All Entries Tagged With: "W124"
Mercedes 300E AMG “Hammer” v. 500E
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: Mercedes-Benz 300E AMG “Hammer” and 500E
STOP the presses and hold your horses! Turning the corner of the 80s and understeering into the 90s, there was not one, but two hyper-tuned, E-Class super-saloons of power: the 300E AMG a.k.a. “The Hammer” and the 500E.
Yours had recently made the error, grievous as it was, to dare call the 500E “Hammer”. As a commenter rightly explained it’s simply not true. Here’s the difference:
>>> the difference following the jump >>>
500E Mercedes Retrospective
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img via eBay Motors ::: 500E Mercedes For Sale
EIGHTEEN days. That’s the amount of time it took to tune and turn one stock, buttoned-down W124 generation Mercedes-Benz E-Class, into the monstrous Bahn-stormer known as the 500E .
The 500E (“500E” in ’94-’95) was a prelude of sorts.
Sold in the pre-AMG/Mercedes-Benz partnership era – 1990-1995 – there were few factory options to radicalizing your Benz’s performance. It was by what some might say divine intervention that Stuttgart commissioned rival sports car maker Porsche to construct a special, limited edition series of the popular Eintspritzung sedans.
Zuffenhausen obliged. The result was epic.
Mercedes shoe-horned the same M119, 5.0 Liter V8 motor as found in the R129 SL-Class (500SL) and the W140 S-Class (420 & 500SEL) under the bonnet; an engineering feat so tight that it forced Mercedes to relocate the battery to the trunk.
Handing the kit over to Porsche, Porsche’s engineers in turn tuned the 500E to produce 326 hp and 354 lb-ft of torque.
Performance dropped 0-60 numbers to the low sixes high fives and the quarter mile could be reached at 101 mph after 14 seconds. Electronically limited to 155 mph, untied, the Benz could reach 170 mph.
Visually, the 500E brauny but composed exterior exudes a special kind of menace.
Quite distinct from a stock W124 E, the 500′s body was lowered, fenders flared and track widened, while Mercedes fitted the SL roadster’s brakes and the S-Class’ hydropneumatic self-leveling suspension. Porsche tossed the standard recirculating ball steering for a far more assembly that registered among the most tactile handling systems Mercedes produced.
The car sold for North of $80K, featured one of the first drive-by-wire throttle systems ($1,200 to replace today, FYI) , and was stuffed with every amenity Mercedes could offer – including 2+2 coupe style Recaro bucket seating and non-defeatable ASR traction control.
In the exclusive tradition of the 450SEL 6.9, the 5ooE was built in limited numbers – 10,359 units in total. Good news for would-be buyers. Sad for the rest of us.
Mercedes E-Class Generational Safety Comparison
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: YouTube ::: W124, W210, W212 crash tests
WHILE it may be some years since Mercedes-Benz built cars that felt like a “vault,” it’s nonetheless apparent that Stuttgart has been making advances in passive safety-cell technology.
News flash, you say.
Actually, the correlation between newness and safety cell rigidity isn’t what statisticians would call a “direct relationship.” In offset crash testing, the structural rigidity of pre-facelift W210 E-Class (1996-1999) left something to be desired particularly when compared to the stronger performance of the W124 predecessor (1984-1995).
(W210)
(W124)
Mercedes later corrected this (unforgivable) fault in “post-facelift” models (2000-2002) by strengthening the A-pillars and supporting cross members; among other benefits, this kept the roof from buckling in on the front occupants during a frontal collision at 40 mph.
(W210 post facelift)
The upshot? In generational comparisons, it’s apparent that the latest isn’t always the greatest – even in terms of safety engineering.
Mercedes-Benz A208 CLK-Class v. 2011 E-Class
- 2011 Mercedes E-Class Cabriolet seems terribly complicated
- Remembering the original CLK-Class by Bruno Sacco
- Simpler times meant prettier cars
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Daimler, AG
LOOKING over the latest 2011 E-Class cabriolet photos, I’m struck by the sheer complexity that the designers have imbued in a car that should really just project straight-forward fun-in-the-sun.
