2014 Mercedes-Benz Ml 63 AMG Test Drive Score Sheet

Monster Truck There has to be a good reason to shoehorn a 5.5-litre bi-turbo V8 into a SUV. Well, what better reason than 3 letters that spell

By Team autoX | on November 13, 2014 Follow us on Autox Google News

Monster Truck

There has to be a good reason to shoehorn a 5.5-litre bi-turbo V8 into a SUV. Well, what better reason than 3 letters that spell AMG!

One of my favourite cars to drive (drift) around the BIC is the E63 AMG. It’s my kind of car. It’s the perfect Q car, because it looks quite unassuming – and yet it’s more entertaining to drive than a BMW M5. Of course, the majority of the appeal of the Merc is provided by its AMG-built 5.5-litre twin-turbo V8 that produces 550 horsepower and 760Nm of torque. That’s a lot!

MERCEDES-BENZ ML 63 AMG ScoreBut what happens when you slot the drivetrain from a monster Merc like that into a family SUV like the GL or ML? Well, whether anyone asked that question or not, AMG certainly has an answer. We actually drove the GL 63 AMG around the BIC at the same time as we last tested the CLA, and it proved surprisingly adept at navigating it’s way around the 5.1 kilometres of the BIC. Sure, there were times when it felt like you were hurling a small country house around the track, but once you got used to being so high off the ground and accepted the 2.6 tonnes of the GL, it actually behaved quite well indeed. The massive rubber at all four corners provided gobs of grip and the chassis was incredibly stable at speed.

So, it stands to reason – then – that the ML, with just 2.3 tonnes to ferry around, should be even more impressive. And it was! It’s lower to the ground – much lower to the ground – and, as a result, felt almost like a sports sedan around some of the corners. The anger and the fury from the engine is just as astounding, but much easier to rationalize in the ML than it was in the GL. While in the bigger of the two SUV’s, it felt like it would alter the gravitational force of the earth, in this is just felt like it would enable time-travel if you could work out the formula.

In addition to the speed, the ML is also quite good looking and really quite luxurious inside. So, as excessive speed machines go, this one is second to none.

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Tags: Mercedes-Benz

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