Otto

the following information is from MB

for 5.5 liter engine

S55 -- 493 hp
CL55 -- 493 hp
SL55 -- 493 hp
E55 -- 469 hp
CLK55 -- 362 hp
G55 -- 349 hp
ML55 -- 342 hp

I understand that S55, CL55, and SL55 use supercharged and intercooled v-8 engine (but E55, too. however, there are 24 hp difference ??? because lower model MUST have less power ??? MB does not let E55 intake enough air)

without "supercharged and intercooled" feature, CLK55 only can have 362 hp but those suv(s), G55 and ML55 only have 349 hp and 342 hp. (less air in, less power out)

for 5.0 liter engine

most of cars have 302 hp but not for G500 and ML500 which only have 292 hp and 288 hp respectively.

for 320 liter engine

SLK32 AMG -- 349 hp
SLK320 -- 215 hp
CLK320 -- 215 hp
C320 -- 215 hp
E320 -- 221 hp

SLK32 AMG uses "supercharged and intercooled" engine and it gets 349 hp -- beats all 5.0 liter models (302 hp).

compare with other 3.2 liter models (execpt AMG one), E320 has 6 hp more.

the only model uses 3.7 liter engine in MB is ML350 which has 232 hp. it seems this engine is not so good.

I know if you can have more air into engine, you can have more power. suv seems not good at this. however, they are categorized to "truck" and do not have to pay "nozzle tax". that is why we see a lot of them on the roads.

bmms8

well, the way i see it....is that the E55 has less HP because the cofficient of drag is lower, than all the other cars, i am sure it is also lighter. so in this sense, it will go faster than any of the other AMG's. and it does, the e55 is the fastest model ever, but i doubt MB wanted to make the fastest model almost half the price as the CL55, with such a big speed margin, so they cut back on HP, so o-60 times would be closer. also, the SUV thing i believe is about torque, they tuned down the HP, and added more torque instead, so its better for off-roading or whatever, im not completely sure though

mbprince

The exhaust diameter on the E55 is smaller than that on the other cars using the same supercharged engine. This may be because of underbody design constraints or to intentionally limit the power.

E55 KEV

This E55 Horsepower dilemma has been greatly covered in the E55 section. The supercharged engines of the 2003 SL55, CL55, S55 and E55 are speculated to be the same. The E55 loses 24 HP on paper due to some marketing/advertising reason.

Some history - The 1999-2002 E55 has always been 'advertiesed' with 349HP. The 2002 S55 & CL55 were advertised with 355HP. Take a look at the HP rating (SAE for U.S.) from my E55 owners manual: