New M5 beats E55 by 10-15 CL to a 155 mph?Autocar first test-drive of the M5...
As time gets closer to the release date, the more push out it seems from BMW. There must be something seriously wrong that would force BMW to push out the car again. I am actually very worried that the 1st year car with all of its idiotic electronics would be a total disaster waiting for happen.
krispykrme, if you can't even select optimum gear to accelerate then how many downshifts do you think it will take to get into M5's powerband, @around 6-8000rpms. The car has been very aggressively geared, not exactly like a 360M, maybe slightly longer times between shifts, but shifting 7 gears manually is a hell of a task, on track or off. The E55 has only 5 right now, but in future, the E63 will be equipped with 7G Tronic, that can skip gears on kickdown and perform a 2 gear downshift in 0.2 seconds.
In my book, these cars will be very close. In the real world where you'll be driving in 7th gear at 60mph, you will need to shift 4 gears!!! to get into the action, and the E55 will be long gone by then, but still, all I'm saying is the M5 is faster right now, I seriously hope to be pleasantly surprised.
These are the gear ratios and speeds of the M5 calculated from tire size and its gearing....
http://www.car-videos.com/tools/spee...B1=Recalculate
E55
0-100 km/h in 4.92
1/4 mile in 12.89 @ 173 km/h
1km in 23.8 @ 233 km/h
M5
0-100 in 4.58
1/4 mile in 12.61 @ 185 km/h
1km in 22.7 @ 246 km/h
M5 is mph faster over 1km, which is just over 1/2 mile.
Now for the surprise & the wonder of gearing & lower mass. Remember M5 has peak torque of 520NM @ 6100rpm. But it has plenty torque low down. Here's the rolling runs starting at 80.
At 80 in 3rd gear M5 is at 4100 rpm, in 4th its at 3100rpm & in 5th its at 2600rpm.
80-120 km/h
3rd gear M5 2.77 E55 3.83
4th gear M5 4.17 E55 5.78
5th gear M5 4.82 E55 7.35
Notice even though in 5th M5 is at 2600rpm it still is almost 3 seconds faster that 700NM E55. Why? Well M5 is at 2600rpm but E55 is at 1500rpm. Long gearing to match the E55's torque playeau vs short gearing to match M5's high rpm horsepower. Also M5 is 200kg lighter. Not wise to give up 200kg to a car that's pushing more horespower & is using gearing to get more torque to the wheels at any speed in any gear.
120-160 km/h
3rd gear M5 3.05 E55 4.40
4th gear M5 4.24 E55 6.21
5th gear M5 4.91 E55 7.50
I reckon MErc should consider some weight saving techniques. Short gearing always gets more torque to the wheels due to a gear ratio being a torque mutiplier & the fact that you are always higher up the rev-range compared to a longer-geared car.

So once again, hte "proof" of your BS is just now posted random numbers from an unnamed magazine? Is that all you have? Sweet Jesus, NOW I believe it!
Last edited by Belmondo; Sep 14, 2004 at 05:41 PM.
F=MA, Force - MAss X acceleration
Hence Acceleration = Force / Mass
Now Force is Torque. SO surely to get a mass moving its torque/mass. ITs not the torque that matters but the torque to weight ratio. So who cares about horsepower anyway, its only torque in the equation.
WRONG!
That's just a once off application of torque to an object. Say you place a tennis ball on a bar & apply a certain amount of torque to it. It will accelerate depending on the amount of torque applied & the weight of the tennis ball.
But as soon as leave it, it will slow down due to rolling resistance from the bar & other forms of friction.
You need to place your finger on it & KEEP applying torque. THat's horsepower. The ability to sustain torque. By definition it is the rate at which torque is applied.
M5 makes max torque at 6100rpm. And its geared to run in the 6000-8200rpm band when racing. When a forced induction car's torque (& hence horsepower) is dropping off, the M5's power is on its way up.
If you are rolling in 5th gear at 1500rpm in an E55 (50mph) you may only have say 300hp at that point. The M5 is at 2600 rpm in 5th at that same speed & he's probably got the same power. But as the M5 will rev quicker being higher up the rev-range & will be in the powerband while the E55's power is starting to drop off.
