Take, for example, the 2.9 seconds to get to 60km/h. It's even quicker than the storming sedans compared in this issue. Moving from P to wheee is a brief experience in the CLK55.
The result of this devilish pairing of kilowatts and minimal (for a Mercedes) lardiness is performance that packs a prodigious punch in the back. It didn’t take long to realise the $195,200 AMG machine fills a void in the performance car world that the CLK 4.3 couldn’t ever hope to plug. Any improvement with the beefed-up, AMG-ified coupe would be slight and superficial over the CLK 4.3 we drove in the April issue. Perhaps we were naive, but we really thought there couldn't be much point bothering with the factory-massaged CLK55.
Maximum torque of 510Nm at 3000rpm is down 15Nm from the E55 engine. With only a single-cam and three valves the Mercedes V8 is no technophile's joy, but it still develops power and torque in bulk. This resulted in a power reduction of 5kW compared with the E55. Changes were made to the exhaust system so the engine could be wedged into the CLK's smaller engine bay. The CLK55's engine is essentially the same V8 Mercedes-Benz uses in the E55 (see page 36).
WHAT IS A PLACEHOLDER IN WORD FREE
At 1545kg, the CLK55 AMG is no featherweight, but when there's 255k W eager to fire from under the bonnet to the back wheels, some of those kilos get a free ride. And, as any hot-rodder can tell you, putting a great big, powerful engine into a small, light (ish) body is the way to accelerative success. It’s a size thing, where bigger is better, quicker is more convincing.
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