Mercedes Gran Turismo

[StudeMichael]

I have seen many examples of Mercedes Benz adapting Studebaker concepts, even in recent years. Now they have a Mercedes Gran Turismo concept car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mq3EFoD6Tc&feature=youtu.be

[EssexExport]

Awesome car for a video game.

[DEEPNHOCK]

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[GTCruiser]

Wow! Seems the days are gone when the USA manufacturers had a frequency of concept cars. Or maybe I'm not following them close enough.

[JBOYLE]

I have seen many examples of Mercedes Benz adapting Studebaker concepts, even in recent years.

I think they're due...especially after Studebaker blatantly swiped the Mercedes grille for the Larks.
And we know that they adopted Mercedes door latches for the Avanti. Recently I showed my Avanti to a former Mercedes dealer GM...he noticed those right away.

I still may try to adopt a period Becker radio in place of my Studebaker AM unit....since some (many?) Studebaker dealers also handled Mercedes, I could see a MB-sourced radio finding its way into an expensive Avanti if the buyer wanted an upscale radio.

[Dan Timberlake]

Some may not know Studebaker's relationship with Mercedes was pretty tight there for a while.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/studebaker/pool/with/7040786773/lightbox/

Mercedes Benz Inc ( A Subsidiary of Studebaker Corporation) South Bend, Indiana

(Do NOT start scrolling thru that flickr collection if you have any plans for the next hour or two)

[DEEPNHOCK]

Pretty sure I saw this car on a recent episode of American Pickers...
It was in a barn with that cement Studebaker building emblem.....
Jeff

http://www.flickr.com/groups/studebaker/pool/with/6884757500/lightbox/

[JRoberts]

Of course Mercendes did not appreciate Studebaker's "tri-star" on the '54-s, but after that until the mid 1960's Studebaker was the U.S. distributors for Mercedes. The Grand Tourismo label has been used by many automakers over the years. That is what the term GT that is seen so often stands for. I don't think Mercedes did anything out of line in using it now. The Lark/Hawk grill style was actually used by Mercedes prior to Studebaker using it. Oh, and thanks for posting the link to the video. That Mercedes might be the first think I'd buy when I win the lottery. (Yep, I know it would have to be a BIG lottery....now where's that lottery ticket again???)

[hausdok]

Kind of looked like a gussied up Fiskar with a gasoline engine.

[leroy]

Near the end of the video, after the pic Jeff posted is a gt logo, the caption says
gran turismo gt is a registered trademark of Sony entertainment.

does Sony own gt now? Maybe I didn't understand it.

[DEEPNHOCK]

Gran Turismo is now a Playstation video game... And Platstation is owned by Sony...

http://www.gran-turismo.com/us/

http://us.playstation.com/

Near the end of the video, after the pic Jeff posted is a gt logo, the caption says
gran turismo gt is a registered trademark of Sony entertainment.

does Sony own gt now? Maybe I didn't understand it.

[clonelark]

Picture of it on MSN home page this morning, If it wasnt for the tri star I'd think it was a Buick

[WinM1895]

Of course Mercedes did not appreciate Studebaker's "tri-star" on the '54-s, but after that until the mid 1960's Studebaker was the U.S. distributors for Mercedes.

Roy Hurley of Curtiss-Wright was negotiating a deal to distribute M-B cars in the US prior to his involvement with Studebaker-Packard. The deal was hung up due to Max Hoffmann having exclusive rights to distribute M-B's in New York City & Los Angeles.

When Hurley took over, S-P became the distributor for M-B after Hoffmann's contract expired in early 1957.

Pontiac's chief engineer John Z. DeLorean's 1964 Pontiac GTO: Gran Turismo Omologato. Ford 'nuts' referred to GTO as the Garbage Truck Option.

The GTO is considered by many to be the first muscle car. The term was originally coined by Motor Trend for midsized cars with large V8's installed from full sized cars.

Today, the terms Muscle Car and Pony Car have become muddled with no clear definition between the two.

[PlainBrownR2]

Near the end of the video, after the pic Jeff posted is a gt logo, the caption says
gran turismo gt is a registered trademark of Sony entertainment.

does Sony own gt now? Maybe I didn't understand it.

Sony doesn't have trademarks on the term gran turismo gt, but they do have trademarks on the title of the video game "Gran Turismo GT". If you're not looking to program, market, and sell your own video game and calling it "Gran Turismo GT" for Sony's Playstation consoles, you'll be just fine. Sony has been supplying the "Gran Turismo" type games for the better part of 10 years now for its Playstation consoles. As an example, since I have a now older Playstation 2(replaced by the Playstation 3 a couple years ago) which is a replacement to an older Playstation 2 in 2005 or so, I have "Gran Turismo 4", which I've owned since 2004-ish.

[8E45E]

I still may try to adopt a period Becker radio in place of my Studebaker AM unit....since some (many?) Studebaker dealers also handled Mercedes, I could see a MB-sourced radio finding its way into an expensive Avanti if the buyer wanted an upscale radio.

The Avanti shop manual clearly shows either a Becker or a Blaupunkt radio installed in one.



Craig