche 924	1987 Mercedes-Benz 190	1986 Mercedes-Benz 190
1998 BMW M5	1981 BMW 315	1988 BMW 5 Series

What was it? Ferrari 360 Modena
How Fast? 130 MPH
What happened? The moron driver was showing off for his girlfriend in France when he lost control and hit power posts, splitting the car in two. Amazingly, both survived the accident.

What was it? BMW 528i
How Fast? 135 MPH
What happened? This is what happens when a tire blows at high speeds. The car rolled, eventually coming to a stop by way of a concrete pillar.

What was it? Mercedes Benz SLK
How Fast?135 MPH
What happened? There's not much left of an open-topped SLK after it hit a tree in Germany at speed.

What was it? Chevrolet Corvette C5
How Fast? 140 MPH
What happened? Despite being a high performance car, taking a Corvette up to 140 MPH on a Texas highway is a recipe for disaster, as evidenced here.

What was it? TVR T350C
How Fast? 140 MPH
What happened? This South African crash is pretty brutal. The driver lost control at 140 MPH, hit a concrete barrier, and smashed into an overpass. You know a crash is violent when even the wheels are shattered.

What was it? Lamborghini Murcielago
How Fast? 150 MPH
What happened? After owning the car for six days, this Egyptian driver decided to take it out to the desert and go for broke. Broke is what he got when a truck cut him off and he rolled the car, though he did make it out alive.

What was it? Ferrari Enzo
How Fast? 160 MPH
What happened? The driver in this crash wasn't so lucky and died after crashing at 160 MPH, spreading the car out over a huge debris field in Italy.

What was it? Mercedes McLaren SLR
How Fast? 165 MPH
What happened? The SLR's 22 year old Qatari driver was showing off for his passenger when he lost control, rolling the car into the desert. This one was also fatal.

Head over to Wrecked Exotics for the two fastest supercar accidents on the list. One you've probably not seen and another you're definitely familiar with. [Wrecked Exotics]

The crash happened Sunday when the two morons organized a race on public streets and the SLR driver just couldn't hack it. The car crashed in spectacular fashion, sending four individuals to the hospital after destroying as many as four other cars. The driver of the Ferrari fled the scene but eventually turned himself in. To make things even more stupid, it seems the McLaren driver had a kid in the car, but our Polish is rusty and software translation hasn't quite mastered the subtleties of the Polish language. In any case, this is a big box of stupid wrapped up in stupid paper and tied together with a stupid bow. (Hat tip to Lukasz!) [TVN (translated)]

That's not really true, because I find them in junkyards with depressing regularity, but Alameda still has plenty of nice examples. I thought I'd go shoot this one in the neighborhood in which I grew up.

I could probably find a dozen of these things on the island in one afternoon, if that ever seemed necessary, and most of them would be in pretty good shape. In 1977, your new 450SL came with a 180-horsepower 4.5 liter V8- exactly the same power as the '77 Corvette's 350. The Benz weighed 3,670 pounds versus the Corvette's 3,448 pounds and cost $21,943 (about 78 grand in 2009 dollars) against the Vette's $8,648 ($30K today). I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the Mercedes-Benz probably had the edge in the build quality and technical sophistication departments, but would you rather have had two Corvettes (with bonus Camaro) or one R107 back then?


Of course, no discussion of a 1977 Mercedes-Benz 450SL is complete without watching Marshal Lucky blow it to kingdom come! Yessir!