GMBALL

I had a chance to race CLS 63 AMG with my 911 4S PDK and I have to say that I was quite surprised. I was expecting AMG to kill me since some time ago we raced Audi R8 against AMG and Audi got destroyed pretty badly. This time it was very interesting. If we race from a dig I would always take a lead until 120-125MPH and by 130MPH Mercedes would pass me, but very slowly. We haven't tried to race from a roll. By the way, PDK is insane! The best gearbox I have ever experienced.

Take a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEVomIrsMjk

Jons95c36amg

The 997 4s is awd. So going from a roll would be worse for the Porshe because of the huge trq difference.

kindafast

The P car has a weight advantage of more than 1000lbs and it's AWD, so from a dig you should get a decent jump, but up top the CLS will overwelm you with superior HP, everytime. Nice story

Improviz

...it will easily pick you up several tenths in 60' time, each of which translates to about double that in the 1/4 mile, so it's pretty easy to spank a much higher HP car out of the hole and for a long ways thereafter. When I had an Audi S4, I routinely beat faster cars with the launch advantage that thing gave me...frankly, I miss that whenever I try to get this beast out of the hole!!

Akademiks

LOL!!!!!

GMBALL

Well, it surely did help me a lot, but up to 125MPH the CLS wouldn't close the gap, it would stay just right there where it was at the start, only above 125 it would start to gain lost distance back but would pass me veeeeery slowly. What I am trying to say is that I was expecting this car to kill me rather easily, but the fact is that it takes a lot of time to pass me. We actually did one race from a roll, but it was very short (worth mentioning?), we both started at around 20MPH and went up to 120MPH and during that run we both were dead - no one won.

I am sure that Audi R8 doesn't have a chance against 997 and what surprises me even more is the fact that I am starting to believe Gustav's videos - especially the one where 997 C2S gives a really hard time to C63AMG.

Lexani

I was expecting the 55 to win. Maybe somethings wrong with it. Not trying to take anything away but the the 55 can beat/hang with a 996 Turbo.

GMBALL

This one was "63" and there is nothing wrong with it. Before this race "63" raced Audi R8 and killed it......badly. R8 had a jump from a dig, but only for two-three seconds.

Lexani

Oh snnnaaaaappz, I need to get my eyes checked-- carry on.

GMBALL

Doesn't really matter, Lexani. I think the story would be very similar with 55 (I know it is faster from a dig than 63, not by much though).

Lexani

You think the 997 Targa can go head to head versus the 996 Turbo? If memory serves, even the XD50 has a tough time against the 55s. I doubt it would be very similar, the 55s pull harder from a dig and harder up top. Just my view though, you raced you won (tied) and that's that. I wont argue facts because I don't know though them (I'm going from past experiences and videos I've seen on youtube) and I don't really care which is faster, I like both vehicles.

Improviz I'm sure can dish out all the data you need.

Improviz

Well, why would you think it would kill you? I checked online in the euro mags, and the two cars are very close in acceleration all the way up to 200 km/h (125 mph), within a second or so at that speed...so the only reason I can think of that you'd think he'd kill you is the horsepower difference, but the weight difference makes up for most of that in your case.

Now, once up at very high speeds, his horsepower advantage will give him an advantage as the higher drag force will be negated more by his higher torque/horsepower, but at lower speeds the results you had are entirely plausible.

In fact, check out the road test results for the two cars from C&D:
2009 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S PDK
Zero to 60 mph: 4.0 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 9.5 sec
Zero to 150 mph: 26.2 sec
Street start, 5–60 mph: 4.5 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 12.5 sec @ 113 mph

2007 Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG
Zero to 60 mph: 4.1 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 9.8 sec
Zero to 150 mph: 23.5 sec
Street start, 5-60 mph: 4.4 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 12.6 sec @ 114 mph

Pretty much validates your results: the cars are pretty even through the 1/4 mile, and then as speeds rise after that the CLS should start to pull.

Helluva machine you've got there, I've heard great things about the PDK. Enjoy!!

Lexani, my brother!! Long time no see, how ya been buddy?? Good to see you back here...it's funny, I saw this after I finished my post, you were telepathic there.

Lexani

See, I knew I could wait this out