Any normally aspirated C36 is nowhere close top end speed to a 500E....drive them both back to back to top speed. The 500E hits the rev limited very quickly where the C36 tends to "creep" up on 155mph. It feels the 500E would happily go faster if it had another taller gear to go into vs the C36 that feels quite "spent" by the time you near 150mph. Turbo(s) on either change things but stock vs stock there is no comparison top speed or 0-155mph. Logical when you consider the torque curve and advantage of the 500E...... 354 vs 276 with similar aero drag. 78 lb-ft of torque (esp given where the 500E belts it out in the rpm range) makes it no contest..... I don't have the drag coefficient on both cars in front of me but it isn't different enough to offset the near 80 lb-ft handicap the C36 suffers.

Lee, I agree with you somewhat. The E500 will GET to it's top speed in much less time than the C36, but I don't think it's top speed will be too much higher, maybe 10mph at the most.

I can't see that a bone-stock E500 would go faster than 175mph, even with a gearing change.

I recently drove an uncorked E55 to 180mph, and the car had nothing left, thanks to drag. The E55 has a much lower cd and more power than an E500, and the .83 fifth gear. We pulled about 5700 rpm in top and the car had hit it's drag wall. I just can't see the E500 besting it's newer sibling. The physics just don't make sense.

AMG advertised that an uncorked C36 with the 722.6 tranny will eventually get to 170mph. I drove our 4-speed C36 at 250 km/h (155mph) and agree about it not having lots of room remaining. Part of that is gearing. The C36 was too close to redline to pull much more. Maybe another 5-8 mph at the most. I do dispute that the W124 "slightly wider body" of the E500 has similar drag properties of the W202 C36. I remember reading somewhere the cd of the 300E was .36, and the E500 would be higher than that. The C36 is .32. That's a significant difference at 150mph.

Look at the new W203 C32, at .29, it hits it's drag wall at 310 km/h with 345hp. Some 20 km/h faster than an E55 despite similar horsepower. Aerodynamics count for a great deal at high speed, as the equation is about horsepower and drag. Weight and torque play no role. If we have two cars with identical bodies and identical engines, but we put 1000lbs of lead in one, they will have the same top speed. HP:Weight means nothing.

Considering that the similar era (as the E500) Porsche 911 Turbo struggles to break 170mph, I think the E500 performance is astounding. But a 180 mph car it ain't.

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John Shellenberg
1998 C230 "Black Betty" 240K

http://img31.exs.cx/img31/4050/tophat6.gif

How fast would an unlimited 92 400E go? Does it hit its electronically limited top speed of 155 quickly? Never had the chance (yet) to see what it will do. I think it has a 2.24 rear end in it. Is this the same as the 500E? I know its prolly not near what a 500E can do, but it cant be too far off? eh?

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93 300D 2.5 Turbo, Black/Palomino 273K
09 E350 Black/Black 41K

I would venture that the 400E with stock gears is probably top-speed limited in the same way as the C36 due to is lower amount of torque.

We have a C36 engine & tranny but a 3.07 LSD diff (C36 stock is 2.87 diff) in a W124 wagon, and the most I've got is about 153 MPH, and it took some time to get there (talk about drag in a wagon!).

Getting to 147 MPH in the wagon wasn't a problem though. Unfortunately after 90 MPH, the 500E has so much more acceleration than the wagon.

With our chipped & rev-limiter removed in the 500E, we got her upto 160 MPH, but it definitely took her sweet time after 150 MPH and that's with 245/45WR17 tires.

:-) neil
1988 360TE AMG
1993 500E

NEIL....That day that you installed Davids chip in...at SB....i took the car for a ride with my other friend on the freeway.....I did easy 150mph..after a few second i hit 161mph...the pin was down to its max..but i think i could have gone faster if it wasn't for the approching turnd that i took at 150mph...but yah..that sucker is fast..

Does anybody know what custom Turbo Exhaust Manifolds go for done properly?

What about the Bosch FI programming, does anyone know of untapped talent out there?

I can't believe no one in the US has stepped up with a Turbo or Supercharger 500E / E500 with so many speed freaks out there.

I have recently been sent some new photo's of this car, is anyone interested in seeing them? Here is a sample.

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Holy $hit!

Please post more

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93 300D 2.5 Turbo, Black/Palomino 273K
09 E350 Black/Black 41K

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This car is currently making 570 HP and 590 lbs of torque or 800nm.

If anyone wants the original full size images just let me know.
BTW, this setup could be done for any 400E E420, S500, SL500.