A tennis ball yellow car ripped across the Sixth Street Bridge in a cloud of tire smoke on Tuesday night. But unlike the traditional hot rods, drag racers, and lowriders that have long made this L.A. River crossing famed among Angeleno automotive enthusiasts, and as a filming location in movies like Grease and Terminator 2, it did so without a honking gasoline-powered engine. Additionally atypical, the span was closed to public traffic and outfitted with signage that suggested it was part of the German Autobahn. Also, when the car’s occupants emerged, one was Brad Pitt.
The star was reprising a role, of sorts, that of Sonny Hayes, the redemption-seeking racecar driver from 2025’s smash hit F1. This was based not just on the car’s speed and attention-grabbing stunting, but because the company backing Pitt in both instances is the same: Mercedes-Benz. The German luxury automaker was the in-movie sponsor of Hayes’ fictional APXGP racing team. And its go-fast subsidiary, Mercedes-AMG, hosted the L.A. event to promote the global reveal of its latest vehicle, the AMG GT 4-Door Coupe, a swoopy 1153 hp all-electric sports sedan, capable of sprinting from 0-60 mph in a Ferrari-besting 2 seconds.
