Having an AMG badge is a seriously enviable mark of distinction. It says you have the money to go the extra mile and suggests you have a taste for power and perhaps even the talent to manage it. So here’s an example of badging that’s enviable and then some. The hottest member, in fact, of a very hot family: lighter than its CLK stablemates, with more power, less mass, and more of everything else, brakes, tires, and suspension.
Mercedes-Benz 'Reviews' - Page 2
The 2007 Mercedes CL600 will immediately impress you when you hit the accelerator. Automatic gearshifts pop off one after another, but the onward rush is hardly interrupted. From the moment the car lunges away from rest with a sharp squeal of rear wheelspin until the 130-mph speed limiter gently restrains its charge, the CL rushes forward on an unstoppable tide of torque.
You will also be impressed with the 5.5-liter twin-turbo V-12 produces 612 pound-feet of twist from a mere 1800 rpm and sustains that level to 3500 rpm. So each of the five gears provides relentless thrust throughout its range.
Mercedes-Benz has decided to begin to market its SLR McLaren super sports car in the form of a roadster with a top. In common with Formula 1 vehicles of today, it, too, will be made of carbon-fiber, a material that will endow the vehicle with a very high degree of safety as well as extreme torsional stiffness at the same high level as the coupe version.
This gives rise, in combination with the racing-type chassis, to outstanding ride characteristics. The top speed of the new Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster, which is powered by an AMG V8 compressor engine delivering 617 bhp, is 206 mph, therefore at the same high level as the coupe.