Posted on Friday 25 April 2008
Now that AMG is no longer focused on chasing big horsepower numbers, efficiency is quickly become the new performance benchmark for the Affalterbach-based tuner. Not even exclusive performance firms like AMG are immune to the effects of stricter emissions and fuel economy standards being phased in over the next decade, so expect to see downsized engines, more diesels and even hybrid engines introduced by the performance house.
According to a new report, AMG will replace its still-new 6.2L V8 and 6.0L V12 twin-turbo engines with a brand new 5.0L V8 twin-turbo. There are several reasons behind the decision: the new 6.2L has horrendous fuel consumption at full throttle and it lacks the low-end grunt of the previous supercharged 5.5L V8.
There will be several versions of the new force-fed 5.0L mill, a base version with 570hp and 665lb-ft of torque to replace the 6.2L V8 and a high-output 700hp/885lb-ft unit to replace the 612hp V12. There will also be a hybrid variant dubbed ‘BluePower’. Other innovations include a new electrically operated direct-drive gearbox that provides faster and more efficient gearshifts than the current range of automatics.
One of the last cars to feature the current 6.2L engine will be the upcoming ‘SLC’ gullwing supercar due in 2010. It will feature a transaxle drivetrain, eight-speed auto and a power output in excess of 600hp.
Absolute bovine manure!!! Remember F1 back in the early eighties? Four cylinders and turbo’s and they were churning out 1000hp or more in some cases.
Here we are almost thirty years later with double the cylinders and almost three times the engine capacity/size and we’re going after efficiency?
If the advancement of technology holds true these engines will be even more powerful and will provide what the article was really getting at which is better fuel economy and greater low end grunt. Oh and what do you know even more power!!!!
Not that it is a bad thing just be upfront about it and tell me what you really mean, not candy coat it.
this is bad…the twin turbo’d v12 is meant to be the best engine going
thought they say they are no longer chasing big power, but 570hp and 700hp is quite a bit more than the existing power output
Odd that performance peaked in the 30s (300+mph?) and efficiency peaked in the 80s whilst we constantly hear about improved technologies….
Umm, two things, first as far as i know there are three engines used by AMG at the moment, a 5.4l V8 (called 55), a 6.2l V8 (called 63) and a 6l V12 (called 65). Never heard of a “5.5L V12 twin-turbo”.
And then there’s the performance/efficiency issue. Did you ever think about how many systems to make an engine more enviromentally friendly were added to a car in the recent 20 years? A catalytic converter for example kills both, performance and fuel efficiency.
Fritz you’re off your bloody rocker. Performance peaking in the ’30s? What? It’s definitely amazing they were able to make the power they did back then in the Auto Unions and the like, and they might have had high top speeds as a result, but they used mahoosive engines to extract that power. And they were fairly fast in a straight line, but around corners? Fuggedaboutit! Both modern passenger cars, and of course modern race cars are significantly faster than 30s race cars or performance cars. Come out of your delusional fantasy world and you’ll realize that cars today are faster than they ever have been, period.
As for MyWheelsOnWall.com; those are F1 cars and you can’t possibly compare them to production cars. F1 engines of the era only had to last maybe 2 hours max. Production engines have to last hundreds-of-thousands of miles. Not a fair comparison.
that doesn’t make sense to do now, at least for the 6.2 L. The very reason they went to naturally aspirated from FI was because they wanted to make the switch to Mercedes’ new 7-speed transmission rather than the archaic 5 speed (in the V12 Biturbo) because the new transmission couldn’t handle the torque. If they return to FI, they will go back to the old transmission or have to build an additional new transmission…
I say BullS??? Mercedes, this engine is a response to BMW,AUDI,FORD and a host of others deploying twin turbo V8s’..THE HORESEPOWER RACE IS ALIVE AND KICKIN!!!!!!!!!
Naive, a little? The byproduct of O2 consumption is Co2, not a deadly magical gas. Hydrocarbons are unburnt fuel, and to think that a near complete burn couldn’t take place in the engine in this day and age is laughable at best, which would then render the catalyst useless. But maybe we’re talking about monoxide? Almost nonexistent emission from most cars. But whatever, I guess saying 300mph is slower than less than 300mph somehow makes sense… IN the Auto Unions??? OK, douchebag…
Fritz, if English is a second language for you then you’re excused, but if not, then learn to at least make your posts legible please. I can barely make out what you’re saying. But I digress…
I believe what you said about emissions was not directed towards me since I didn’t mention emissions at all, so I won’t respond to that. But about your speed comment; you still clearly don’t understand jack $h!t about cars. Just because a few heavily-streamlined, purpose-built race cars could clear 300mph doesn’t mean everything from the era could. And you can’t just think about racing cars either. Show me one damn production car from the 30s that could go 253mph. Show me a production car that could lap the Nurburgring in under 7:30. I’ll give you a hint: They don’t exist! And I’ll bet dollars to donut crumbs that a modern F1 car could run circles around 30s era grand prix cars. Wanna take me up on that bet?
Seriously, pull your head out of your ass. Anyone with half a brain or any semblance of car knowledge can see that modern cars, both racing cars and production, are significantly faster than their counterparts from the 30s. To say otherwise is utterly delusional.
New AMG models will use a 5.0L V8 twin-turbo… Am I allowed to smile?
My 2 cents: this is just marketing!!!
Formula 1 is naturally aspirated, they finally went to this with the 6.2, after the kompressor fashion.
Formula 1 will be turbocharged starting 2012 I guess, so will be their AMG engines.
to Baumm, they went to fi (that’s forced induction not formula one) for higher reving engines to compete with sound and pressumably lower rev better fuel consumption
to VB, currently the cars dubbed 600’s are biturbo 5.5 v12’s not 6.0v12s it’s the 65amg cars that are bi-turbo 6.0v12’s
yeah fritz.. where the hell did 300 mph come from? i thought you meant 30 mph.
look up your history books. the duesenburg was the first production car to break 60. “thats a duesey”. the engines back then werent big at all. in fact, the early 70’s saw the biggest engines with the 427 boss, and the 429’s and what not. today’s viper is 500, or more. 8.something litres. the model T had a 2.9L 4 banger.
even the most powerful duesenburg only had a 300 cu in straight 8 engine. even in that time, caddy was making 450 cu in engines.
if you call all of this irrelevant, just consider duesey was made to go fast. thats all. today’s viper is the biggest engine on the road and hennessey makes several add on kits to blow that engine over 1000 hp.
but in the end, the point here is that no production car has ever broken 300 mph.
oh a little trivia for you, Mercedes Benz built a car with a 44.5L engine back in the 40’s to try to break the sound barrier on land.
engines are getting smaller. just not as small as they should be. duesey’s had dual over head cams, 4 valves per cyl, and super charging. in the 20’s. 100 years later and that STILL isnt standard technology.
Yup, we even wrote about it
http://www.motorauthority.com/cars/mercedes-benz/
mercedes-weltrekordwagon-with-a-445l-v12-thats-not-a-typo/
ah yes, I’d forgotten about that article!
@cj
that’s exactly what I wrote, 6lV12 -> 65amg ; 5lV12 -> Mercedes 600, NOT AMG!