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Mercedes-Benz World is a new facility at the historic Brooklands circuit in Surrey, UK and it is celebrating it's first birthday on November 3-4, it opened in October 2006. MB will be unveiling the brand new Silver Arrows AMG Display Team, who will be giving their first public performance of breathtaking handling skills. << MORE HERE >>

Limited in quantity, the 1988 300E AMG Hammer is a rare find. Built by Mercedes-Benz and modified by AMG prior to the merger. The 3.0-litre 177-hp 6-cylinder 300E originally sold for $39,000 (W124 body style). For $17,000, AMG would replace that 3-litre unit with the 5.5-litre V8 from the 560 SEC after adding 32-valve cylinder heads and twin camshafts. During 1988, additional options included:

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The 57th Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance names Duesenberg SJ Special (also known as the Mormon Meteor) Best of Show. Classic Cars from 12 Countries and throughout the U.S. were showcased during the competition:

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (Aug. 19, 2007) – The 18th fairway of Pebble Beach Golf Links® hosted some of the world’s rarest vintage vehicles and thousands of spectators Sunday at the 57th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The Concours competition, which included judging in 24 classes, culminated when a 1935 Duesenberg SJ Special, owned by Harry Yeaggy from Cincinnati, Ohio, was named “Best of Show.”
<< Full Press Release Here >>
Photos can be found here.

McCluggage received the Mercedes-Benz Star Driver Award: Denise McCluggage was recognized with the Star Driver award at the Mercedes-Benz's annual dinner at Pebble Beach. She is the only journalist in the Automotive Hall of Fame. The LA Times has a brief news piece here.

Autoblog has a few pics of the 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster with Mayfair bodywork sold at the RM Auction.

The South African Star has a nice piece on the S63 AMG:

Break Free to Dream
The S63 AMG has big shoes to fill, but it's the stuff of which legends are made, writes Brendan Seery

August 18, 2007: Back in the 1970s, the staid Daimler Benz company, purveyors of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, produced a hooligan hot rod which was cloaked in the metal of its 300SE series. Only the small "6.3" badge at the back gave any indication of its muscle. << MORE BREAK FREE TO DREAM >>

The Most Dangerous Deal in America
If you like Wall Street reading, Daniel Roth's well written article in the Sept. 2007 issue of Conde Nast, Portfolio.com, provides a look inside the secretive world of Cerberus Capital­­­—and why its plan to save Chrysler spooks Wall Street. Read about Cerberus Capital and their CEO, Stephen Feinberg. Here's an excerpt:

Stephen Feinberg currently sits on top of a collection of companies that employs roughly 250,000 people and generates annual revenue of more than $120 bil­lion. If you added them all up, they would form the ninth-largest business in the U.S., with sales greater than those of Pfizer, Microsoft, and United Airlines combined. Feinberg runs multiple private equity and hedge funds under the Cerberus umbrella, and these have produced outsize returns, consistently beating the performance of rival funds.

Remember the 1978 Mercedes 350 SLC AMG LeMans Car? AMG only built two of these cars and one is owned by Mercedes-AMG. It appears the other car is up for sale but is this car for real? According to the folks at "Bring a Trailer" it is!

 
1978 Mercedes 350 SLC AMG LeMans Car
August 4, 2007: Bringatrailer.com claims they were contacted by the seller in Germany who has informed them that this car is still available. The owner will have the car at the Oldtimer Grand Prix at the Nuerburgring and the car will be available immediately after the event.

MBUSA has a few press releases out for the C-Class. Visit the following "For Wheels" site for a nice post on the C-Class Estate (C63 AMG Estate):

Mercedes-Benz W204 C-Class Wagon

Looking much like a scaled down version of the Mercedes-Benz R-Class, these are some images of the upcoming C-Class Estate, set to debut at the Frankfurt International Motorshow 2007.

MBUSA and DaimlerChrysler Global Media both provide news releases on a regular basis. Here's a quick summary of the current news:

DaimlerChrysler Closes Transaction on Transfer of Majority Interest in Chrysler to Cerberus
Stuttgart, Aug 3, 2007 - DaimlerChrysler completed the closing for the transfer of a majority interest in the Chrysler Group and for the related financial services business in NAFTA to a subsidiary of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., a private-equity company based in New York.
[AMG Market note: Extraordinary shareholders' meeting to decide on change of name on October 4, 2007.]

Mercedes-Benz Reports 18,586 New Vehicle Sales for July
MONTVALE, N.J. – Aug 1, 2007 - Mercedes-Benz USA reported sales of 18,586 new vehicles for July, bringing the company’s year-to-date total to 136,826 units, a 0.2 percent increase compared to the same period last year and marking the best year-to-date sales volume in its history.

With significant boosts in sales for both the S-Class and CL-Class (12.9 percent and 561.5 percent increases respectively), highlights for July sales include a 12 percent increase in sales of Mercedes-Benz high-end vehicles (S-, SL-, and CL-Classes) as a group.  SUVs also showed growth, with the company’s highly acclaimed M-Class model line’s 23 percent increase (3,015 vs. 2,446 units) for the month. 

Drew Slaven Appointed General Manager, Marketing Services for MBUSA
MONTVALE, N.J. – July 26, 2007 - Mercedes-Benz USA announced the appointment of Drew Slaven to the new position of general manager, marketing services for MBUSA, effective immediately. << MORE >>

AMG Market Note: If you know of a company that would like to promote their products and services on our AMG Mercedes-Benz websites, blogs and newsletter, please let us know or have them contact us. Given the popularity of our AMG blogs are now consistently in the top Google search results for AMG Mercedes-Benz, we are adding a limited number of new sponsors.

