Re: Mercedes M-class (No Audi Content)

[Peter Henriksen <peterhe@microsoft.com>]

(How do you spell that "you're wrong"-sound from game shows?)

Anyway, the latest issue of CAR has a full writeup on Mercedes'
reintroduction of the A class (same car, right?) after all the modifications
they had to make. According to CAR, it's now incredibly more stable than
you'd believe from a car of those proportions.

Mercedes put much bigger tires on it (someting like 175/65 to 195/50),
fitted ESP (Merc's fancy electronic stability kit) and made some other
suspension changes to fix the problem. Somebody pointed out that given the
right circumstances, any car can be made to flip over. Some just do it
easier than others (like the original A class cars...). There's also
something in the CAR article about the frequency of the turns required in
the "moose avoidance" test having been exactly that (or one of the ones)
where the A class was most vulnerable.

Interesting article, all in all. Mercedes was very un-Merc like at the
re-introduction, even trying to demonstrate that they do in fact have a
sense of humour by making everything moose related (name tags, little cuddly
moose for all etc. etc.). Hm.

- peter, peterhe@microsoft.com, http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/1001
  98 volvo v70 t5 - 5-speed
  94 acura legend gs - 6-speed!


------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 23:53:47 +0200
From: "Jouko Haapanen" <joukoh@vtoy.fi>
Subject: Re: Mercedes M-class (No Audi Content)

Wrong again...the Smart microcar production has not started this spring as
planned, and will start at the earliest, if ever, this fall.  The car failed
the moose-avoidance test in Mercedes-Benz engineers' own hands, and better
yet, reports of the car doing end-over-ends, nose first during high-speed
braking tests finally led to the relocation of most engineers involved.  I
don't believe that any outsiders have fully been allowed to test one of
these phonebooths on wheels.  Automotive News Europe reported that the car
will get substantially longer wheelbase and wider track befor it goes into
production.  Yeah, that'll be the day...

Jouko Haapanen