With less than a year until the legendary M156/M159 family of AMG engines will become just a part of automotive history and will no longer be available in a new Mercedes-Benz car, the only way you can currently buy a model sporting one under the hood is to either go for any C 63 AMG variant or get yourself an SLS AMG Final Edition – if you have the necessary moolah, naturally.
The C 63 AMG (W204) is using three versions of the M156 naturally-aspirated power house, with either 457 hp, 487 hp or 507 hp in the Edition 507, as the 517 hp Black Series Coupe can't even be bought from your average Mercedes-Benz showroom.
Motor Trend recently took a Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG Coupe Edition 507 and not-exactly-appropriately-pitted against the Audi RS5.
With 507 hp and 610 Nm (450 lb ft) of torque squeezed out of a 6.2-liter V8 that feature absolutely no type of forced induction, the Edition 507 is the next best thing after the Black Series variant, with more than a handful of common parts used by the two models.
Those numbers can't even compare with the ones developed by the 4.2-liter naturally-aspirated V8 in the Audi RS5, which develops just 450 hp and 430 Nm (317 lb ft) of torque.
The Audi gets the upper hand in traction department though, with all its four wider tires receiving power from the V8 upfront through seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.
In fact, the all-wheel drive system and the more-responsive but about just as fast transmission are the only two areas where the Audi RS5 is slightly better than the C 63 AMG Coupe Edition 507.
The AMG trumps the quattro in just about any other department, whether we are talking about power, torque, acceleration, brakes or steering, so it comes as no surprise that Motor Trend's Jonny Lieberman chooses Affalterbach over Neckarsulm in this comparison. We apologise for the spoiler, but the sound of those glorious naturally-aspirated V8 engines, which are soon to become extinct, is more than worth listening to in the following video.
Alex handled his first real steering wheel at the age of five (on a field) and started practicing "Scandinavian Flicks" at 14 (on non-public gravel roads). Following his time at the University of Journalism, he landed his first real job at the local franchise of Top Gear magazine a few years before Mircea (Panait). Not long after, Alex entered the New Media realm with the autoevolution.com project. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News