M113K Swapped W210 E55 AMG Takes On Unrestricted Autobahn
Stern Garage in Germany has taken this W210 E55 AMG and taught an old dog some supercharged new tricks.
There was once a time when we knew of the word “Hammer” and we were left in awe. Over-the-top power was the name of the game. AMG’s Hammer was of course the predecessor to what would be the W210 E55 AMG. And a legend was born.
No one would blame you if you left the M113 V8 engine alone in the E55. 305 horsepower is plenty. But Stern Garage in Germany specializes in these. And so this one is a M113K. Power? Almost double the standard E55. There’s 600 horsepower on tap. And this one clear wasn’t built to stand still.
Naturally if you’re in Germany, you do what Germans do with German cars. Hit the Autobahn. Acceleration of this W210 can only be described as brutal. And in almost no time, the speedometer is pegged at 280 kilometers per hour. For us Yanks, that’s 175 miles per hour. And it was still pulling hard when it reached that point. It could very well tickle the 200 mile per hour mark if given a little more speedometer to spin around. But an official top speed is unknown. But it is officially fast.
Speed is an interesting concept. It is both simple, and yet a deeply complicated question; how fast can you go? AMG models never really focused on this. Always held back by that 155 mile per hour speed limiter. And the additional 186 mile per hour limiter beyond that. But with 600 horsepower this thing slams into 175 miles per hour like a brick wall.
But this engine doesn’t have to push a brick wall. Depending on the source, you’ll find the W210 has excellent aerodynamic drag characteristics. Measures such as .29 to .27 are scattered over the web. That slippery shape is important, because drag essentially gets squared as a car goes faster. So the 20 mile per hour difference between 80 to 100 miles per hour is far less than 160 to 180 miles per hour. And considering this car is now 22 years old, we say that’s not a bad achievement at all.