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Mercedes Demonstrates How ICE Can Beat Electricity Over a Quarter-Mile (When Cheating)

When Tesla stepped on the world automobile stage, everyone went, “Who the Forced induction are these oddballs?” and then they continued about their ICE business. Then Dieselgate happened, and the car universe suddenly jumped in the “save the planet, cut emissions” boat (where have we seen that before?)
Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E-Performance drags Mercedes-AMG EQS 53 24 photos
Photo: YouTube/carwow
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The Malaise Era, that’s where, except electric cars weren’t the alternative back in the 70s, so killjoys from DC axed the only thing that was expendable – fun. And that is how politics fried up a piston in everyone’s gearheaded guilty pleasure.

In 2023, however, there is an abundance of electric automobiles that spit nothing out of their tailpipes – mainly because they don’t have exhausts – and make the planet green again. Or so carmakers brag while shoving the dirty end of their business under the (fossil-fuel-generated) electricity rug.

The tactic is pretty straightforward, and it’s been around since the beginning of humanity. If we can’t see it, it doesn’t exist. The psychological buffer on our environment-aware mindsets works wonders in ignoring the obvious, but it is what it is. It wouldn’t be the first time mankind shot itself in the leg out of sheer obtusity and ignorance.

Mercedes\-AMG GT 63 S E\-Performance drags Mercedes\-AMG EQS 53
Photo: YouTube/carwow
The sudden supernova awakening by Tesla spurred a major controversy among automotive fundamentalists. Which is better – silent instant electric or rowdy internal explosion? At the fun end of the business, across the quarter-mile finish line, the answer is annoyingly against the past 130 years of automobile progress.

Electric cars are faster on the dragstrip in the overwhelming majority of instances, and we have Elon Musk to thank/blame for that. If only Herr Benz knew how his invention would end up. However, his legacy isn’t obsolete quite yet – as this pair of Mercs are eager to prove.

Electric versus old-school, AMG against AMG, Mercedes on Mercedes – it sounds like a carwow. Only because it is a race put together by Mat Watson, the popular YouTuber with a knack for wheelspins. Mercedes-Benz has unleashed the EQS as a response to the Model S-launched trend. However, the House of the Silver Arrows hasn’t reneged on its heritage, and they make some pretty damn good crank-and-valve machines.

Mercedes\-AMG GT 63 S E\-Performance drags Mercedes\-AMG EQS 53
Photo: YouTube/carwow
It’s a drag race for history between two performance sedans from Mercedes. A classic (powertrain-wise) AMG GT 63 S E-Performance 4 Door goes head-to-head against an AMG EQS 53. (By the way, what happened to the good old habits of properly naming a car? It seems like some carmakers simply shuffle letters and numbers on their nameplates merely because they can).

The fire-eating GT 63 S is somewhat of a cheat from an internal combustion perspective since it’s a plug-in hybrid. A four-liter twin-turbo V8 sends 639 PS (630 hp) and 900 Nm (664 lb-ft) of torque to all four wheels. Impressive, but not enough for AMG standards, so an electric motor sits on the rear axle, supplementing the system with 204 PS and 320 Nm (201 hp / 236 lb-ft).

In a rather un-Germanically vague manner, the total system toque is rated at anywhere between 1,010 and 1,470 Nm (745 lb-ft and 1,084 lb-ft). Their disclaimers state that this is the value for the “Total system, depending on the gear combination” and “The specified system torque is a calculated virtual value for comparison purposes.”

Mercedes\-AMG GT 63 S E\-Performance drags Mercedes\-AMG EQS 53
Photo: YouTube/carwow
An automatic nine-speed gearbox translates all that confusing data into road performance. The most powerful series road car ever made by AMG weighs a hefty 2.4 tons and is electronically limited at 316 kph or 196 mph. No further comments, everyone.

And next to this powerhouse of a Merc sits its futuristic lightning bolt-eating EQS cousin, also bearing the AMG nameplate. Although impressive, it doesn’t hold a candle – or, in true electric fashion, a Light Emitting Diode bulb – to its old-school relative.

751 hp (761 ps) and 752 lb-ft (1,020 Nm) to all four wheels via AMG’s Performance 4MATIC drivetrain that checks torque 10,000 times per minute and adjusts it if necessary. On the downside, electricity takes a heavy toll on performance ambitions. A manufacturer-disclosed mass of 2.7 tons – that’s serious off-roaders territory! – is a major drag for the AMG badge on this EQS.

Mercedes\-AMG GT 63 S E\-Performance drags Mercedes\-AMG EQS 53
Photo: YouTube/carwow
This time, paper mathematics is backed by wet-track reality: the electro-piston-powered hybrid absolutely dilapidates its in-house rival. Except for the first race, when the electronically-complicated decision-making AMG brains freeze right after the start. The GT 63 S E-Performance drops its muzzle on the concrete strip, and all it has left is to try and catch up with the EQS 53.

But it more than makes up for the mishap in all the following rounds when it kicks its adversary’s electrons out of their atomic orbit. It simply blasts off the line on the standing quarter sprints and puts a train between its taillights and the front grille of the runner-up.

The rolling races are less dull, with the EQS darting in front – not for long, though; the combined power and torque of the hybrid is nothing short of automotive genocide. Play the video and watch the destruction unfold.

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About the author: Razvan Calin
Razvan Calin profile photo

After nearly two decades in news television, Răzvan turned to a different medium. He’s been a field journalist, a TV producer, and a seafarer but found that he feels right at home among petrolheads.
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