Mercedes-Benz hosted a special Media Night at the Molitor hotel in Paris tonight ahead of the Paris Motor Show 2014 that starts tomorrow. We attended the event to see what Daimler has in store for us this Paris Motor Show!

The venue for the event, the Piscine Molitor, is a 1920’s swimming pool turned hotel that was restored to its original function after closing down more than twenty years ago. The Molitor was an institution in Paris as a pool and hangout for Parisians until its closure in the late 1980s. After its closed down a young urban art scene took over the derelict property and it received cult status in the city and beyond. Since its reopening as hotel the original features like the indoor and outdoor pool have been restored. Many of the Molitor’s iconic features like the dressing rooms have remained.

You wonder what all this has to do with the Mercedes-Benz Media Night and their latest premieres. Well as Dr. Zetsche made clear in his opening speech with the Mercedes-Benz S500 Plugin Hybrid, the Molitor was the location where the first bikini was shown. Again you might wonder what a bikini has to do with a plugin hybrid Mercedes-Benz, but as Dr Z put it for both counts: less is more!

After the very entertaining opening by Dr. Zetsche it was time to shift the focus from efficiency to performance with the introduction of the Mercedes-AMG GT Edition 1. The Edition 1 features a fixed wing at the back and typical Edition 1 styling elements inside and out. After the introduction video the AMG GT Edition 1 rose from the bottom of the smoke covered indoor pool into the spotlight.

Next up was not one but two new AMG models: the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Sedan and the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG T-Modell. Both feature the new 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine that was first introduced in the AMG GT. In the C63 AMG the engine is slightly different though as it doesn’t use dry sump oil scavenging. Outputs range between 469hp for the regular C63 and 503hp for the C63 S Model. Sprint times have been reduced to a very respectful 4.1 seconds from 0-100 km/h. The top speed for both models is limited to 250 km/h. We can’t wait to take the new C63 AMG out for a spin!

Last but not least Mercedes-Benz took us into the world of their premium compact cars and presented some interesting statistics, in the last twelve months Mercedes-Benz sold 835,000 compact cars (A, CLA, GLA and B-Class). Compared to last year this was an increase of 25% compared to the previous year. This Paris Motor Show Mercedes-Benz presents the facelifted Mercedes-Benz B-Class, the most popular of its compact cars.

The new B-Class features new LED Headlights, a new infotainment display and upgraded interior. Its engine range has been expanded to five diesel engines, five petrol engines, a natural gas drive and a B-Class Electric Drive.

The new B-Class commercial will feature music of OneRepublic, enough reason for Mercedes-Benz to fly them over to Paris and let them perform live for us tonight. Besides the B-Class commercial song, they also played two of their recent hits that took the hit parades by storm.

After the musical intermezzo it was our turn to take a closer look at the cars and check out the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, AMG GT Edition 1 and not to forget the B-Class – although we have to admit our blood flows mostly for the first two.

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