Last week's big news from Mercedes-Benz was the AMG GT 4-Door Coupe with its axial-flux electric motors and more than 1,000 horsepower. But at the same event, the head of AMG made it clear that the company is still hammer-down on gas power. AMG will drop one of the most power-dense engines in the world, but it will launch a new V8 that a new report says will be offered in mild, medium, and Fire Sauce versions depending on the application.
Three Versions Of New Benz V8
Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius said the new engine will be built in three forms, "the Mercedes-Benz [version], the AMG [version], and the ‘go crazy’ AMG [version]," MotorTrend quotes AMG CEO Michael Scheibe as saying. As of this writing, we've already seen the mild version: it's the 4.0-liter twin-turbo flat-crank engine that debuted in the revised S-Class earlier this year.
It's now clear that the S-Class got the high-revving performance-car flat-plane crank to make things more efficient, but there's plenty of potential in that motor. AMG CEO Michael Scheibe told MT that the company needs to simplify manufacturing, so it will cut its number of engine variants from 10 to four.
The AMG version of the new V8 is set to arrive under the hood of the Mercedes-AMG CLE 63 Coupe. Mercedes showed a teaser during its investor meeting, with more aggressive bodywork than the CLE 53.
Then there will be the "go crazy" version. Neither Källenius nor Scheibe confirmed where that engine would first appear, but we believe it will be in the upcoming CLE 63 Mythos. Mythos is a new brand for a series of ultra-exclusive cars. The CLE will be more extreme, and that likely means more power. Just 30 copies will be created, and they're already sold to some of the company's best customers.
If The Old Engine Made 800 HP, What Will This One Do?
The current AMG 4.0-liter makes around 600 horsepower depending on the car it's in. Adding 30 hp to this one like the S-Class version did seems like child's play. A version of the same engine can make 700 horsepower or even as much as 817 hp in the version modified by Aston Martin for the Valhalla. That gives AMG plenty of headspace to make the new engine much more powerful than current AMGs.
Beyond V8s, AMG will expand the use of its inline-six in models that aren't worthy of a V8. Expect the new engine, badged "53," to show up in anything that had a "43" badge before, and even to replace any of the four-cylinder "63" vehicles.
Yes, that means AMG will be dropping the M139 2.0-liter turbo-four. The engine could make 469 horsepower from that tiny size, more power per liter than anything short of a Koenigsegg. But buyers didn't seem to care, and the company said earlier this year that it was phasing out the engineering achievement.
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