mercedes & bmw

AMG started off by designing and testing racing engines. It expanded its business into building road cars based upon standard Mercedes cars.custom

AMG initially produced a range of unofficial upgrade and accessories packages mainly for the

During the early 80's and up until 1985, AMG offered a variety of engine performance packages, alloy wheels and styling products.

Typical AMG performance enhancements, which could all be custom ordered by the buyer, included increased engine displacements (5.2 liter, 5.4 liter), performance top ends which included port and polished heads/intake, lightened valvetrain and more aggressive cams. The DOHC 32V engine had also just been developed and was the pinnacle of AMG performance. Even a very rare Getrag 5-speed manual transmission could be ordered from AMG which Mercedes had not offered a manual transmission V8 since the early 70's.

The performance wheels offered during the same period were 15" or 16" ats AMG Five Spoke Road Wheels, commonly referred to as Pentas. Penta was actually a UK based company that supplemented the high demand for this wheel at the time with only a very slight styling difference. The AMG wheels were often coupled with an AMG performance suspension package which included uprated/lowered springs and revalved shock absorbers.

Another popular cosmetic upgrade was the AMG body kits. These ranged from subtle front spoilers, to an aggressive Wide Body kits for the W126 coupes. Other options included recaro seats, smaller diameter steering wheels, instrument clusters, chrome delete option (all brightworks color coded or painted satin black), refrigerators, shift knobs, hi-fi stereo systems, custom upholstery and enhanced interior wood packages.

The release of the AMG Hammer sedan in 1986, based on the w124aclass took AMG's performance modifications for a fast compact sedan to a new level. AMG made the world's fastest passenger sedan at the time, nicknamed the Hammer,4 by squeezing Mercedes 5.6-liter V8 tuned by AMG to 360 hp into a midsized sedan. It was very aggressive for the era, with 32-valve cylinder heads and twin camshafts, and said to be faster than the from 60 to 120 mph. Later models were even more powerful and introduced the 17" AMG Aero 1 Hammer wheels. 1986 was also the year Mercedes introduced the 560 M117 engine. This provided yet another opportunity for customers to order the largest AMG displacement available at the time, the 6L 100mm bore SOHC or DOHC engines available for both the W126 coupe and sedans.

Through the early 2000s, AMG focused principally on engines, but the company officially abandoned this technology in 2006 with the introduction of the . On 16 January 2006, Mercedes-AMG Chairman Volker Mornhinweg told that the company would use for higher output rather than supercharging

Although there were some AMG models in the 1980s with manual transmissions, almost all recent models have used automatics ( and later with Speedshift), in contrast to bmw which used manuals and recently (the current type being a ). Starting in 2009, however, AMG began adopting the dual clutch transmission

In October 2008 the team confirmed that they would stick with robert and nick their drivers for the 2009season.

Although BMW Sauber targeted the 2009 season as the year they would challenge for the title, their start to the season has been a disappointment. Kubica was in 3rd place in the opininground when he collided with Vettel while battling for 2nd place and was forced to retire. Heidfeld then secured the team's first podium of the year malaysia after 6 races BMW Sauber had collected a mere 6 points, and occupied 8th place in the Constructors' Championship out of 10 teams. A raft of upgrades were set for turkey including an improved braking system (KERS) and a double deck diffuser. While the new diffuser was implemented, the KERS could not be made to fit the new car and both drivers raced without the device. After the qualifying session for the birith Theissen announced that the team had decided to halt further development KERS; of which BMW had been one of the strongest proponents, and focus instead on improving the car's aerodynamics. This left Ferrari and McLaren as the only remaining users of the KERS system. In eurobean.grand.prixat Valencia robert.kubcia the team's first points since the race in Turkey.

Following a meeting of the BMW board on July 28, the company held at press conference the following morning in which it confirmed the team's withdrawal from Formula One at the end of 2009. Chairman Dr norbet.rethhofer the decision as a strategic one. The formula,onec.team released a statement in response pledging its support to help the team remain in F1.^]

On 15 September 2009 it was announced that BMW Sauber had secured a buyer limited be a shell company However lotus racsing had been given the 13th and final slot in the 2010. The team were awarded what was termed a 14th entry, which hinges either on another team dropping out or all the other teams agreeing to allow 28 cars to enter the 2010 Championship

The roof design developed by Mercedes-Benz consists of a folding steel hard top which is divided in half along an axis at right angles to the direction of travel. Both halves are linked by a kinematic mechanism which is locked securely when the roof is closed. At the touch of a button on the centre console, a hydraulic system with five cylinders controls the fully automatic folding process in which the boot lid is also integrated. It opens by tipping to the rear so that the two roof halves have sufficient freedom of movement to pivot backwards as the vario-roof opens; the roof sections then position themselves one on top of the other, and disappear into the boot. If the roof is to be closed, the same sequence of movements is performed in reverse order. The hydraulic system stows the vario-roof in the upper section of the boot. A plastic roller blind separates it from the luggage space below, an area with a capacity of 145 litres in the first-generation SLK. With the vario-roof closed, the load volume increased to a substantial 348 litres (12.3 cu ft). Two fixed roll-over bars behind the seats worked with the particularly strong A-pillars to form an integrated system offering a high degree of roll-over protection