Took the oportunity to have a test drive in an AMG55 T Estate Car (Wagon) today.

Has to be the fastest Estate Car (Wagon) in the world.

I was blown away by the acceleration, about 5.3 secs 0 to 60 mph. It is electronically limited to 155 MPH top speed.

The handling was also quite amazing for a car of it's size. Really gave it some "Welly" through a series of left/right curves and it just sat there.



My car a 320CDi Estate is not slow but this was a different world.

Mind you with petrol at near $6 a gallon in UK you would need to own an Oil Well to keep up with it's thirst.

Enviously yours

Mike

If MB brought that model over on this side of the pond, they would sell every single one very quickly! Americans are performance enthusiast at heart and will gladly spend to have it bundled with the practicality of a wagon. This is a marketing "no brainer".

With that said, I want one!

Yep, count me in.

For the price of acquiring a W124 300TE and dropping a C36 engine & tranny, plus 500E brakes all around and messing with the suspension, I would definitely have gone to the E55 Wagon if it was USA bound.

:-) neil
1988 360TE AMG
1993 500E

Do you guys get the Audi RS4 over there?

That's an Audi A4 estate with a 380bhp twin-turbo 2.7 V6 and four-wheel drive.. nice.. but no V8 :-(


later

Russ

__________________
190E's:
2.5-16v 1990 90,000m Astral Silver
2.0E 8v 1986 107,000m Black 2nd owner
http://www.maylane.demon.co.uk/190esmall.jpghttp://www.maylane.demon.co.uk/190esmall2.jpg

No we don't get that either. It seems like many times, these Germans don't realize that they need to bring us the goods!

__________________
1985 500SEL 124k miles
2001 Honda Civic EX

I read in the magazines several times over the years that the basic reason North American doesn't get the "hot" cars is that, with their small production runs, manufacturers can sell them all in Europe and Japan without having to spend a bucket full of money testing and configuring for US specs.

Image crashing a dozen E55 wagons for NHTSA safety tests, which are different than those required for Europe. Remember how long it took the manufacturers to defeat the ridiculous highlight rules? The durability problems associated with having a high-perf engine maintained by the average North American car dolt must give the Stuttgart engineers nightmares.

Porsche, for whom North America is a significant market, will jump through the hoops. Mercedes-Benz is a much bigger global player and, I think, just can't see the cost-benefit of trying to bring everything over here!

Just my humble opinion.

__________________
Dean Albrecht
"Lead, follow, or better yet, get out of the way!"E500 owners motto

In other words, we need to get rid of all the sanctimonious bureaucrats over here!!!!! There is no logic behind this....people buy these cars in Europe, drive them at triple digit speeds on a regular basis, but over here, noooo gotta do all this certification and gov't BS to drive 70....but then again, what was I thinking...something gov't related making sense....!?!? I guess I inhaled too much of that nitrous...

__________________
'86 420SE Euro
904 Midnight Blue, Gray Velour
Dad bought it new, now I own it.

"A Mercedes-Benz is like a fine wine, it only gets better with age."

Does anybody remember that in the early 90's some company was selling 300TEs that had drivetrains from 560 cars? One magazine did a test and called it the "panzerwagon"?

Anybody ever driven one or seen one for sale?

Regards,

Carl

AMG out of their Chicago shop, produced a 5.6-6.0 liter W124 wagon using the venerable M117 engine.

I have counted TWO on ebay over the last 3-4 years.

I believe Dean's Need2Speed site has an article. In short- incredible power but the chassis wasn't up to the task.

:-) neil
1988 360TE AMG
1993 500E

Here are some images:

In the US we have the S4 which is the 2.7 biturbo engine, the sedan.

If memory serves me correctly the RS4 is the same thing as the S4, but a wagon.

I think that next year, they are putting the biturbo V8 in the RS4, something like that. Two of my friends have S4s, so sometimes I hear all about the new Audi stuff, but Im too into mercedes most of the time, so I cant remember all. One of them has probably 100 grand into one of them including the car price, and the others is stock. They are pretty quick.

Neil,

Do you have the actual article of the 300TE 6.0 wagon? Can you email me what you have on that or the Hammer?

Thanks,

Austin

__________________
Current Stable:
1994 S500 v140, 210k miles, white with grey.

Former Mercedes in the Stable:
1983 300CD Turbo diesel 515k mi sold (rumor has it, that it has 750k miles on it now)
1984 300CD Turbo Diesel 150 k mi sold
1982 300D Turbo Diesel 225 sold
1987 300D Turbo Diesel 255k mi sold
1988 300 CE AMG Hammer 15k mi sold
1986 "300E" Amg Hammer 88k mi sold (it was really a 200, not even an E (124.020)
1992 500E 156k mi sold
etc.

Austin- sorry I don't have the article.

:-( neil

Alas no,

the S4 is 265bhp biturbo V6 (2.7) saloon or 'wagon'

the RS4 is 380 bhp biturbo V6 (2.7) engine, by Audi & cosworth engineering (made DFV, most succesful race engine ever), and available only as a 'wagon'.. all sold out now.

The 2 cars look somewhat different, should be easy enough to spot one from the other.

This image is at www.rs4.org :




Audi have been working hard again.. they now have the RS6, a turbocharged version of the S6, with same 4.2 V8 block. It makes 450 bhp, and does 0-60 somewhere under 5 seconds. This one's available as wagon OR saloon.


later

__________________
190E's:
2.5-16v 1990 90,000m Astral Silver
2.0E 8v 1986 107,000m Black 2nd owner
http://www.maylane.demon.co.uk/190esmall.jpghttp://www.maylane.demon.co.uk/190esmall2.jpg

Oh yeah Cosworth. Ok, now I understand it.

My friend with the S4 thinks his is as fast as these cosworth cars, but I know his mechanic, and his mechanic, says no its not. He's driven both of them before. He goes to germany a lot.

Austin

I like wagons and coupes, so Id go with the RS4 if I was to get an AUDI.

__________________
Current Stable:
1994 S500 v140, 210k miles, white with grey.

Former Mercedes in the Stable:
1983 300CD Turbo diesel 515k mi sold (rumor has it, that it has 750k miles on it now)
1984 300CD Turbo Diesel 150 k mi sold
1982 300D Turbo Diesel 225 sold
1987 300D Turbo Diesel 255k mi sold
1988 300 CE AMG Hammer 15k mi sold
1986 "300E" Amg Hammer 88k mi sold (it was really a 200, not even an E (124.020)
1992 500E 156k mi sold
etc.

By cosworth cars, you mean Ford Sierra and Escort?
The power delivery of the 2.0l DOHC turbocharged four in these cars is pretty mad, lots of turbo lag, and probably a world removed from the S4.

They don't really put out *that* much horsepower by todays standards, only the RS500 sierra 2-door having the block which is capable of 500 + bhp, when fully tuned, and twin spark plugs are used (it has a blanked-off hole for them, for homologation purposes).

In standard trim, they make something like 204bhp (Sierra) 227 bhp (Escort) and 224 bhp (Sierra RS500), so it wouldn't surprise me at all if an S4 was faster with 265bhp, less lag, 6-speeds, and more torque (0-60 and top speed aren't sub 6-sec for any, losing to the S4), but really, the S4 is more cruising car and the Cosworths blasting cars - for driving fast, I would choose them over the Audi.

__________________
190E's:
2.5-16v 1990 90,000m Astral Silver
2.0E 8v 1986 107,000m Black 2nd owner
http://www.maylane.demon.co.uk/190esmall.jpghttp://www.maylane.demon.co.uk/190esmall2.jpg