The days of Mercedes model naming giving any indication as to what's under the bonnet are long gone. The Mercedes E63 AMG never had a 6.3-litre engine - the old car packed a naturally-aspirated 6.2-litre V8. Now the powerplant has shrunk to 5.5-litres, but has sprouted a pair of turbochargers. It is the same V8 mill already found in the CLS63, S63 and CL63 AMG. At pretty much any revs, in any gear, there is vast thrust. Speed builds quickly and, owing to the smoothness of the delivery, rather deceptively. To experience the full force of the E63’s new engine, you need to call up Sport Plus. Do so and you discover the reworked gearbox picks off gears with greater speed and precision than before thanks to improvements in the mechanical clutch and changes to the Speedshift software package controlling it. Given the heroic performance, the new E63 is reasonably economical, too.
Official figures suggest it’ll return 28.8mpg on a mixture of city and motorway driving for an improvement of 4.5mpg over the old E63. The E63 is capable of shaving ten seconds off the old model's lap time at the Nurburgring, bringing it under eight minutes for the first time. Not too shabby for a car that car carry five adults and nominal 540-litres of luggage in saloon guise, rising to 695-litres for the estate. With all the regulatory measures in place today, it is becoming hard to justify owning a car like this in Britain. However, those in the market for a rapid four door saloon or estate will no doubt be tempted by the Mercedes-Benz E63. The changes AMG has brought to its latest model make it a better everyday proposition while extending its already haughty performance potential and providing it with impressive fuel economy when driven at posted limits. It's not cheap, of course, but 500-odd-bhp supersaloons rarely are. Its price matches that of the BMW M5, but the Jaguar XFR - a model which in our eyes edges the Merc - is around £10,000 less.
In this case a yellow warning light flashes in the instrument panel - a clear signal to adjust their driving style to the road conditions. The arrangement featuring a permanent design mechanism has key advantages over other systems that first need to diagnose a lack of traction before activating their 4x4 all-wheel drive. The 4MATIC on the GLK will have already made use of this valuable time to transmit drive torque via the wheels to the road. Just like any all-wheel-drive system, 4MATIC in the GLK has to abide by the laws of physics, a fact clearly illustrated in what is known as the “Kamm circle”. The fundamental rule is that a tyre is only able to transfer a certain level of overall force to the road surface. If a large amount of force is required in a longitudinal direction, for example when accelerating or braking, the lateral forces available are reduced.
When cornering the reverse applies. In this case a particularly high degree of lateral force is needed for directional stability, whilst the longitudinal force potential is restricted. When designing the drive mechanism and fine-tuning the control systems, engineers’ skills are called upon to use this correlation in such a way that the very best possible handling is ensured in any conditions. The frictional coefficient µ describes the physical grip between the tyres and the road surface. Despite the engineers’ best efforts, it is ultimately the drivers themselves who determine how safe they are on the road. They should always adapt their driving style in accordance with wintry conditions and ensure that their vehicle is suitably equipped; winter tyres are absolutely essential. The employees at the Mercedes-Benz Technology Centre have a wealth of experience at their fingertips in this respect. The first all-wheel-drive system was created over 100 years ago, and the engineers also occupy a leading position where the fine-tuning of all-wheel-drive control systems is concerned.
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