The Mercedes CL65 AMG Is A Forgotten 603 HP Super-Coupe That Could Live With A Lamborghini | Carscoops carscoops
’s road test, and could hit 100 mph in 12 seconds. By the standards of the day it was a rapid car, one you’d need a Ferrari, Lamborghini or Porsche 911 Turbo to leave trailing.Or a CL65. The regular twin-turbo CL600 was already a weapon, its 5.5-liter twin-turbo V12 rated at the same 493 hp as the V8 CL55, but allegedly putting out closer to 550 hp in reality. The CL65, though, gained an extra 500 cc of capacity and pumped out a shocking 603 hp and a full 1,000 Nm of torque.
made the same 603 hp as the CL65 and only 435 lb-ft , though obviously it was lighter and quicker in a straight line. But maybe not by as much as you’d imagine. The CL’s predictable problem wasn’t its power-to-weight ratio, but traction. With no 4Matic all-wheel drive and most of the weight over the nose, rear axle stiction in the wet was a joke, and even in the dry it wasn’t easy to hook the tires up from a dead stop.
So the CL65 took around 2.2 seconds to reach 30 mph , more than half a second longer than a 444 hp Porsche 996 Turbo or 572 hp . By 60 mph though, which it hit in 4.5 seconds, the AMG was literally making up for lost time, and when it smashed through the 100 mph barrier in 8.8 seconds, it was neck and neck with the Lambo and only a couple of tenths behind the Porsche. And it didn’t stop there. In thecomparison with the Bentley Continental GT, the Merc got to 150 mph a crazy 9 seconds sooner.
The M5 duo definitely hadn’t, either. I’ve no idea if they knew the significance of the “65” badges, or whether they just saw that it was an AMG and fancied a play anyway. But the look on their faces – a mixture of laughter, wild-eyed shock and resignation – when we exchanged nods, I let them nose ahead and then breezed past them like they’d wrong-slotted from third to sixth, was priceless.
Modern EV drivers know that look. And in a way, an EV’s power delivery, a huge wave of torque that’s accessible at any time and delivered without fuss or vibration, isn’t that far removed from the experience of piloting. Of course, anyone looking for a new EV today is unlikely to care that you can buy one of those W215 CL65s with 60,000 miles for as little as $30k, like the gorgeous car in these pictures that sold onthis summer.
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