About
MBWorld began in 2001 and immediately attracted Mercedes Benz past, current, and future owners but also car enthusiasts in general. The unique sorting by chassis numbers allowed for easy access for one to gain any and all information about a unique model or brand. But the community became much bigger than Benz by instilling general dialogue forums about other cars and off topic discussions. What started out with 2 members has now blossomed to over 409,000 members posting over 7 million times. MBWorld.org is the largest Mercedes forum in the world.
Meet The Team
Derin Richardson
Derin Richardson is a seasoned editor who worked in print & digital media for 10 years. He graduated from California State University, Fullerton with a bachelor's degree in print journalism in 2011.
His history with automobiles stretches way back to his time as a young child, as he loved to help with his grandfather's yellow 1941 Ford Pickup and red 1952 Ford Crown Victoria. Throughout his teens, he also enjoyed wrenching and cruising around in his mother's electric blue 1966 Pontiac LeMans. Today, he dotes on his own crown jewel, his red 2018 Chevrolet Camaro SS, dropping the top and laying some serious rubber on the road as much as possible.
With his grandfather being a retired fire engine mechanic for the Los Angeles Fire Department, Derin has learned valuable lessons when it comes to vehicle maintenance, choosing the right performance parts and getting the most out of simple but effective mods.
Brett Foote
Brett Foote is a longtime contributor to Internet Brands’ Auto sites, including Chevrolet Forum, Rennlist, and Ford Truck Enthusiasts, among other sites. He's been an automotive enthusiast since the day he came into this world and rode home from the hospital in a first-gen Mustang, and he's been wrenching on them nearly as long. Professionally speaking, he's only been writing about autos for the last five years and spent several years running parts for local dealerships. You can follow along with his builds and various automotive shenanigans on Instagram (@bfoote).
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Austin Lott
Austin Lott loves writing about cool cars and hearing the stories behind them. Though he's partial to Japanese imports, he'll give anything cool a shot.
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Patrick Rall
Before he was old enough to walk, his dad was taking him to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500. He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when Patrick was young, but by the time he was 16, he was ready to build him his first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. He spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with his dad by my side. While they live in different areas of the country, his dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when Patrick was 16 while he races other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
Although Patrick went to college for accounting, his time in his dad’s shop growing up allowed himthe knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point he worked in the office of a dealership group. While he was working in the accounting world, he continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, he began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
Ten years ago, he left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and he is living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life. He loves covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. He was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with his past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world providing him with a unique perspective of the industry.
His experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows him to push performance cars to their limit, while his role as a horse stable manager gives him vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
Being based on Detroit, he never misses the North American International Auto Show, the Woodward Dream Cruise and Roadkill Nights, along with spending plenty of time raising hell on Detroit’s Woodward Avenue with the best muscle car crowd in the world.
Derek Shiekhi
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. In addition to writing for a variety of Internet Brands sites, including JK-Forum.com and Ford-Trucks.com, Derek also contributes to other outlets. He started There Will Be Cars on Instagram and Facebook to get even more automotive content out to fellow enthusiasts.
Bryan Wood
Bryan Wood is a longtime car and motorcycle enthusiast who writes for Harley-Davidson Forums and Corvette Forum, among other auto sites. Plus, he runs his own blog, Pilez & Driverz.
Bryan comes from three generations of racers and builders and also works for Haynes/Clymer/Chilton making repair manuals. He races cars and bikes, and more of his non-Harley motorcycle exploits can be read about at RideApart.com where he is the weekend editor.
Ian Wright
Ian Wright is a regular contributor to CorvetteForum, Jaguar Forums and 6SpeedOnline, among other auto sites. His obsession with cars started young and has left him stranded miles off-road in Land Rovers, being lost far from home in hot hatches, going sideways in rallycross cars, being propelled forward in supercars and, more sensibly, standing in fields staring at classic cars. His first job was as a mechanic and then trained as a driving instructor before going into media production. The automotive itch never left though and he realized writing about cars is his true calling. However, that doesn’t stop him from also hosting the Both Hand Drive podcast.
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Speedlimit
Speedlimit joined MBworld as lead Admin in 2011. He is responsible for supporting the moderator staff and answering community support questions for new registrations, new threads. posts and software errors and bugs. He coordinates closely with the Internet Brands Community Manager for software updates and correction of software bugs, Speedlimit has been associated with Internet Brands since 2009. When not on line his interests are three exceptional young Grandsons, aviation and high fidelity flight simulation.
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Vic55
Vic is one of the charter members of MBWorld that pre-dated the 2001 official roll out. He has been a Super Moderator since 2002 and currently has or owned 11 Mercedes Benz AMG vehicles, with his favorite being the 2012 C63 AMG Black Series. An owner of over 40 cars in the past 14 years including many German (AMG Benz, BMW M, Porsche), Italian (Ferrari, Lamborghini), Japanese (Acura, Nissan), and other brands; Vic is more than just a passionate Mercedes fan, but also an overall admirer of cars and their performance. He enjoys modding each of his rides with the BPU's (basic performance upstages) such as suspension, exhaust, wheels, and tuning. But most of all he enjoys providing feedback on his personal experiences with each of his current and prior cars and assisting the forum community with questions. When he is not here on the boards, you can find Vic driving his cars, traveling, watching football, and drinking beer.
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MJ50
MJ50 has been with MBworld.org forum since 2003. He likes to modify his MBs at the same time as keeping them as original as possible. He has modded W203, W163, W204 and W211. He asked a lot of questions in the early years and now answers a lot of questions in the later years. He was also involved in W124 project to swap out 4-speed automatic transmission with 5-speed manual transmission. He's also into DSLR photography for the purpose of taking better photos of his Mercedes.
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Rock
Rock was born a passionate car enthusiast. He loves to read and learn about the cars he loves. He's been a member of the MBworld community for well over a decade and owns several AMG's, including the E55, CLS63- and currently a 2017 C63s coupe. His interest does not stop at Mercedes-Benz. He also has an assortment of BMW M3s and Audi RS cars, including the RS4, RS5 and currently the RS7.
See ArticlesAbout Internet Brands
Internet Brands was founded in 1998 as CarsDirect.com. Numerous industry awards and a place on Time Magazine's "50 Best" websites list followed. In 2006, the company changed its name to Internet Brands to reflect its accelerating diversification. Today Internet Brands owns and operates hundreds of brands in the Health, Home, Shopping and Travel verticals - but Automotive remains at its core. Properties like CorvetteForum.com, HDForums.com and Ford-Trucks.com perform in the top five of their respective brands, and Internet Brands Automotive Group is consistently recognized as one of Comscore's Top 6 overall automotive companies. You can learn more about the Internet Brands Automotive Group at https://www.internetbrandsauto.com.