Mercedes-Benz announced that their marketing promo "Mixed Tape" - free MP3 files anyone can download - is coming to an end in its current format. The current and last release, Mixed Tape 18, is a compilation of all-time favorites from previous releases.

If you're an avid Mixed Tape fan, you likely have all of the MP3 songs on this final release. Here's the promo I rec'd yesterday:

The cream of the crop: Mixed Tape 18 with 10 all-time favourites from the popular compilation series

All good things come to an end – Mixed Tape 18 will be the last compilation in its current guise. To sweeten the blow, we have compiled a very special best-of edition featuring 10 highlights from our well-stocked archives – available free of charge at www.mercedes-benz.com/mixedtape.

A delectable distillate of our most promising talents, Mixed Tape 18 throws a spotlight on Norway (R&B singer Kristin Hild), New Zealand (dub producer Tubbs remixed by legendary compatriots Fat Freddy’s Drop), Germany (pop wonders Wagner Love) and the UK (singer/songwriter Bev Lee Harling) to celebrate the wealth of young artists around the world who pursue their own visions. And while this trip to the past marks the end of a popular format, it paves the way for future innovations. Join us in the forum to discuss the next generation of Mixed Tape, scheduled for an autumn relaunch.

Enjoy the mix!

Your Mercedes-Benz Team
www.mercedes-benz.com/mixedtape

During the course of this Mercedes-Benz marketing promo hundreds of free MP3 songs were released. Unfortunately, you can't download previous releases but search on the web and you might find someone providing access to all of the MP3 files. Enjoy!

Mercedes-Benz is the Marque of the Year for the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, which is a vintage race and an extensive car show in Pennsylvania. This year, the Mercedes-Benz Club is hosting StarTrack 2007:

Pittsburgh Section

Pittsburgh Section of Mercedes-Benz Club of America is pleased to host StarTrack 2007. In addition to StarTrack 2007, Mercedes-Benz is also the Marque of the Year for the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. Please read the explanation of fees below. We expect a strong showing from the 190SL Group, Gullwing Group and Pagoda Group as we celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the 300SL Roadster. Pittsburgh Section has planned a full four days of events for concours and driving. Please join us as we celebrate and raise money for the PVGP charities!

 

Basic Schedule

The StarTrack Concours d’Elegance will be held in Schenley Park on Sunday July 15 as part of the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. Vintage racecars race through the park as we watch them from our show area. Sunday night we will enjoy the StarTrack Black Tie Banquet (black tie is optional) at the Embassy Suites. Monday and Tuesday we move to BeaveRun Motorsports Park for time trials, defensive driving, autocross, and acceleration run. Experienced driving instructors will be available to assist you and help you in all driving events. We will have classes for all levels of abilities and vehicles so you can drive at your comfort level.  Please see the details on technical inspection and helmet requirements on the MBCA website under Rulebook.

StarTrack Sunday participants are welcome and encouraged to attend the Saturday PVGP Marque of the Year Show at no additional charge.

 

Please note that the parade lap scheduled for Sunday morning by the PVGP is subject to time change based on racetrack availability. We will get the lap on Sunday morning but what time is beyond the control of Pittsburgh Section. Therefore we may not be able to accommodate concours cars on the parade lap. Those who place their cars early for concours are encouraged to ride along with other members in this unique MBCA parade.

 

Please register as soon as possible. On-site registration will be accepted, but not all participation options and meals may be available to late registrations.  Your early registration will be appreciated. Please note that your MBCA membership must be current at the time of registration.

 

MERCEDES-BENZ CLUB STARTRACK

Pittsburgh Section Officers, directors, and members are excited to host StarTrack 2007 and are ready to assure that you will enjoy the event. Please contact us with any questions.

 

Bob Speer                 412-848-1149             respeer@comcast.net

Dave Fabyonic        724-327-7361             davidfab@usa.net

 

Please check the Pittsburgh Section Website for updates: www.mbcapitt.org

Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management is purchasing a controlling stake in the Chrysler division of DaimlerChrysler, which is selling 80 percent of the Chrysler Group for $7.4 billion. The financial genius' at Daimler purchased Chrysler for $36 billion in 1998.

The following is a summary of the deal from DaimlerChrysler.com:

• Affiliate of Cerberus to acquire 80.1% equity interest in new company Chrysler Holding LLC; DaimlerChrysler AG to retain 19.9%
• Obligations for pensions and healthcare costs to be retained by Chrysler companies
• Transaction expected to result in net cash outflow of EUR 0.5 billion for DaimlerChrysler
• DaimlerChrysler’s net profit according to IFRS in 2007 to be reduced in a range of EUR 3-4 billion
• Equity ratio of DaimlerChrysler’s industrial business is expected to be over 40% by the beginning of 2008
• Extraordinary Shareholders’ Meeting to decide on change of name to Daimler AG
• DaimlerChrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche on the realignment of DaimlerChrysler AG: "We will be the leading manufacturer of premium vehicles and a provider of premium services in every market segment we serve worldwide."
• UAW President Ron Gettelfinger: "The transaction with Cerberus is in the best interests of our UAW members, the Chrysler Group and Daimler."
• Cerberus Capital Management Chairman John Snow: "Cerberus believes in the inherent strength of U.S. manufacturing and of the U.S. auto industry. Most importantly, we believe in Chrysler."

More info is available at DaimlerChrysler.com here.

Finding a mansion built specifically for a car collection isn't easy - but they do exist. A unique mansion built to display 18 cars is for sale in beautiful Kingsmill, which is located in Williamsburg, VA (USA). For a cool $2.4 million it can be yours.

This car enthusiast's dream home was built by Jack Dunn. Tragically, Jack died in an automobile accident and his estate is being sold. Jack was a member of the Virginia Section of the Mercedes-Benz Club and other automobile clubs.

VeloceToday has a detailed story of the mansion here for those interested.