Yeah, I totally agree, but so will an E250 in that scenario.

For me it's not all about power, just driving pleasure. The E500 has got a slightly heavier feel in the front end, and to me is just a more refined drive, and that exhaust note is just beautiful. The E400 sounds like a sewing machine, and almost like a diesel when it's idling. I think they could have done a much better job of it IMO, especially now that it's the top of the E-Class range, excluding the E63 of course. I wasn't surprised from the video though, coz the one I drove certainly had plenty of poke and didn't feel any slower than the V8.

 

Sry, thinking backwards. The point of manual is to shift when you decide to shift and only shift when to protect the engine instead of when its optimum.

So if the driver shifts before the car is in optimum rpm range... Early shifting for a delayed engine response.
The Driver of the E500 manually shifts from 1-2 @ 4500rpm, and from 2-3 at 6000rpms and lets off the throttle at 5000 rpm in 3rd, while the E400 shifts near redline in 1, 2, and goes to redline in 3rd. Therefore the E500 never hit peak HP.
I guess whoever made the video is trying to fool people into thinking that the performance of the E400 is almost as good as an E500.

The truth is that the max performance of an E400 is still not good enough to keep up with an E500 performing at ~70% peak power.

 

Ah, OK, I guess I get your point. However, please keep in mind, that the rpm meter is dampened! In the Video shown above, the car shifts at:


1->2: ~60km/h
2->3: ~100km/h


Feel free to check out my 550 videos in my signature. If I take a look at my CLS550 Shooting Brake:




the shift points are identical.


Your comment at the behavior in third gear on the other hand is correct. Even though I do believe that this video was only made to show the acceleration to 100km/h (62 mph)...


Peak Power is 5,250-5,750 rpm...feel free to watch my videos. Those M278 cars shift quite a bit earlier than those M273 cars (and they use the same transmission and rear axle ratios).

 

I guess I dont even know what you are talking about now.
Are you still talking about the E500? Because in the video the guy goes from 1-2 @ 28km/h. lol, he may as well have just started in 2nd.
2-3 was @ 85km/h.
And while I did mention peak hp, short shifting is not about peak hp, its more about using peak hp at the appropriate gear while trying to accelerate quickly.
If you remember the difference when riding pedal bikes then I don't need to say any more.
So regardless what happens in your videos, it is quite evident what was deliberately done in the E400/E500 video posted above.

Anyway, Mercedes named the car E400 for a reason, so I don't get why the maker of that video is trying to fool anyone.
If Mercedes thought that the performance of the V6TT was a fitting replacement for the V8TT they would have named it E500/E550, instead of indicating that its only slightly better than an E350.

That video is so fake I am not even sure if that acceleration run was really an E400.