G E A R E D - I N

Imagine the tranquil German countryside complete with lush green forests on both sides and right in the middle, a four-lane billiard ball smooth winding road.  It’s morning and fine German mist hides the otherwise glaring midday sun.  Suddenly, an unearthly howl shakes the eight-inch cement and asphalt road, making the birds flutter away and stopping the moose dead in their tracks.  An earthquake?  Too close.  The devil?  Maybe.  A brilliant silver arrow darts by at 250 km/h, then two then three.  Welcome to the world of the German autobahn and its new kings, the Mercedes-Benz AMG brethren composed of the E55 AMG, S55 AMG and CL55 AMG. 

Mercedes-Benz and its tuning arm, AMG are no strangers to the world of producing Teutonic muscle cars.  Before, it has taken on the Group C racing by storm and more recently international events such as the FIA GT Championship and the DTM with specially designed and tuned CLKs.  For the road, AMG has done wonders with its big block C43 and E55 sedans. 

Keen to up the ante, AMG decided that just dropping in a massive 5.5-liter SOHC 24-valve V8 into the bonnet of a Mercedes-Benz saloon just isn’t enough.  This is where the supercharger comes in.  Called internally as ‘Kompressor’, it was introduced first in the SLK 230; since then Mercedes-Benz has applied this technology with mixed results on most of their entire line capping off with the devilish C32 AMG with a 3.2-liter supercharged V6 that delivers 354 bhp out stripping the BMW M3 and even AMG’s own V8. 

Now, AMG has decided to blow the muscular 5.5-liter V8 transforming it from a relatively genteel grand tourer into a full-blown sports car.  The results are staggering: close to or equaling 500 bhp and 71.3 kg-m of torque; that’s a 34 percent increase in power and 39 percent increase in torque.  It first saw action in the jaw-dropping, top-line two-seater, SL55 AMG—a car that that delivered acceleration times of 0-100 km/h in 4.7 seconds and 0-200 km/h in a little over 15 seconds.  As always, AMG wants to apply the same magic formula to the rest of the Mercedes-Benz range, hence the new E55 AMG, S55 AMG and the CL55 AMG.

The heart of the new V8 is its supercharger, located between the cylinder banks; it develops a maximum pressure of 0.9 bar.  Also, the 5.5-liter V8 gains a newly designed crankcase and crankshaft; reinforced cylinder heads and valve train; and a more powerful oil pump—all developed thanks to the wealth of motor sports experience that AMG has gained through the years.  All the new engines will be hand-built by a single engineer, whose name and signature will appear on a plate inside the engine bay, keeping AMG’s ‘One Engine, One Engineer’ philosophy.

Mated to the high-output V8 is AMG’s newly developed Formula 1-style steering-wheel mounted gearshift system called AMG Speedshift.  Engineers at the Affalterbach plant incorporated new technologies into the five-speed gearbox.  Adding the optimum gear function and active engine-braking system into the torque converter’s mechanical lock-up system give the Speedshift 35 percent faster gear changes compared to the regular Mercedes-Benz 5-speed gearbox.  Moreover, it gives a more direct driving experience.

These changes are enough to propel the E55 AMG from 0-100 km/h in 4.7 seconds, while the S55 AMG and the CL55 AMG does it just 0.1 seconds slower.  All three have an electronically limited top speed of 250 km/h.

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