RJC

I never really explored the full acceleration potential of my 500, well last night coming home I was at a light with a guy on a beautiful custom harley davidson, the rider sat low and close to the ground but was not a full chopper with the long front forks, the thing sounded as good as it looked, the guy on the bike was in his 30-40's. I just had a feeling after seeing him blast off from the last light that he and I would be racing...guess what, we did. We both pulled away from the light together with decent power applied (albeit not full) then as soon as I heard him nail it I did and off we went, well i was able to pull on him by about half a car length and my little CLK500 was now going over 100mph and I noticed (left it in auto) that the shift point was about 200 rpms in to the red! WOW! When we slowed down at the next light which was about half a mile he gave me a big thumbs up and I returned it with a smile, quite frankly I was laughing to myself that this damn car was so strong. I don't know if it's normal to beat cutom Harleys with 300 hp cars but I did and I don't know if he was the best rider but we both hit it at the same time. I read the Car and Driver a few months back that tested a CLK 500 with some pretty impressive #'s and I gotta say they could be pretty darn realistic. I used to own some very fast cars when I was younger ie Porsche 930 turbos, Ferraris etc but for the past 7 years I've been drivng MB coupes. I know the 500 is no E55, but she did me proud and the acceleration was damn good...damn good indeed. I doubt I will ever do this kind of thing again as I would not want to end up losing my license doing 100+ in a 45! When I think back of the speeds i traveled in the past especially in the Porsche turbo's I'm lucky to #1 be alive and #2 not have lost my license or hurt someone else. Sorry for the long post but I wanted to share it with fellow 209'ers.

Sydney Benz

Hi RJC,

my CLK 500 is 2 weeks old and I am equally IMPRESSED by the power and speed. Wonderful car.