The Best of Mercedes & AMG

Check out this link for Sport Auto's (Germany's biggest car magazine) test of C55 vs M3. I just want to illustrate what a difference gearing can make on rolling runs.
Bear in mind that M3 has only 6 gears & C55 weight is similar to M3's.
C55 has 510nm or 375 lb/ft
M3 has 365nm or 268 lb/ft
Aslo, if you look at the test below you will see that there's not much in it in the standing starts with the M3 being marginally quicker
http://www.track-challenge.com/compa...Car1=75&Car2=2
However check out the elasticity tests at the bottom
Elasticity (4./5./6.) C55 M3
80 - 100 Km/h 3,2 s / 3,9 s / - s 2,6 s / 3,4 s / 4,8 s
80 - 120 Km/h 6,3 s / 7,9 s / - s 5,2 s / 6,6 s / 9,5 s
80 - 160 Km/h 12,8 s / 15,9 s / - s 10,9 s / 13,9 s / 18,9 s
80 - 180 Km/h 16,3 s / 20,2 s / - s 14,1 s / 17,4 s / 25 s
80 - 200 Km/h - s / - s / - s 18 s / 21,6 s / 31,2 s
M3 is quicker in EVERY SINGLE ROLLING RUN.
Check for example 80-180 in 5th gear (50-113mph)
M3 is 3 seconds faster even though at 50mph in 5th it is at 2100rpm.
Reason being the gearing is so disparate due to the different philosophies. AMG have to use long gearing to take advantage of the huge torque plateau of their engines. But in doing so they are giving an tunes NA engine the advantage.
Very informative, very nice to compare E55 in its 5th gear with only 5 gears to begin with with M5 in 5th out of 7 gears.
Is that the way it happens is hte requierement for a race for M5 and E55 to produce same HP at given moment everything else is non issue?
What happens if M5 is in 5th out of 7 and you come upon E55 in 4th gear or third gear?
And then the M5 will really be in the power band & not at 2000rpm. With both cars in their respective powerbands the M5 WILL pull away due to its torque not dropping off at high rpm & its short gearing.
In you are in manual mode, then you will have to click the paddles to downshift to as low a gear as possible & take it from there.
I know the gearing on the 7 speed is not comparable to the E55's 5-speed, but who's problem is that. When you on the road who cars? It like the BMW guys complaining that MErc uses superchargers to compete. Who cares? The car is out there so deal with it.
Anyway, Merc have the 7G-tronic gearbox anyway. I'm sure they would put in in the E55 replacement. Problem is it doesn't help to have short gearing on a car that doesn't rev very high. That's why the 7G-Tronic has much longer gearing that the M5 anyway. M5's final drive is 3.62. It might make it closer, but the M5 will still be quicker on the rolling runs, even if the E55 had 7 gears.

This point in time is just the same as in late year 2002 or early 2003 when W211 E55 beat the crap out of E39 M5, which was 2-3 years old M technology. So... as you guys may have expected already..... soon AMG will unleash a new technology that will beat the crap out of E60 M5
And the war continues....
.
Dude there is no fight only HOT AIR.
Are you serious about Autocar ??
Because at the beginning of this thread Autocar has M5 ahead of E55 by 10-15 cars. What should I think after all "Autocar happens to be one of the top 3 biggest car magazines in the UK"
Also didn't you already posted all your numbers in C32 forum got your responce there-----------it is what it is dude nothing new. Why do you want reargue again? Not happy that they disagreed with you over there. Or do you think your numbers are the answer to hte every car race in hte world? C'mon , get over it.
M5 is not here for another year and you want me to believe you BS for 12 month without actually knoing if its true or not.
BTW, Autocar tend to favour Mercs in their shoot-outs. E55 has been their choice since its release & always wins the comparative shoot-outs with RS6, M5, Jag, etc.
I hear Merc will not use supercharging. That meant the E55 replacement might fall along the same lines as the C32 replacement. In other words it might not be much quicker than the car it replaces.
I hear Merc will not use supercharging. That meant the E55 replacement might fall along the same lines as the C32 replacement. In other words it might not be much quicker than the car it replaces.
