2012 Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG: 415 HP, 5.5-Liter V-8, Glorious Soundtrack

Bless Mercedes-Benz. Bless that company a thousand times. The house that Gottlieb, Karl, and Wilhelm built may not be good at everything, but at the end of the day, it gets one important thing right: If you are going to build a high-performance car for public sale, then said car must sound bitchin'.

Meet the 2012 SLK55 AMG. It sounds excessively bitchin'. Actually, that descriptor might be too modest—this is a machine loud and raucous enough to wake the undersea dead. The naturally aspirated, 5.5-liter, 415-hp V-8 under the SLK's hood is the kind of powerplant that gives Detroit nightmares: torquey, smooth, and blessed with an exhaust note that makes the average V-8–powered American sled sound like a soprano eunuch. AMG calls this engine M152, a fact worth mentioning only because it helps distinguish this V-8 from another Mercedes V-8. The M152 is a variant of the M157, the twin-turbo, 5.5-liter eight recently rolled out as a replacement for AMG's aging, naturally aspirated 6.2-liter M156 V-8.

So Many Numbers, So Little Sense

Let's get this down for posterity: The M156 used to live in AMG 63 cars like the E63 and CL63. Most of those cars still wear "63" badging, a nod to the 1968–72 Mercedes 300SEL 6.3, despite the fact that they now are powered by the 5.5-liter M157. The M156 is still found in the C63 sedan, coupe, and new Black Series coupe; it also lives, albeit in slightly modified M159 form, in the SLS AMG. For the moment, the naturally aspirated, 5.5-liter M152 is found only in the SLK55.

Confused yet? All you really need to know is that Mercedes-Benz badging can't be trusted to accurately portray engine displacement—except in the case of the SLK55, one of the few cars whose number makes sense. Let's move on.

Like all AMG engines, the SLK55's powerplant specializes in torque. In addition to the aforementioned 415 hp, the 7200-rpm M152 cranks out a whopping 398 lb-ft of grunt, enough, we figure, to hurl the diminutive roadster to 60 mph in barely more than four seconds. The V-8 is oriented toward efficiency, at least as much as a 5.5-liter eight-pot can be; cylinder deactivation is standard, as are direct injection, variable valve timing, and a stop-start system. The cylinder-deactivation system, a first for AMG, can disable cylinders 2, 3, 5, and 8 by cutting spark and fuel and parking those cylinders' valves. The transition is noticeable only in the form of a slight change in exhaust note—it shifts from a rumbling burble to a boomier, less-complex tune—and an indicator light on the dash. The cylinders go to sleep under light load and only from 800 to 3600 rpm. Mercedes says they need as little as 30 milliseconds to relight, and the active cylinders still produce up to 170 lb-ft of torque. The system only functions when the transmission is set to efficiency mode or when the folding hardtop is up, leaving the top-down experience unsullied by practical concerns.

Mighty (Hefty) Mite

The SLK should weigh a whopping 3550 pounds—hundreds more than a Porsche Boxster or BMW Z4, both of which offer slightly nimbler handling and, in the case of the Boxster, gobs more steering feedback. This is as it should be. Mercedes isn't known for building pared-down, die-hard sports cars, and the brand's droptops have always seemed more suited to grand touring than corner carving. The 55 gets the usual pantheon of handling goodies (stiffer springs and dampers, variable-assist hydraulic steering gear, 18-inch aluminum wheels, and a pseudo torque-vectoring function for the brakes that uses rear-caliper pressure to help the car turn in), and it's happy sucking up winding pavement, but it's happier still carrying big speed over long distances. The standard seven-speed automatic shifts smoothly and quickly, blipping the throttle on downshifts, but the engine is so flexible that you tend to forget the gearbox is there. Gripes are limited to a noticeable amount of nose weight—for better or worse, V-8-engined SLKs have always felt bigger than they are when pushed—and a rear-suspension tune that produces a lot of head toss and the occasional sideways hop over rough pavement.

The SLK55's sports-car clothing and soundtrack can be misleading, but ultimately, this is a remarkably balanced fast touring car. Pricing hasn't been released, but figure on a sticker close to $69,000 when the model goes on sale in 2012. That's anything but cheap, but the noise—that beautiful, lavish noise—is worth every penny.

VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door roadster

PRICE AS TESTED: $69,000

ENGINE TYPE: DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection

Displacement: 333 cu in, 5461 cc
Power: 415 hp @ 6800 rpm
Torque: 398 lb-ft @ 4500 rpm

TRANSMISSION: 7-speed automatic with manual shifting mode

DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 95.7 in
Length: 163.2 in
Width: 71.5 in Height: 50.8 in
Curb weight (C/D est): 3550 lbPERFORMANCE (C/D EST):
Zero to 60 mph: 4.1 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 12.1 sec
Top speed: 155–174 mph

FUEL ECONOMY:
EPA city/highway driving: 19/27 mpg

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2012 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Coupe Black Series Driven: The Terrible Teuton Triumphant

AMG’s Tobias Moers is one wicked mother, and his cars aren’t far behind. Moers is head of vehicle development for AMG. A classic German performance engineer—stern, compact build—he likes his machinery loud and sideways. Shortly after driving the new C63 AMG Black Series at its Laguna Seca press launch—nine hot laps only, and street driving verboten—your author walked up to Moers and asked him his official title. He stared back blankly, as if I had just told him my name was Big Bird. “I’ve had different titles,” Moers said, arms crossed. “Frankenstein was one of them.” No smile.

Witness the monster the doctor has birthed: Like all Black Series cars, the C63 Black is effectively a standard Mercedes—in this case a C63 coupe—sent to hell and back. The latter’s basic profile remains, but virtually all of the mechanical bits have been tweaked or replaced in the name of track velocity. Forged 19-inch, nine-inch-wide alloys sit inside fattened front fenders; the rear rollers live beneath gargantuan flares and are another half-inch wider. Front track is 1.6 inches greater than on a standard C63 and rear track blossoms by 3.1 inches. Stiffened springs, fatter anti-roll bars, and adjustable spring perches are mated to two-way adjustable dampers. Thanks in part to the lightweight wheels and the lack of a back seat—it’s available if you want it—curb weight drops by a claimed 235 pounds, to around 3700.

I’ll Show You Crazy . . .

Still, the truly insane bit lives under the hood. Like the ordinary C63, the Black Series uses a version of AMG’s mad M156 V-8, the same naturally aspirated, 6.2-liter piece that powers the SLS. It’s even closer to the SLS engine here than in its other applications, borrowing—as does the standard C63 with its optional Development Package—the Gullwing’s lighter crankshaft and forged pistons and connecting rods. With a new engine-control unit, it produces 510 hp at 6800 rpm, 59 more than the standard C63, 29 more than Development pack cars, and just 53 horses down on the SLS. The engine now redlines at 7200 rpm, a 400-rpm jump from the regular C63. Torque rises slightly, from 443 to 457 lb-ft, although peak grunt still arrives at 5000 rpm.

The whole mess sounds like a DTM racer that ate a few hundred Chevrolet small-blocks for breakfast. Mercedes says the 0-to-60-mph sprint is accomplished in 4.2 seconds, a claim we weren’t able to verify but are inclined to believe applies only to cars in which two cylinders are breathing all-natural Vermont maple syrup. The car leaves the line like a methed-up ape (Wait, no—3700 pounds? Make that a methed-up studio apartment), and we clocked a basic C63 coupe to 60 in just 3.7 seconds. Top speed is a claimed 186 mph, likely less when equipped with the optional rear wing.

The rest is predictable. In time-honored Mercedes-Benz fashion, there is no clutch pedal on offer, just Stuttgart’s seven-speed MCT automatic. (Twin-clutch ’boxes reportedly cannot handle the M156’s torque.) A slightly larger transmission cooler was installed because the regular C63 tends to go into gearbox limp mode when abused in hot weather. Brake rotors grow just over an inch front and rear. Thin-backed sport seats and red seat belts—the better, presumably, to hide the bloodstains from your vanquished enemies—are standard. The rear half shafts and limited-slip differential were swiped from the heavier E63, the diff given an external, fan-aided cooler.

. . . And You’ll Love It

Mercedes says the package can lap the Nürburgring in 7:43. It looks like undiluted mayhem, or maybe the result of a bad accident involving a race shop and Satan’s school bus. If you do not love it, have the nurse wake you up from your coma. In our short lapping session, the C63 did absolutely nothing wrong. Steering feel is better than any Mercedes in recent memory, hefty and with just the right amount of meaty, big-car feedback. The engine pulls like blazes, with torque everywhere and a righteous, gut-punching thunder-bark gushing from the pipes. The brake pedal is rock-solid, gaining only a hair of travel when the discs get hot.

