By Miles Downard *
AMG is the Mercedes-equivalent of the Hawks; a special ops unit with one goal – to transform normal Merc’s from the mundane into fire breathing, power hungry monsters that know no bounds in the quest for ultimate performance.
AMG’s mantra has always been big capacity, naturally aspirated V8’s. And my, what a result. Their motors are simply exquisite; powerful, torquey, with an ability to turn oxygen into a deep throaty roar that is unsurpassed by anything other than supercar royalty.
But as ever-tightening legislation and corporate social responsibility take control, AMG must now wave goodbye to the era of natural aspiration and have announced that the next V8 to power AMG’s going forward will be force fed its supply of air.
The nitty gritty details are this; it’ll be a twin turbocharged four-valve-per-cylinder 4.0 litre V8 petrol engine that produces 377kW at 6,250 rpm and 650Nm of torque from 1,750 rpm.
Helping achieve these numbers is a pair of turbos that nestle between the ‘hot V’ of the cylinders, providing a better pathway for the turbochargers to get on with their business. Some other cool features include AMG’s piezo direct injection system, which can give up to seven squirts of fuel in any single combustion cycle. Dry-sump oiling negates the need for an oil pan, allowing the engine to sit 6cm lower in the car’s chassis and a special mirror-finish on the cylinders and pistons help reduce friction – probably looks pretty cool too, if you could get your head inside the engine block.
So the numbers and tech all sound pretty much AMG-ish. The worry though is that the turbo’s muffle that marvellous AMG V8 soundtrack. Worry not, says Christian Enderle, Mercedes-AMG’s head of powertrains. They’ll make sure it sounds as good as it looks, without resorting to the car’s sound system (like BMW had to).
According to AMG, the result will be all the performance we’ve come to expect from the mentalist tuning division, but with economy and emissions that promise to ‘astonish’ us. It’s coming later this year; so we’ll soon know if AMG has lost its touch.
Watch Mercedes unpack the new biturbo V8 below.
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* Miles Downard is the editor of BizNews Motoring
