Talk about a surprise announcement… I sat down this morning with my usual cup of espresso thinking it’d be another slow day in the land of Mercedes news, when lo and behold, Mercedes has laid all the speculation to rest and unveiled to the world the new SLR McLaren Roadster. Needless to say, it’s a an exquisitely beautiful vehicle (at least when its top is down), sharing the same styling as its coupe counterpart but featuring a fully-retractable top. One question pondered by many before today was whether the SLR Roadster would maintain it’s unique butterfly doors, and thankfully, it has. Other than that, not much has changed from the traditional SLR…

Hardly the crown jewel of the Mercedes lineup, AutoTelegraaf is speculating today as to what the future holds for the impoverished R-Class. According to the publication, changes to to the model could include the addition of a rear-wheel drive variant to the lineup, seating for seven (as opposed to the current seating for six), redesigned exterior (which is a given assuming production of the model continues), and last but not least, the removal of the R63 AMG from the R-Class family.

Yesterday marked the start of a new month, and as we all know, that means it’s time for everyone’s favorite: month-end sales figures. Unfortunately for Mercedes-Benz USA, things were a bit gloomy, with sales of Mercedes’ U.S. division dropping 1.8 percent to 20,895 new units (compared to 21,270 in April 2006). Despite the decrease, year-to-date sales at MBUSA are still at the record high of 76,880 new units, a six percent increase when compared to 2006’s four month YTD total.

To those of you confined to a desk job looking for a way to make the hours go a bit quicker, here’s a pair of videos to eat up a few minutes of your work day. The first provides a first person look at what it would be like to pilot a Lamborghini Gallardo head-to-head against a Mercedes CLK DTM AMG at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, while the second depicts the made-for-Gotham Maybach Exelero hitting a top speed of about 218 mph.

It’s been a fairly busy past couple of days for Mercedes reviews, with a total of six publications weighing in with their thoughts on how one of MB’s various models performed. More specifically, the 2007 CL-Class range, the 2008 C-Class range, the 2007 CLK63 AMG, the 2007 SL550 and the 2007 SLK350 were all put their paces. This of course means it time for yet another ‘Review Roundup’ segment, and in my typical Review Roundup fashion, I have included links to each review, along with tidy descriptions of each, immediately below.

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen; I hope you all had a marvelous weekend. To kick things off this bright April afternoon comes the newest addition to the always-unique ASMA Design family: the Eagle II Sport Edition. As with all tuning packages emerging from the ASMA camp, the design is bold – sure to be coveted young NFL draft picks/hip hop stars/crack dealers the world over. Features include two-tone black and silver paintwork, new front and rear fenders and side skirts, all of which compliment perfectly the 21-inch ASMA Design wheels.

Another story brought to our attention this morning – this time by our good friend Shiv – is a recent article published by Automobile magazine that provides some unique insight into the future of Maybach. It’s no secret that Maybach’s attempt to compete with Rolls Royce has been less than successful, with sales totaling 146 units in the U.S. last year: about one-third of their competitor’s sales. But as the article points out, all is not lost at the premium luxury division. According to a Maybach insider: ‘The Exelero show car did more for us than all the tweaks to the 57/62 series combined.’

I know it’s been a few days since you’ve had your last fix of Mercedes reviews, but have no fear ladies and gentlemen, because a new batch has emerged – a batch which analyzes the Mercedes S550, the S550 4MATIC, the CL550, the CL600, the E280 4MATIC, the E320 BLUETEC, and the CLK320 CDI Sport. This of course means its time for another ‘Review Roundup’ segment, and in our usual Review Roundup fashion, we’ve included links to each article, along with a brief description of each, immediately below.

Going through our inbox this morning an astute reader by the name of Duy tipped us off to a new batch of Mercedes C63 AMG spy photos uncovered by the Norwegian website BilNorge.no. Although there’s no new information published about the model, rumors have been circulating the C63 will be making its premier at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September and will feature a de-tuned versions of AMG’s 6.3-Liter V8 outputting around 430 hp.

Although it seems like only yesterday the world was introduced to the Mercedes M-Class, on May 21st, the luxury SUV will be celebrating its 10 year birthday. Produced at the Mercedes plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the M-Class marked a significant historical event for Mercedes – it was the first time a model destined for world distribution that was produced outside the company’s home country of Germany. Since then, production at the facility has expanded, with three models – the new M-Class, the GL-Class, and the R-Class – all starting life in Alabama.

I don’t know how we managed to overlook this story, but in case you missed it (as we did), spectators at a DTM presentation in Düsseldorf witnessed an insanely-hot show last Monday courtesy of Mercedes’ Bruno Spengler. During the presentation, Spengler, who was piloting a 2002 CLK DTM clad in a 2008 Mercedes C-Class DTM shell, rocked a few doughnuts for the crowd in the middle of his run, an act that apparantly caused the rear brake to overheat. The result is a C-Class cooked to what appears to be medium to medium well; thankfully no one was injured, and the DTM presentation continued as planned.

Over the weekend the boys of RENNtech sent us details of their new intercooler pump upgrade available for both Kompressor and V12-powered Mercedes. As with the RENNtech SLR we told you about last week, RENNtech engineers believe the Mercedes’ stock intercooler is the ‘Achilles’ heel’ of the powerful Mercedes lineup, discovering that stock power dropped quickly as the vehicles’ temperature rose.