Anyone own any Exotic cars?

I remember the 404s as well, but not in the same league as a Mercedes, the MB was
made of
Unobtanium in middle class Norway, expect the taxi version, which was popular with the driver's and taxi owner's.

It is, but far enough over the top to be almost funny..

Stepping back to Porsche for just a moment...

The Cayman GT4 RS just set a new 'Ring record: 7:03.121 (which is only 1 second off the 918 Spyder's record...a car with 875 hp, 944 lbf⋅ft of torque, and all wheel drive)

Wow, got dizzy from watching that..
What kind of tranny on those track cars? Electric operated manual, or a combo manumatic something?
Either way, lots of testosterone behind that kind of driving, or adrenaline rush junkies taking those jobs?
(Not sure what clip was about: A factory driver testing the a new model, or race car driver doing his best to set a new record time?)
Nice driving though..

The 718 in the video is a street legal car, not just a track car. The Manthey Racing package used for the record run will be available as an option from your local dealership.

The transmission is a PDK, or "Porsche-Doppelkupplungsgetriebe"... Basically their version of the now common dual-clutch transmission, a manual gearbox architecture with electronically actuated clutches.

The driver in the video was Jorg Bergmeister, retired Porsche factory driver, 2 time Lemans winner, Daytona 24 winner, etc. A dab hand behind the wheel, no doubt.

Small world, we both have time on the 504's and the 604's.
We also flew airplanes on St. Barths in the 80s and we were both Captains on the Johnson 70 FlyBridge boats in Florida 15-18 years ago.

No doubt Jorg is talented behind the wheel: Just getting to retirement after a lifetime of fast driving is a good thing.
I read the biography of Jackie Stewart 25 years ago and admired his accomplishments and talents and dare I say Luck..?
Many good drivers ran out of luck and never got to retire regardless of skills and talent. R.I.P. to those drivers.
As far as this 718 Cayman GT4 video, no traffic: He was the only soul on the track
and rented the whole circuit to try for a new solo record?

Tesla has also been there trying to beat the previous track times if memory serves right.
Looks like Porsche is still King of the Hill?

Record attempts are done on a closed circuit. They also have vehicle scrutineering and are notarized.

They've got the top EV time, but at 7:25.231 they are 57th on the overall list, almost 55 seconds off the top time of 6:30.705 set by the Merc-AMG One.

The list is an interesting one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nürburgring_Nordschleife_lap_times

Personally, I'd say the Porsche 911 GT2 RS has the top "production" car times, because there's no way in the world you can ever convince me that the AMG One powered by an F1 engine is a "production" car.

I learned recently that in the USA a Mercedes Benz has long been referred to as "a benz". I the rest of the world it is referred to as a "merc".
Is this accurate? Is this because we have Mercury in the US?

https://www.motortrend.com/features/hirohata-merc-mecum-auctions-kissimmee-2022/

Todays Mercedes company was founded in the late 19th century as two independent companies. One company was founded by Gottlieb Daimler and the other one by Carl Benz. Gottlieb Daimler had a Dealer in Austria, Emil Jellinek. He asked Gottlieb Daimler to built a special car for him.



He asked Gottlieb Daimler to name this car after his daughter Mercédès Adrienne Ramona Manuela Jellinek. In the year 1900, this was the first Daimler Mercedes. A 35 HP monster at that time .

Wenn both companies merged, the company was called Daimler-Benz and later Mercedes-Benz. Today, the company is called the Mercedes-Benz Group with several independent sub companies like Mercedes Trucks and Mercedes Busses. And I am sure, that will not be the last name change of that uge company. The whole thing is in my eyes only tax saving BS and profit maximization. Sorry I got driven away again but I am involved as a shareholder in that BS. My lawyers are making a fortune on dealing with that matter for me.

HTMO9

But do folks call it a Merc for short nickname?

The abriviation Merc is not used in Germany. Never heard of it. The nickname here is the "Mercer". We always had Mercedes cars in the family. My first family car while still being an young married Navy / later Air Force Officer and Jet Pilot with 4 children, was a Mercedes 240 TD (Diesel) with 72 HP. Build in 1978. This grocery getter was the optimum car for me at that time. It was a 7-seater, with a rearward facing twin seat for two children in the cargo compartement. With my wife and me and most of the time my mother-in-law plus four children, I had no alternative besides a bus. But Mercedes had no adequat bus at that time.



Later I got my second car, a Mercedes G 240 GD, also with a 72 HP diesel engine, Build 1979. Also a 7-seater with two single outboard seats in the cargo compartement. A real troop carrier .



These were the most luxury cars, I could afford at that time with my salary as a young officer and my late wifes income as a paediatrician. Today, after I have been forced to take over the family businesses by circumstances in the family, I still have the same type of cars in my own family, an E class 400 TD and a G class 400 GD. But of course for business, I have something bigger. But these cars are driven by my driver and the old man sits in the back. Too bad the big long wheelbase S-Class Mercedes / Maybach cars are really built around the right rear seat. It is the most comfortable and relaxing position one could have in a car .

The old 240 TD station wagon has meanwhile corroded to death but my initial 240 GD is still in my collection of hystorical cars. And believe it or not, it is still road worthy with more than 370.000 km on the counter and the first engine in it.

Sorry Kevin, the only Porsche, I ever had, is the Porsche Diesel Tractor, I had shown before. 1 Zylinder, 14 HP.

I think the "Merc" abbreviation comes from England/UK. I've seen it in plenty of the British mags (evo, Car, etc) which is where I picked it up. Like you were saying earlier, in North America "Merc" is short for Mercury... though they no longer exist, so we can move the nickname onto Mercedes now.

Classy Car.
For some reason I like station wagons more, much more than sedans and SUVs, and these days, more than coupes and convertibles, but have owned all of the above
many times over. (As a youngster one was attracted to sporty and fast cars due to testosterone and adrenaline, nowadays in small doses only)

Station wagons, estate cars, shooting brakes... love 'em all.

Sadly, with the rise of the SUV and subsequent crossover, they've all but disappeared from North American roads. The Euro brands still occasionally grace us with something nice, but they're so rare here because everyone defaults to "truck" whether they need one or not.

Ever heard of this Mercedes Gullwing?



The famous Mercedes C 111. Initially a testbed for future technologies more than 50 years ago.



They testet Wankel Engines on it (the first 3 Disk Wankel Engine and a Wankel Turbo Diesel Engine). And they had several different conventionell Diesel engine testet in it. That's the point where Mercedes introduced the Turbo Diesel in their production cars. Please note the different external designs, caused by the different engines and drive trains.



That car was one of my dreams as a school boy. The C111 was never ment as a production car but a few of those testbeds came on the market later. Pretty expensive now and almost impossible to buy. But at an age of 18, the only thing I could afford, was an old 34 HP, VW Beetle.

Definitely seeing some Lamborghini influence in that Merc... Miura up front, Urraco/Espada out back.

Speaking of Mercedes, @HTMO9 what do you think of their recent decision to make certain performance parameters available only through a yearly subscription?

That is not a world I want to live in. Things like that will only continue to drive up prices of older models without the tomfoolery.