Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG ( e55 )

  e55

 First pressure evaluate simply 5 years ago, approximately 350 horses mounted you as a reputable tarmac-burning participant. The BMW M5 raised the bar to 394, simplest to be currently overtaken with the aid of the twin-faster Audi RS 6 with 450. Now it is Mercedes' turn to scorch the ratings.

This most effective E55 AMG ever, due inside the U.S. In can also, gets 34 percent more electricity and an extra 32 percentage of pound-ft over the antique, certainly aspirated, as soon as significantly speedy E55. It's sufficient grunt to qualify this E55 because the fastest production sedan within the global. We estimate it'll rip to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds, zero.1 2d beforehand of Audi's claim for the RS 6 and 0.2 2nd faster than the M5. And the rate of forward movement does not slacken as the expected 10.5 seconds to a hundred mph shows. All this with an automated transmission, although you may shift gears manually the usage of buttons behind the guidance wheel. And get this: Assisted by way of an IHI belt-driven screw supercharger that spins at 23,000 rpm to a maximum stress of 11.6 psi, the five.4-liter V-8 produces a big 516 pound-toes of torque from 2650 to 4500 rpm.
Hard to trust, however not is an insignificant 349 horsepower de rigueur for a Mercedes E55 AMG. The business enterprise has decided not anything less than the supercharged V-eight of the ridiculously effective SL55 AMG will do the task of intimidating the Teutonic heavy-steel competition.  In the back of the wheel, it is impossible not to play rally driving force with this car. As a minimum a number of the time. Shift time is 35 percentage quicker than a everyday Mercedes automated, and roughness will increase with the aid of a comparable amount. However due to the fact the tranny is adaptive, it quickly learns when the driver has sponsored off after which seemingly skims via the gears. You pick out among recreation and comfort modes (the latter replaces the antique iciness putting to provide 2d-equipment begins).
It rained tough all day all through our first outing within the E55. In the antique 500E—Mercedes' first supersedan—our day might were punctuated by using slipping and sliding. But driven pretty difficult (as our 11-mpg average attests), the rear-power E55 hardly ever stepped out of line, most effective the occasional flashing of the high-threshold digital-balance-program caution light indicating a destroy in adhesion. Transfer off the ESP, and you can light up the tires at will, and power oversteer becomes the norm. But the big heavy E55 stays remarkably controllable and agile and is still able to producing masses of understeer-biased cornering forces on moist roads, even supposing it lacks the big protection of the RS 6. Its short (2.Seventy five turns lock-to-lock) speed-touchy steering has more feel and fluency and is superbly weighted. Mercedes' air suspension also endows a much higher—even cosseting—trip than the Audi, provided you ignore the hardest of the 3 damper-and-spring settings, which relays every small bump and irregularity in the street. Balance is extraordinary, at the least up to one hundred twenty five mph, and we can tell you that the rain control of the frame and wipers is high-quality. The brakes, from the SL55 AMG, are electrohydraulic, as in all new E-elegance vehicles, and immensely effective, but they require a sensitive contact for easy modulation as the automobile involves a halt.
The E55 indoors is superbly ready, spacious, and cozy (aside from the ridiculously short receiving quit of the seatbelts) if now not pretty as exquisitely constructed as an RS 6.
It is some other brilliant-delicate, first-rate-subtle, supersedan from AMG. Except maybe this time the shortage of visual strong point is just too discreet. There are the AMG three-phase air inlets in the lower bumper, 18-inch alloys wearing suitably huge 245/40 and 265/35 rubber, and four oval chrome exhaust pipes. However the body would advantage from more macho massaging, mainly for a automobile with a view to value approximately $75,000.
It's inevitable that at some point there may be quicker sedans than the E55 AMG. However we are able to marvel if any will possess the same stability of refinement, poise, and performance that makes the E55 so brilliantly whole.