G E A R E D - I N
October 2002: Mercedes-Benz CL600
By Ulysses Ang
Photos Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz
Originally Published in the October 2002 Issue

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Mercedes-Benz is surely not gaining on the championship winning Ferrari in the 2002 Formula One season.  However, the vast experience gained by the German marque has proven to be more than a great asset when it comes to developing more mind-blowing sports cars.  Mercedes-Benz and sports cars, you ask?  The combination might sound like water and oil—but in truth, it’s more like bread and butter.  Keen to live on the hype of its extensive Formula One campaign, Mercedes-Benz is expanding its automotive line-up further to include some new Ferrari butt-kicking machinery. 

The introduction of the top-range SL55 AMG at the beginning of this year proved to be just the tip of the Teutonic iceberg.  Inside the well-received and technologically-advanced SL beats a supercharged 5.5-liter V8 heart that boasts 550 Maranello level horsepower.  However, that didn’t seem to content the people over at Stuttgart and Affalterbach. 

For the 2003 model year, Mercedes-Benz will be offering a redesigned CL coupe to further expand their venerable high-output German autobahn cruise missile line-up.  Not content by just being a poser, the German marque and its tuning arm, AMG have come up with two new top-range engines: a supercharged 5.5-liter V8 in the CL55 AMG and a brand-new 5.5-liter twin-turbo V12 in the CL600. 

Though the CL600 does not belong officially to the AMG group of sports cars, it develops some equalizing high performance with some innovative technologies.  The new V12 boasts of a special low-temperature circuit connected to twin intercooler turbos with an AC dual ignition with continuous ionic diagnosis.  All that technical mumbo-jumbo meanwhile is integrated to the marque’s venerable 5.5-liter SOHC 36-valve V12 with twin-spark technology.  All in all, this masterpiece of twelve cylinder engineering pumps out 500 bhp, putting the CL600 well into Lamborghini territory.  The crème-dela-crème of the twin-turbo is actually its torque: 800 Nm at 1,500 rpm as compared to the Enzo Ferrari’s 657 Nm and the McLaren F1’s 662 Nm.

These impressive figures mark impressive increases in horsepower and torque: 36 percent and 51 percent respectively—making this the most powerful V12 ever developed by Mercedes-Benz for a passenger car.  Mated to a re-tuned five-speed automatic transmission with Formula One style steering wheel mounted controls dubbed AMG SportsShift, the CL600 does zero to 100 km/h in just 4.8 seconds. 

Supporters of Greenpeace would be glad to know that the V12 has a new emissions system highlighted by huge win catalytic converters mounted on the car’s firewall making this engine meet the strict EU 4 emission standards, which comes into effect in 2005.  Similarly (though not usually a concern for this type of car), the fuel mileage is pretty good, 6.8 kilometers per liter, besting the likes of the Dodge Viper.

The Mercedes-Benz CL-class has some awe-inspiring upgrades for the 2003 model year. Among them, the availability of the new twin-turbo V12 engine pushing out 500 bhp and 800 Nm of torque (top).

The CL-class also gets a revised Active Body Control (ABC) system to make the CL a sportier machine than it ever was (second from top).

Cosmetically, the CL gets new lamp clusters, front bumpers and rear lamp clusters among other improvements inside and out (third from top and bottom).

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