Pictured at ATO Aviootryad Varna in Bulgaria, the C190 and F10 couldn’t be more different. A two-seat sports car weirdly baptized GT and a four-door sports sedan with a small tune, the vehicles in the clip below duke it out in the quarter mile three times to see if lower weight makes a difference over the more powerful and torquier BMW.
But first, some numbers. The black-painted coupe is rocking a dry-sump V8 hand-assembled by the mad professors in Affalterbach. The M178 in GT S flavor produces 503 horsepower (510 ps) and 479 pound-feet (650 Nm) of torque, with most of those resources channeled to the rear wheels by a dual-clutch gearbox.
Supplied by Getrag, the 7DCL750 is advertised as the AMG SPEEDSHIFT DCT by the German automaker. It costs more than $30,000 to replace in the second-generation Ford GT, with the mid-engine American supercar sharing every single ratio with the AMG GT.
Tipping the scales at just over 1,650 kilograms (3,638 pounds), the GT S faces the rear-wheel-drive F10. This generation of the M5 launched in 2011 with 553 horsepower (560 ps) and 502 pound-feet (680 Nm) to its name, coming courtesy of a slightly larger V8. The 4.4-liter unit features conventional wet sump lubrication.
Codenamed S63, the force-fed mill is connected to a dual-clutch box with seven forward ratios. Only the United States market received a six-speed manual, which is a bit weird considering that Europe has a much higher take rate for the three-pedal setup even today, when DCTs and automatics are more popular than ever before.
Listed by airline pilot Tseno Krastev with 1,900 kilograms (4,189 pounds) even though it weighs closer to 2,000 kilograms (4,409 pounds), the F10 is tuned to approximately 592 horsepower (600 ps) and 516 pound-feet (700 Nm). But similar to the GT S, the M5 struggles to launch well on an unprepped surface. The first of three dig races ends in 12.07 seconds for the Merc, with the Bimmer crossing the finish line in 12.18 seconds.
The second race sees the F10 launch a little better, clocking 11.82 seconds, as opposed to 11.89 for the transaxle-equipped GT S. The final race concludes in 11.87 seconds for the Affalterbach machine whose engine was assembled by one man from start to finish. As for the Bimmer, it couldn’t do better than 12.48.
Mercedes is currently putting the finishing touches on the second generation of the GT, which will transition from sports car to sports grand tourer. The second generation features the same platform and automatic transmission with a wet start-off clutch as the all-new SL. V8-powered variants will flaunt the same 4MATIC+ system as well, which translates to better launches.
The highest-performing GT will combine a twin-turbo V8 with a plug-in hybrid system, a similar setup to what BMW prepared for the next generation of the M5. The Merc is expected with more than 800 horsepower on deck, while the M5 is rumored to eclipse the 738 horsepower of the XM Label Red plug-in hybrid SUV.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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