Mercedes-Benz's extensive Technical Center at the Sindelfingen facilities is host to the company's most challenging pursuit -- to build an enhanced car.

The debut of the new 2008 C-class early in January prompted company officials to open the Center for the press and journalists to give them a closer look at digital prototyping, Mercedes' latest approach and concept for designing cars, used for the very first time in the new 2008 C-Class model.

The Class-C dominates as the best-selling Mercedes-Benz and the company is not about to give the competition a chance to get ahead. Engineers and designers first made a virtual prototype of the new model, loaded some 2130 gigabytes of data Computer stimulations to virtually test all the aspects of the 2008 C-Class and fascinated everyone present with a wicked platform of tests that persistently rumble and shake a totally completed car. A Ride Stimulator was attached to duplicate the car's response to all varieties of road surfaces. It was installed in the data banks of the machine. It was tested for a short ride on a virtual circuit. Mercedes built 280 real prototypes after completing the virtual prototype of the C-Class model. The 280 units were driven the equivalent of 600 times around the world, on three continents. A drive test on how the car's endurance will respond when it is pushed to the limit.

The C-Class is offered in two models: Luxury and Sport, each with distinctive front-end treatments, trim levels, and suspension tuning. When it hits dealerships this summer, customers will get to choose among three models: the C300 Luxury which gets a 3.0-liter, 228-horsepower V-6 and a choice of rear or all-wheel drive, as well as the C350 Luxury and C350 Sport both powered by a larger 3.5-liter V-6 with an output of 268 horses. The C300 Sport's engine is matched to a short-throw six-speed manual transmission, while the C300 Luxury and C350 Sport get the current seven-speed automatic gearbox. All models benefit from a new hydraulic shock system with adaptive damping called Agility Control, and all get the Adaptive Brake and Pre-Safe systems from the larger cars. Parts and accessories like Mercedes C230 parts, C300 Luxury and C350 Sport have also been updated of course.

A remarkable job done by the Mercedes-Benz group of Engineers and Designers brought together to give a faster, better, quieter and more controllable C-Class car. Everybody's virtually wishing to sit behind the wheel of a real C-Class model.