THere is a video's posted by Henrik on Roadfly M3 board where C32 or 55 , I forgot, destroys M3 and so on and on and on. THere is no end to it.
But it seems the gearing on the E55's 3rd is comparable to the M5's 4th in terms of gear ratio. The same with the 4th & 5th. So if I look at the table & compare to a lower gear from the E55 I get this:
80-120km/h (50-75mph) seconds
M5 3rd 2.77 E55 2nd 2.84
M5 4th 4.17 E55 3rd 3.83 (E55 faster)
M5 5th 4.82 E55 4th 5.78
M5 6th 5.92 E55 5th 7.35
In fact in the M5 is TWO gears higher (6th vs 4th) its 5.92 vs 5.78. So it holds it own even 2 gears up.
120-160km/h (75-100mph) seconds
M5 4th 4.24 E55 3rd 4.40
M5 5th 4.91 E55 3rd 6.21
M5 6th 6.05 E55 5th 7.50
Of course E55's 5th is an overdrive gear so isn't comparable to M5's 6th. That's why M5 is over a second quicker whenever E55's 5th is used.
But the point is on the road who cares? Both will drop gears and as you can see, the M5 will have even more of an advantage when that happens. The E55 can't beat it at low rev lugging contests, so when they are both at high revs the M5 will be in its element.
I'm not saying that I trust these figures 100%. I do when I see a couple of independent magazines print those figures out. But I don't think he just made them all up either..
And the "Very informative, very nice to compare E55 in its 5th gear with only 5 gears to begin with with M5 in 5th out of 7 gears."
They are different cars! What should he compare it against? A modified M5 who had gear 6 and 7 removed?? The BMW comes out of the factory with 7 gears and the E55 with 5. That's it.
THere is a video's posted by Henrik on Roadfly M3 board where C32 or 55 , I forgot, destroys M3 and so on and on and on. THere is no end to it.
It's more of a 30 or 40 or 50 or whatever MP/H run. And then both drivers will supposedly be in the right gear to achieve max acceleration for that speed.
BTW, Autocar tend to favour Mercs in their shoot-outs. E55 has been their choice since its release & always wins the comparative shoot-outs with RS6, M5, Jag, etc.
I hear Merc will not use supercharging. That meant the E55 replacement might fall along the same lines as the C32 replacement. In other words it might not be much quicker than the car it replaces.
BTW, what relevance did the E46 M3 vs C55 reference have to this discussion? Regardless of your weight/gear arguments, your http://www.track-challenge.com/comp...?Car1=75&Car2=2
link shows two cars tested YEARS apart - different venues, different conditions. Just conjecture - proves little, IMO.
But I suspect that if you both drop to the lowest possible gears, there won't be much in it. Whoever get the right gear 1st will be ahead and the other guy won't be able to gain. But I suspect the M5 will still have the slight edge:
40-80 km/h (25-50mph) 2nd gear
M5 1.87 E55 2.35
I know the cars weren't tested on the same day but here's one where they were:
http://speed.supercars.net/boardpics...18820-CSLa.jpg
30-70mph M3 4.1, C55 4.5
I know the conditions can affect the results, but they weren't even close. If you factor a % change for conditions it wouldn't make much difference.
Some people that don't have an understanding for physics might say its impossible for an E55 to lose in a rolling run against an M5 with much less static torque. Well the C55 vs M3 runs prove that its possible.
Last edited by M&M; Sep 14, 2004 at 07:10 PM.
ME: "2>1"
YOU: " yeah but 1 fat dude can weigh more than 2 skinny dudes"
THere you have your "hard numbers".
"apologise"------- are you serious?
But back to the original topic, I reckon its impossible for an M5 to pull 10-15CL on an E55. Just plain dumb for journalists to talk such bull.
Belmondo: These are the only numbers that exists for the public right now. You don't have to BS them just because the Merc is a fraction slower in this particular test? Accept it for what it is, it's just bragging rights. Both cars are insainly fast. Everyone who buys these cars will enjoy the acceleration, in all gears. And I don't think a lot of people will buy one car or another based on some numbers anyway. Totally different cars for different buyers.