There are so many conflicting themes at work – it’s like the designers thought: alright we’ll start with a little 80s, then borrow from Bangle by torching it all with flame, add on every current design cliche that we can think of, and then throw on some phat rims!
To be sure, the new droptop’s got more presence than its softish A209 CLK predecessor, but Mercedes is still off its A-game.
Consider, if you will, the original, A208 CLK cabriolet, as a fine case in point. One of Bruno Sacco’s last hoorrahs, the CLK-Class was a buttoned down German following an hour in Margaritaville.
Those happy oval headlamps coupled with a front air dam that wrapped the front fascia with a smile, shook the starch out of the stodgy, but widely admired W124 E320 cabriolet.
For their part, the driving dynamics were strides ahead of its wooden predecessor – cowl shake, for instance, was drastically reduced thanks to increased torsional stiffness – plus Mercedes gave us an array of new engine options that extended to an AMG V8.
The CLK carried on tradition, however, in that Mercedes 2+2 drop tops previously featured the upright chrome grille with tri star embem mounted on top. Would it have hurt Mercedes design to have offered this feature on the latest E-Class?
The CLK was a radical departure in its time, but now those soft corners, clean, purposeful lines and tight proportions seem just right.
Achtung! Mercedes Ready to Launch E-Class Cabrio
- Mercedes preps us for 2011 E-Class Cabriolet launch
- Softtop, not hardtop, more aggressively styled than milky CLK forebear
- E-Class cabrio’s power options on E350 and E550 (E500 in EU) potent but relatively mild
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Daimler, AG
BY every measure the 2011 Mercedes-Benz E-Class cabriolet stands as a more substantial 2+2 boulevardier than its predecessor, the silky soft CLK.
Mercedes traditionally positioned the E-Class (or CLK) convertibles for a more feminine buyer but this latest iteration seems to have struck a better balance. Unlike the original W124 E-Class but like its more immediate predecessors, the E-Class cabriolet will be based on C-Class underpinnings.
Ever since the time 60s, MB designers have taken the harder edges of an E-Class sedan and rounded them ever so slightly to appeal to our softer, inner hedonists. The point was to not worry about performance or the expectation thereof (the 90s E320 cabriolet was a casual performer at best) and to just sit back and enjoy the wind in your hair.
Or not. Mercedes like BMW and the rest have previously deployed rear seat wind-deflectors to help curb back draft; the sticking point being that you ceded use of the back seats.
In the 2011 E-Class cabrio, Mercedes looks to have mitigated this somewhat by taking notes from the Volkswagen EOS and implementing their own “AirCap system” – a 2.4 inch wind screen that pops up from the top of the windshield when the roof is lowered to reduce those ill winds that give ladies “convertible hair”.
In cooler months, Mercedes AirScarf system – first deployed on the SLK and then, messily, on the SL (think ET headrests) – which will pump warm air to the driver and front passengers necks.
Rear passengers get to freeze, sorry.
But back to what makes the 2011 cabrio a more distinctive ride than the 2010.
The amoeba headlamps and soft curves of the predecessor CLK model were pretty and pretty generic. That car’s best angle was from the rear 3/4 perspective, which also gave you the impression that what you’re looking at was most any Euro-designed droptop – Is it a Peugeot? Audi? Zil?
The latest model which will bow in Detroit next month keeps the angular facia and hood creases from the E-Class sedan and then carries all that pent-up surface tension rearward along the side panels. There’s even an S-Class-ish rear wheel-well arch that rises from the rockers flows up over the wheel and then shoots aft in a straightline to the rectangular tail lights.
The cabrio’s new essence is aggressive: for the softop appears to be in forward motion even when stationary. Speaking of aggressive, the engine options are actualy fairly mild in contrast to the super-tuned behemoth V8s and V12s that we’ve come to expect.
