I like the hood ornament on mine, all of you with the 2014's up don't have this great feature

 

I think my next car is gonna be a convertible and since the AMG does not offer one it's gotta be a E550, I guess the ride will be a little better, I'm waiting for a 2017 when there are even more tech features, I plan on keeping my 2012 AMG wagon and will trade my VW wagon in for the 2017 E550 Cabriolet.

 

Sounds like a great choice for your stable. AMG wagon and a convertible was how I chose to go as well. Did you need a 4 seater convertible? Otherwise, I think the AMG options would be a great way to go! No regrets with my SLK.

 

You forgot about me.

 

I'm not as great of a driver as most of you, so the awd keeps me AND you safe on the road with me at the helm of a 600bhp car

 

The Slk could be a possibility.

 

+1

 

I like either look, 12-13 or 14-16.

So, 14+ you can get BO Sound, and 360o cameras?, and of course standard AWD and LED headlights.

Are those the big differences? Anything I'm missing? 2012s are going for great prices it seems.

 

The LEDs with the active lighting system or whatever it's called are enough for me as they make a huge difference for me over xenon

The awd keeps me alive

I love love the 360 Birdseye view as it keeps my rims nice and clean and scuff free and makes parking a breeze and kinda fun

The BO sound has been discussed and most don't feel it's near worth the price

Also keep in mind the 2013+ has a better cooling system which can tolerate more aggressive track time in stock form and also a tune. If you don't think cooling is a big deal, ask the e55 and c63 guys about cooling issues

 

I was all about the facelift model until MB decided to give every class damn near identical front ends. That and AWD killed it for me. RWD, is much more fun and once we learn how to launch these cars and remove the tq limiter the RWD cars will have no problem against AWD at the track. I've got several hundreds of 1/4mile passes in my E55 and at least a hundred on street tires with low 1.7 60ft times. I highly doubt I'll have a problem with this platform. And plenty of those 1.72s 60ft launches were before the Quaife LSD. If we're making hypotheticals about performance, there aren't any real road race cars running AWD. Ok, there's a tiny percentage but not really in drag racing.

 

what about when you are driving your rwd as your daily driver on the street and you arent on your drag radial setup or sticky prepped track (yeah 1.70 60fts on street tires are great when you have a bucket of VHT poured on the surface) and an awd e63 lines up next to you? you spin your street tires on the rwd and the awd dead hooks and is gone

who buys a $100K car for the drag strip, these cars were built for the street and rwd on street tires gets smoked by awd on street tires when its same car then what? you do a ricer fly-by after the street loss ? or tell the guy at the next light "if we were at the drag strip i would of hooked and would of smoked you"..

and for awd in racing, i guess you have never heard of rally car racing rally car is more representative of real world driving than formula 1... ok so there are no jumps on the street like in rally, but there are many surface imperfections, dirt and debris and oil ,etc.... while in formula 1 the course surface is near perfect and if it heavy rains or snows they stop the race..... so yeah, formula1 runs rwd because it saves weight(less gas waste and pitstops for refiills) and they dont have to worry about ever racing surface that is pretty much less than perfect... the real world streets are not close to a formula1 track... they are imperfect and thats where awd shines... hence why they use awd in rally car, because it gives better traction on less than perfect surfaces

also in terms of street cars on track, nurburgring lap is considered the gold standard for production cars and the top 3 laps times by production cars are AWD (918, aventador and GTR)..... as mentioned before RWD gains advantage in racing in terms of weight reduction and thus pit stop refueling reduction and just one less pitstop from one car to another can win the race

there is a reason why GTR's are pretty much the car to beat on the street on street tires.... same reason why WRX/EVO's were feared on the streets before the GTR

but yeah for street, if you drive around on drag radials 24/7 then same RWD car would be just as fast as the AWD 600hp 4400lb car.... unless it rains, or snows, or is really cold out, or road has some pebbles on it, or dirt/ oil patch, or you want to go around a turn really fast.... the RWD really shines when it happens to find a stoplight with a bucket of sticky VHT laid down

the same people that disavow AWD today are the same type of people that were saying turbos will never be as fast as superchargers and before that they were saying manual transmissions are the best.... the technology is evolving and awd isnt as heavy and inefficient as they used to be 10 yrs ago, just like turbos dont have giant lag anymore

 

People buy used $15-30k e55's/63's for the drag strip... But it's a slightly different buyer than the guy buying the new e55 in 2003-6.

