Not many people are aware about this, but currently there only four naturally-aspirated engines left in the Mercedes-Benz stable, two of them being used exclusively on AMG models and headed for an end of production in a maximum of two years.
As you know, one of the downsides of fitting a turbocharger on the exhaust system of an engine is smothering most of the sound that tickles the soul of so many old-school performance car aficionados.
Sure, turbocharged AMG engines don't necessarily suffer from this problem that much, but they do sound more muffled down compared with their naturally-aspirated predecessors, of which the M156/M159 family of powerplants is now legendary.
That is probably one of the main reasons for why the owner of the following Mercedes-Benz E 63 AMG W212 (pre-facelift) decided to replace his stock exhaust mufflers with a pair taken from a C 63 AMG W204.
Not only that, but the mufflers have actually been fitted with electronically-controlled by-pass valves from Innotech Performance Exhausts (iPE), which are among the loudest in the business when fitted to a naturally-aspirated C 63 AMG.
How do they sound when fitted to what looks like an E 63 AMG with the twin-turbocharged M157 engine? In our opinion they are pretty much perfect: not ear-piercingly loud with the valves opened, nor do they sound like a downgrade with the valves closed.
The real question probably revolves around the fact that the stock squared-off exhaust tips are now oval, which in our view doesn't quite work with the blocky-look of the pre-facelift E-Class W212. What do you guys think?
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
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