StephenK

I have read several threads throughout this forum about Mercedes and the rating of their cars horsepower. So many people have made claims that the power is underrated and they have put their cars on a "DYNO" and have rated higher ratings than Mercedes publishes. I can't figure out why they would do that. Is there any truth to this?

RadSteve

I have difficulty understanding what the advantage would be for MB to do this, if indeed they do.

WIldcat465

I've heard on more than one occasion that (e.g., on the SL600 vs. SL55) it's done to keep from hurting AMG sales.

vraa

Well, what other companies make cars with some 500hp and a retractable roof etc,?

LovinMercedes

I have no idea if this is true but I have heard that they do this as a result of having lost a law suit about a car not having enough horsepower.

I have heard of several people who have dyno tested the SL600 engine and have said the engine actually had between 535 and 550 horsepower.

I even remember seeing a copy of a test on a forum and I believe it showed 535.

I asked my dealer if this seemed true and he believed it did. As for me, I have no actual knowledge.

I have also heard of what Wildcat speaks of with respect to the comparison to the SL55 AMG. Having owned both cars, I can assure you the SL600 is faster.

vraa

LovinSL600 hits it on another point as well. But underrating by 10% is quite a lot

Remember the Mustang Cobra fiasco. And then just recently there was another one from a Korean company (I can't remember)

StephenK

Is there a way to determine how much a car actually produces? I have heard references to a "dyno", but I am in the dark about it. What's involved in actually testing a car, what do they do?

I found this about the horsepower issue,

http://www.bnzsport.com/forums/index...howtopic=12487

vraa

http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&rls=GGLD,GGLD:200 5-10,GGLD:en&oi=defmore&q=defineyno

A contraction of "Dynamometer," an engine-testing device used in the shop that measures power and simulates the loads and environment of a racing engine.



A car is driven onto a set of rollers and then tied down and then driven to the max.



It's kinda cool

Then a computer analyzes and evaluates the data to print out a Dynograph.







A lot of these images are from Evosport.com or just searching through google. The Dynograph is from Ben's old CLK43k. Wicked cool car.

StephenK

MBUSA states 0-60 in 4.5 seconds.

Car & Driver states 0-60 in 3.6 seconds.

http://www.caranddriver.com/article....&page_number=1

Is this possible?

I found another article comparing SL600 to SL65. Interesting.

http://www.caranddriver.com/article....&page_number=1

vraa

Car makers are very conservative when rating horsepower and specs that could vary from region to region.

If you run that same SL600 on a track in Houston and then run it at a track in the middle of Nevada, you will find very different times and the times that Mercedes puts out must take those into account. You don't want customers running after you for false advertising.

carlosfernandez

It's make sence to me.

Gunther

my understanding is that they typically underrate the hp as well as other ratings to ensure that that can achieve the proclaimed standards.

sillydriver

I’m not sure whether the forums can be searched so far back, but there were long discussions (arguments) about the CD results when they first came out. My personal conclusion is that the 600 CD originally tested was tuned with Renntech or other software, which gave it performance close to a stock SL65, as measured in the later SL65 test. I can attest from personal experience that a stock SL600 accelerates faster than an SL55, and that a tuned SL600 accelerates significantly faster than a stock SL600. I haven’t driven an SL65.

Lexani

Sillydriver,

I was involved in that very arguement of which you speak, and lets put it this way...

This was directed to Improviz, in my opinion, a very respectable member of mbworld.org, who brought up this same point of the SL600 times.

https://mbworld.org/forums/showpost....&postcount=252

And thats how I convinced myself, that the SL600 time of 3.6 to 60, is infact stock and not modded.