Jim Brady

AMG held their graduate school event last friday at Calif. Speedway and it was an opportunity to drive the cars unlike a test drive at your dealer. Basicly we drove em like we stole em.

The CLS is stunning in person but that wasn't was what the event was about.

The first thing that I noticed was the much deeper exhaust note on acceleration compared to the E55. Much closer to the SL 55 exhaust note.
Secondly, the CLS benefits from a larger wheel and tire package. This was evident in the braking and putting the power down coming out of the corners.
Both cars were very close in straight line speed. The drag racers will most likely get a tenth or two out of the wider 19" 285 tires.

Steering seemed more connected than the E55, with better turn in.
The E55 has better visability and thats the price you pay for a coupe. Rear seat head room will accommodate a 6 foot person, without a helmet. Our road course was a 1.7 mi portion used in the road race events and we had speeds up to 100 mph and it was very challenging after it started to rain.

What impressed me most was the fact that AMG will put their product through this abuse without fear of failure.

jkrutch

No question the CLS offers much better handling than the E55. The turn in is so much sharper and the car just feels so much more connected. It also feels much lighter than the E55 as well even though it isn't. I would bet the skidpad numbers will also reveal significantly better grip as well. I am so glad I made the move!

E55 RUSS

CLS handling is better and it looks better but e55 is faster 0-124...

CLS55 in 15.4 and E55 in 14.6...Bigger and wider tires have negative effects is bigger diameter and positive better grip...

jkrutch

Where did you get those numbers? Don't make sense at all. Similar everything should have a tenth or two difference, not almost a full second.

Jim Brady

True, the CLS55 tires are 1/2 inch taller than the 265/35/18 on the E55. But that generally affects lower speed acceleration. Was the test 0-200km a heads up test or was it timed at different venues. One second is quite a bit, and if that were the case I should have been catching or at least closing on the CLS's on the straights.

The great thing about the AMG event is, you can compare the cars back to back. After driving both and owning an E55, I wasn't sure if the CLS55 was that much different than the E55. Now I know it is. One the way home from the event my dealer called me to tell me my CLS55 will be in next week, did I still want it.

Tony007

According to the published curb weight in the CLS brochure the CLS55 has a 4069 lb curb weight. In fact the MBUSA website says the CLS55 weighs 4050 lb.

According to the full line AMG brochure & the MBUSA website the E55 has a curb weight of 4087 lb.

Mercedes own published specifications points that the CLS55 is in fact slightly lighter than the E55. If there are other published weight figures what are your sources...

jkrutch

30lbs here or there is immaterial and would no effect on handling or acceleration. Something is quite different about the feel of the two cars. There is virtually no body roll in the CLS vs. the E55. Don't know what they did, but they sure changed the feel of the car dramatically.

adx

I agree that the CLS55 handles better than the E55 and the body roll is significantly reduced compared to the E55. You can really tell the difference when you're riding in the back seat of both cars.

Tony007

I totally agree that 30 lbs is pretty insignificant when it comes to the handling characteristics of a car.

There are 5 things that really affect body roll and stifness feel of the car and handling; tire profile, shocks, spring rate, anti roll bar thickness and bushing composition. I wonder where the differences between the two cars really are.

I physically checked both cars and the profile of the tires on the CLS55 is slightly lower, with 35's in front and 30's in the rear, meaning there is less sidewall on the tires. The E55 I checked had 40's in the front and 35's in the rear.

One other thing I noted was that the CLS55 is coming with Bridgestone Potenza RE050a's and the E55 has the Conti's. The Bridgestone Potenza RE050a is a much better gripping tire. In fact they use a variant of that tire on the Ferrari Enzo

adx

The other thing that needs to be considered in differences between the CLS55 and E55 is that the CLS55 has a wider wheel base by approximately 1" which can make a difference.