The C7 Corvette simply can’t catch a break these days. All sorts of videos are coming out showing the American sports car in trouble. First, we saw a BMW 135i being faster in a drag race and now we’re back looking a sedan doing it for Christ’s sake!
That’s right, you read it correctly: a mid-size sedan is faster than a Corvette. It’s pretty hard to grasp the concept, isn’t it? Well, these are the times we live in, times when you can take your kids to school or on a road-trip and humiliate a sports car or older supercar with your four-door luxury limousine.
It’s all possible because of the horsepower war that started a while back and is being continued to this day, to a lesser extent, admittedly. It saw various manufacturers offering more and more power for their newer models, in a race that reminded us all of the Cold War when the world’s two superpowers were flexing their muscles at each other.
The only difference here is that there are more than two sides to this conflict and there’s no palpable end in sight shortly. Sure, Porsche called it quits and said they will focus on losing weight in the future, but there’s a long way from saying something to actually doing it.
As far as the drag race below goes, the result is not a surprise if you look at the specs. The E-Class tuned by AMG has a 5.5-liter twin-turbo V8 capable of making 557 HP and 720 Nm (531 lb-ft) of torque in standard guise. This is no standard Benz though as it has an additional letter on the boot. That means it has 585 HP and 590 lb-ft (800 Nm) of torque at its disposal. Couple that with all-wheel drive and you get a sedan that does 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.6 seconds. As I was saying... Supercar territory.
On the other hand, the Vette uses a 6.2-liter V8 making 460 HP and 460 lb-ft (623 Nm) of torque. It’s lighter and has a better aerodynamic profile which helped it keep up but in the end, the massive power of the Benz couldn’t be overlooked.
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