I’ve long been an advocate of the less-is-more maxim when it comes to sports cars and AMG-fettled Mercs have always been the antithesis of this approach. Big cars, massive power, massive weight. I’ve only once driven one, an SLK 55 (1500 Kg, 360 HP and 0-60 in 4.9 seconds). It was like the scene in Dr. Stranglove where Major Kong rides a nuke to his spectacular demise: epic power but not a jot of delicacy. While the car was highly capable, I always felt I was fighting a losing battle against the massive lump of an engine over the front wheels.
So the news that AMG is dropping out of the power wars and is going to focus on reducing weight, emissions and fuel consumption made me very pleased. There just isn’t room for cars like the manic SL 65 Black (1900kg, 661bhp and 0-60 in 3.8 seconds) any more although they serve as a pretty fabulous swan song. We’re going to have to relearn to appreciate the more delicate pleasures of light weight and lower power outputs.
I don’t expect AMG to start producing German Elises over night, but there’s hope that a more subtle type of fun might be possible in the merga-Mercs of the future. The latest Lotus Elise SC, incidentally, achieves the same 0-60 time as the SLK 55 but with only 190bhp. Must have something to do with weiging only 910Kgs…
What say you? Are you happy to see the age of 500HP family wagons pass? Or will their absence leave a 7.0l hole in your soul?
Autocar – AMG ends horsepower war found via Autoblog
Never has one brand been so irrelevant and downright disingenuous as Hummer. Their product is not clever, it is not well made and it’s not even attractive (sometimes a saving grace for me). The news that production of the H2 is being stopped for a minimum of 2 months had me almost jumping for joy. Lets hope the minimum is just that and I never again have to see one of these things sitting in a dealership waiting for some prig to buy it.
If I were GM, would I offload Hummer? No, I’d turn it arse-about-tit and make it into a vanguard of sustainable, all-terrain transport. Will it happen? Not bloody likely…
Jalopnik: Carpocalypse Now: Hummer H2 Plant Halts Production.
In a recent post I remarked on my love for reusing and repurposing as a way to maintain or reduce our environmental footprint. Well, avid reader Moose reminded me of a project I’d read about a while back called LincVolt.
Started by Neil Young (yes, that Neil Young), the project aims to get over 100mpg (2.3 l/100) out of Neil’s ’59 Lincoln Continental. No easy task considering the car is 5.8 meters long and weighs close to 2.3 tons.
What’s really interesting is that the team behind the car are taking the pure hybrid approach of having motivation provided solely by an electric motor with a compressed natural gas (CNG) generator to top up the batteries as they deplete. This is similar to the path that Chevy is taking with the Volt and what Toyota should have done with the new Prius.
I’m totally wowed by the work these guys have done and hope that they have success at the Automotive X Prize for 100 mpg vehicles. I just wish they were working with the sublime Engel-penned ’61 Conti, not the bloated ’59…
Not Neil Young's '59 Conti
