German Car Zone

I'm hearing on some forums that, in fact, the M157 V8 has ceased development and will not be produced for the sake of alienating Mercs top-of-the-line V12. I would not be surprised if this was indeed the case. As there is no real point in replacing an engine that was recently released, or have two high performance vehicles of the same class. Can anyone confirm? I know tennmb gave us a hint a while back but never confirmed our guesses.

I'm guessing you're talking about the turbocharged version of the new 6.2L AMG V8?

If so, Automobile Magazine (Dec issue) is saying that there are 2 versions on the way. One has 565hp and the other something like 667 hp. I would suspect that the latter of the two will replace the "65" V12 AMG models? Who knows, all of this is being kept to much of a secret. There is a quote from one of the AMG engineers in the same article (S-Class review) that says they will "employ turbocharging at the top end".

I think it will be like this:

C63 450hp
SLK63 450hp
CLK63 450hp
ML63 510hp (well we know this already about the ML)
R63 510hp
E63 510hp
CLS63 565hp (IMO Benz would be smart to up the power of this model over the E55 in order to justify the premium they charge for what is really a re-bodied E-Class)
S63 565hp
CL63 565hp
SL63 565hp

Then to make matters worse the article also says that Mercedes might enlarge the V8 from 6.2L to 6.8L in honor or "1968", the year AMG was founded. I don't want to think what type of power a 6.8L AMG V8 will make. One thing is for sure, there will be no need for a turbocharger on top of the 6.8L V8. They're already holding back on output with the 6.2L turbocharged engine if the article's hp numbers are to believed. You know Mercedes can get more than 50hp out of turbocharger, but they don't want to make the 6L V12 in the "65" AMG cars irrelevant. I suspect the AMG V12 will see a power hike from 612 to 650hp. Oh my goodness.

M