The chassis is balanced but takes patience to stay ahead of—the Mercedes’ pork is always obvious, and you can induce understeer or oversteer by piling on steering or gobs of throttle at the wrong moment. Moers’s madman handiwork is evident even in the differential, which boasts a whopping 50 percent lock-up on deceleration. Stability during braking and turn-in is thus eye-opening; you can cram the C63 into corners with reckless abandon, DTM fantasies twitching through your toenails, your mistakes all but consequence-free. (Contrast this with the C63’s predecessor, the 2007–08 CLK63 Black Series, a raw behemoth that was both glorious and moderately homicidal at the limit. Fun stuff, right up until it kills you.)

All told, the refinement is the impressive bit—big cars aren’t supposed to be total pussycats when you honk on them. The only real complaint is the seven-speed automatic, which offers a seemingly telepathic Sport mode but reacts so slowly to paddle-shifter commands that you simply stop bothering and let the gearbox shift itself. A car this good should beg your involvement, even if it’s just with buttons.

Black Series models don’t sell in big numbers, but that’s kind of the point—the line, remember, was named after the American Express Centurion card, offered only to those who buy Gulfstreams by the dozen. The CLK63 moved just 399 units in America. The C63 Black is said to be mostly sold out, and Mercedes claims less than 100 will be available stateside, at an estimated price of around $125,000. Pity—this kind of insanity needs to be spread.

VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2- or 4-passenger, 2-door coupe

ESTIMATED BASE PRICE: $125,000

ENGINE TYPE: DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection

Displacement: 379 cu in, 6208 cc
Power: 510 hp @ 6800 rpm
Torque: 457 lb-ft @ 5000 rpm

TRANSMISSIONS: 7-speed automatic with manual shifting mode

DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 108.9 in
Length: 185.3 in
Width: 71.9 in Height: 54.6 in
Curb weight (C/D est): 3800 lb

PERFORMANCE (C/D EST):
Zero to 60 mph: 3.7 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 12.0 sec
Top speed: 186 mph

FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST):
EPA city/highway driving: 13/19 mpg

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2013 Mercedes-Benz SL-class To Be Lighter—and Packed with Technology, Of Course

SL ostensibly stands for Sport Leicht—“Sport Light”—but Mercedes’ top-dog roadster hasn’t lived up to the billing for decades, instead morphing into a heavy boulevard cruiser. The outgoing SL is certainly quick, but it’s far from nimble. Small wonder: The SL550 tipped our scales at 4233 pounds. At a recent tech day, Mercedes told us what it’s doing to change that, along with a few other things to expect on the 2013 SL-class.

Mercedes says the new SL will weigh 275 pounds less than the old car, which has been offered since the fall of 2001. Almost 250 pounds of that savings comes via the aluminum-intensive body (a development which this author reported way back in October 2010). The current-gen SL only has an aluminum hood and doors, with the rest of the car constructed from steel; in contrast, only the new car’s windshield and roof frames are made from steel, and the rear bulkhead is partially constructed from even lighter magnesium. The rest is aluminum, save for the trunklid. That piece is made from plastic composite and allows Mercedes to integrate all antennae for the radio, navigation, and phone systems into the panel itself without the wart so common on today’s vehicles.

The new SL is not just lighter. Its structure is stronger, thanks to various advanced bonding techniques and “bionic” elements inspired by structures found in nature. Torsional rigidity has improved by more than 20 percent, according to Mercedes.

Luxury-oriented items include doors that hold any open position and a new wiper system that goes by the somewhat ridiculous name of Magic Vision Control. The system takes into account temperature, velocity, and even the season to calculate the optimal amount of washer fluid to be sprayed onto the windshield. When you operate the system with an open top, the fluid—spurted from several arm-mounted jets—is sprayed mainly when the wiper is moving downwards, so you won’t receive an unwanted shower. The washer fluid is heated, but the wiper blade also can be heated as an extra-cost option.

Mercedes also has worked to vastly improve the performance of the audio system, especially in top-down mode. The bass speakers are now integrated on the underside of the dash, in the footwells, instead of their typical position in the doors or under the seats. We’ll have to listen to it for ourselves, but the company says the experience is hugely superior when the roof is open. This so-called “Front Bass” system is standard, and the auditory experience can be further enhanced by specifying either a 600-watt Harman/Kardon Logic7 surround-sound system or the top-spec 940-watt Bang & Olufsen system.

