DriveTimes Five
Five supercars that are slower than the Mercedes-AMG E 63 S 4Matic+
We’ve been road-testing the Mercedes-AMG E 63 S 4matic+ this week. It’s a ridiculously fast car. Its 4.0-litre biturbo V8 pumps out 450kW of power and a massive 850Nm of torque and, with the help of a good AWD system, propels the big sedan to 100kmh from a standing start in a thoroughly remarkable 3.4 seconds (that’s 0-60mph in just 3.0 seconds, if you are of an Imperial state of mind). That means the E 63 S 4Matic+ is more than capable of knocking off a whole bunch of supercars at the traffic lights. Even a few legends. Like these ones.
The mighty Ferrari F50 debuted in 1995 and was one of those wonderfully rare and utterly mental cars powered by an engine developed from a Formula 1 engine, by way of the 333SP sports prototype car.
The 4.7-litre naturally aspirated V12 (the F1 engine was a 3.5-litre, the SP 4.0-litres) punched out 382kW of power and 470Nm of torque in its road-going form, which is still a decent amount by today’s standards. However, the F50 only weighed 1230kg, meaning it could rocket to 60mph (97kmh) from a standing start in just 3.8 seconds. Which is a lot slower than the E 63 S 4Matic+’s 0-60 time.
Sorry guys, we are about to spit in the face of a legend here. The E 63 S 4Matic+ is faster to the New Zealand open-road speed limit than the iconic McLaren F1 from 1992.
A test by the UK’s Autocar magazine saw the F1 tick off the 0-60mph run in 3.2 seconds, while a later independent test had the 0-100kmh run at 3.7 seconds. The F1 packed the thoroughly incredible and almost entirely bespoke BMW S70/2 naturally aspirated 6.0-litre V12 engine that produced 461kW of power and 650Nm of torque, which BMW would later develop into a racing engine and, amusingly, also jam into a one-off X5 SUV for a Nurburgring record run!
Bespoke and incredibly limited, with only 77 made (only 76 currently exist, as one was written-off in Hong Kong), the Aston Martin One-77 is a truly special thing. With a hand-built all-aluminium body and a carbon fibre monocoque, the One-77 was the most powerful naturally aspirated production car in the world when it appeared in 2009.
The massive 7.3-litre V12 pumped out 560kW of power and 750Nm of torque and could punch the One-77 to 60mph in just 3.5 seconds. Which is still slower than the E 63 S 4Matic+.
Starting up a brand new company to manufacture supercars to take on the likes of Ferrari and McLaren (with decades of history behind their names) is pretty much a guaranteed way for most people to turn a large fortune into pocket change, but Christian von Koenigsegg clearly isn’t ‘‘most people’’.
The 4.7-litre twin-turbo V8-powered CC8S was the first car Koenigsegg produced and it was quite a thing, with 482kW of power and 750Nm of torque when it debuted in 2002. The CC8S could roar to 100kmh in just 3.5 seconds. But the E 63 S 4Matic+ will still just beat it.
Another example of making sillyfast cars for very rich people that actually worked was Horatio Pagani’s tribute to F1 legend and fellow Argentinian Juan Manuel Fangio, the mighty Zonda (that was originally supposed to be named the Fangio F1).
The Zonda was not only stunning to look at, it was stunningly fast as well, with a 6.0-litre AMG V12 producing 290kW and pushing it to 100kmh in 4.2 seconds. The Zonda S 7.3 from 2002 saw the engine’s capacity increased to 7.3 litres (power went to 408kW and torque to 750Nm) and the 0-100kmh sprint reduced to 3.7 seconds. But the AMG V8-powered E 63 S 4Matic+ is still faster.
We’ll just leave that there.