But agreed not many people buying new $100k cars for the drag strip

 

"who buys a $100K car for the drag strip, these cars were built for the street and rwd on street tires gets smoked by awd on street tires when its same car then what? you do a ricer fly-by after the street loss ? or tell the guy at the next light "if we were at the drag strip i would of hooked and would of smoked you".."

Lol

 

While AWD trumps RWD on the street, I will hardly call a stock or tune only E63 terrible at launching on the street RWD or AWD. I test drove a 2014 S model and thanks to the lag and somewhat sedate get up and go, my RWD tune only car can keep up off the line. Only need to watch grip in 1st. If the car is hooking in 1st, 2nd etc simply hooks and goes on RWD

 

That was about the longest winded hypothetical response I've had since joining. On the rare occasions I do have fun with another car on the street, the vast majority have been when we were moving and not stop light runs. I'm not knocking AWD but I've never needed it nor has any class in NHRA. Rally cars race on dirt in case you forgot. If I was going to pretend AWD made these cars handled well enough to road race I'd be trolling the M3 forum. In the four years the E63 TT has been out, I've yet to have one line up next to me at a stop light and the few I have seen on the road were driven by guys that had no interest in racing. I'll put my skills up against AWD if the situation should arise. And don't you worry...I won't be the one doing the ricer fly by.

 

2014+ E63S vs. 2012-2013 P30 with LSD will be an interesting race.

 

Some mention that a tune helped the lag/sedate throttle of the 2014+.....

 

For all you socially responsible and wicked skilled drivers that like to race 100mph+ roll racing on the highway or streets ... The rwd stock 2012-13 p30 will pull on the 2014+ stock e63S... The awd just robs it up high in the mph ... So if that's a deal for ya, consider pre-awd

 

Peter. Since joining this forum you have help me immensely. You have th same color car as me, but I can bet my P30 LSD will not smoke you, will keep up with you.

 

guess you havent watched much rally car , since there is quite a bit of asphalt on the courses, with actually a few or the wrc events being 100% asphalt...go watch Rallye Deutschland or Monte Carlo Rally and report back on how much dirt you see them drive on

as for NHRA, again, prepped track, vht, drag radials.... i dont live my life a 1/4 mile at a time like vin diesel and if i did, a mercedes wouldnt be my weapon of choice for NHRA drag battle

and street light racing skills? you mean mash the pedal and point the car in a straight line? lol its an automatic street legal production car.. its not like your launching a 7000 hp funny car

 

Look dude, I prefer pre facelift and RWD and I gave my personal opinion. If you don't like it, I'm sorry and you're goofy hypothetical raceboy analogies aren't going to change my mind...

 

irmão I don't really care if you like the facelift one or not, but you're the race boy one that brought up racing in your original post as to how awd aren't that great because they're not used in racing that much

 

And I was right. You mad bro?

 

I have a 2012 E63 with B&O sound.

 

hmmm dont see how your right when you posted no real facts bro (yeah those aren't important) , go check WRC results and post back how well the rwd cars do vs the AWD ones... i use WRC as example because, unlike other racing, WRC tends to race on less than perfect surfaces.... kinda like what you see in the real world. not a prestine formula 1 track or prepped drag strip which you seem to encounter on your drive to work everyday

again, you are right bro IF you want a car that has less traction in anything that less than perfect conditions... i guess if that's what you like then yeah your right..... BUT, if you want more traction in all conditions then your wrong and awd is better, so i guess it depends on what is your definition of "better".... seems like your definition of better is equal traction of rwd to awd on a prefect track/ drag strip...... my definition of better is more traction of awd on 95% of the surfaces encountered in real life