Further details were scarce at the event, but we expect to have more information on the 2013 SL-class soon. Stay tuned.

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2012 Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG Photos and Info: Twin-Turbo V8, As Much as 550 Horses

If being politically correct is as appealing to you as driving a railroad spike through your foot and you’ve got some bucks, you’re probably in the target demographic for an insanely powerful sport-utility vehicle. They’re wasteful and unnecessary, which is exactly the point. You don't buy a hyper-powerful SUV for serious off-roading, and you don't buy one to take it to the racetrack or conquer the Dragon. You also don't buy one to celebrate Earth Day. You buy one just because.

The breed has proven spectacularly successful with carmakers. Since the first-generation ML, Mercedes has offered an AMG version. BMW now sells M versions of the X5 and X6 with twin-turbo V-8s (scratching the itch of those who lusted over the 700-hp, V-12–powered X5 Le Mans concept). There have been two generations of Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8. Audi sells a version of its Q7 in some markets with a 500-hp diesel V-12. Plus there’s the Porsche Cayenne, available in 500-horse Turbo and, soon, even-more-powerful Turbo S flavors.

The third-generation ML AMG—Mercedes still must add an extra “L” to M-class badges as part of an old agreement with BMW—comes just half a year after the introduction of the cooking ML. Powered by the 5.5-liter, twin-turbocharged V-8, the new ML63 is both more powerful and more efficient than its predecessor, which housed AMG’s spectacular 6.2-liter V-8 under its hood. The “entry” version of the new forced-induction eight is rated at 518 hp and 516 lb-ft; order the Performance package, and output rises to 550 horses and 560 lb-ft. This awesome power translates into a claimed 0-to-60-mph figure of 4.7 seconds and a governed top speed 155 mph (4.6 seconds and 174 mph with the Performance pack). Based on tests of the previous model and Benz’s typically conservative estimates, however, we bet we can shave a couple of tenths from those times.

The 2012 ML63 still is heavy—we’re estimating this new model will come in around 5100 pounds. Fuel economy is just 16 mpg combined, which is just about perfect for those who don’t give a crap.

The fat, high-performance rubber on standard 20- or optional 21-inch wheels (265/45s on the former, 295/35s on the latter) won't help much if you leave the asphalt, but this ML retains its all-wheel-drive system, while power is transmitted through a seven-speed automatic. The air suspension has three driver-selectable settings, but it also lowers the body on its own at higher speeds to minimize drag. We’ll have to hop behind the wheel to find out if AMG has achieved the seemingly impossible, as BMW did with the X5 and X6 Ms, and turned a high-riding SUV into a physics-defying wunderkind.

To make sure everybody knows you forked over a whole pile of cash for the most senseless—and most fun—M-class, Mercedes fits an appearance package that includes a front fascia with massive intakes, wider fenders, and a rear skirt with integrated diffuser. The interior gets sport seats, a flat-bottom AMG steering wheel, and special leather upholstery throughout. If that stuff isn’t enough, however, the four exhaust pipes ought to make your priorities known loud and clear. After all, the ML63 AMG, which will arrive in U.S. dealers in the first quarter of 2012, is definitely, delightfully un-PC.

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Mercedes-Benz Posts Peek at L.A.-Bound 2012 ML63 AMG on Facebook

When any auto show draws near, you can expect a proliferation of official “teaser images.” Mercedes-Benz has just added one to the pile, providing us a sneak peek of the upcoming 2012 ML63 AMG‘s passenger-side headlamp and massive intake. In doing so, the company also declared its intention to “Bring sport back” to the SUV segment. Sure, the ML63 has been on ice between generations, but we weren’t aware that sport had left. We certainly don’t think the BMW X5 M and X6 M, Porsche Cayenne Turbo, or even the ML63’s split-at-birth platform-mate, the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, have particularly short wicks.

Like nearly every other AMG 63 model, the new ML63 will be propelled by a twin-turbocharged 5.5-liter V-8 in place of the last-generation truck’s naturally aspirated 6.2-liter. The new über-ML will debut at the L.A. auto show next week; we’ll have more details for you early next week.

Tags: 2011 L.A. auto show, Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG |

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