The E350 cab will feature a 3.5 liter V6 channeling a respectable 268 horsepower with 258 lb-ft of torque, while the E550 cab’s 5.5 liter V8 keeps the horses relatively reined in @ 382 hp and 391 lb-ft, respectively. If this were the year 2000, the V8′s figures would’ve represented serious, AMG grade power.
But in a twin-turbo, 600 horsepower world, we’ve become jaded. Which is how buyers of Benz’s latest cabrio are sure to feel.
The Trouble With Mercedes’ W210 E-Class
Legacy lost?
By Gunnar Heinrich
WHEN Mercedes unveiled the first oval-headlamped E-Class in 1996; it caught the competition off guard, rewrote the book on how a midlevel luxury sedan ought to look, and took the car buying public by storm.
The sedan (first, then frumpy wagon, and tight coupe/convertible re-dubbed CLK) was conservative enough to be faithful to years of Teutonic design language but avantgarde so as to stand in bold contrast with its siblings.
Aesthetically, it was a sensation. As feat of engineering the W210 was a round flop.
The cars didn’t age well. Online forums are rampant with complaints of body rust and poor reliability. Word of mouth confirmation from owners who happily traded to the W211 generation confirm this.
Worse, passive cell safety, while an improvement over the predecessor W124 generation, wasn’t up to par with BMW’s E39 5er or the solidity standards set by the W126 and W140 generation S-Class.
In short, the E-Class was the start of an oily slope that sent the brand down a compromised path for the better part of 10 years. It’s only now that Mercedes has begun to recover with the newly reworked C-Class that MB insists is a tried ‘n true, overqualified Benz.
That having been said, will this, the best looking yet least reliable generation of E-Class Benzes, be lost to the ambivalence of time and the wider public only to be registered by the scorn of unyielding MB conservatives?
Kraft Und Character: E-Class Generations Observed
krafty komparo
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG von Mercedes-Benz CLASSIC via Germancarzone.com
CURIOSITY got the better of me.
In an online bid to decide which generation Benz E-Class earned ADL’s non-monetary award for best-most-awesome-nevabetta-over-engineered-vault-like-tank, my searches unearthed an interesting comparo.
Posted to a forum on Germancarzone.com, a self described “photo phanatic” shared the above photo along with a very rough abstract of an article first published in the German print issue, Mercedes-Benz CLASSIC.
As we might have guessed, the original report found that the old (W114) 280E was a sprightly, if nervous performer; the (W124) 500E does chase Porsches; and the (W211) E63 AMG is a UN sanctioned, roadgoing weapon of mass destruction.
The performance Gods of Valhalla are in the following technical details.
280E Technical Data
Engine: 2746cc inline-6
Power: 185-horsepower @ 6,000 RPM
Torque: 238 Nm @ 4,500 RPM
Transmission: 4-speed manual (optional 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic)
0-100 km/h: 9.8 seconds
Top Speed: 200 km/h
Fuel Economy: 16 L / 100 km
Units Produced: 22,836
E500 Technical Data
Engine: 4973cc V8
Power: 320-horsepower @ 5,600 RPM
Torque: 470 Nm @ 3,900 RPM
Transmission: 4-speed automatic
0-100 km/h: 6.1 seconds
Top Speed: 250 km/h (limited)
Fuel Economy: 16.9 L / 100 km
Units Produced: 500
E63 AMG Technical Data
Engine: 6208cc V8
Power: 514-horsepower @ 6,800 RPM
Torque: 630 Nm @ 5,200 RPM
Transmission: 7-speed automatic
0-100 km/h: 4.5 seconds
Top Speed: 250 km/h (limited)
Fuel Economy: 14.3 L / 100 km
Units Produced: currently in production
[Linked: Germancarzone.com]
E Class Generations
From left to right: W120, W110, W114, W123, W124, W210, W211
