Test drive Mercedes Benz ML class W166 since 2011 SUV
Jeep Cherokee SRT 8 and Mercedes ML 63 AMG
There are few SUVs that can accelerate to 100 km/h in 5 seconds, they are terribly far from the people. There are only two Jeep Cherokee SRT 8 and Mercedes ML 63 AMG. Does anyone want to add Porsche Cayenne S Turbo? Do not even tell me about this turtle! All she can be 5.1 seconds. Let's take a couple of Daimlerchrysler's collapsed alliance. Both five-second psycho-worker are made as part of factory tuning industries. AMG company Mercedes Tuning Atelier and, as a result, products are produced very expensive and abstruse. On his account, in particular, the most powerful atmospheric eight in the world, which we decided to push in this test with a competitor.
The abbreviation SRT (Street Racing Technology) belongs to the young and very assertive racing department Chrysler. It opened in 2002 in Switzerland and in five years managed to produce several bold and unusual cars made strictly within the framework of the concept of maximum dope at a minimum of costs.
Yes, it is difficult to find two so different in spirit masters of factory tuning. The American company with a motto is cheap, but cool and a European company, for which there is nothing more important than the brand renom.
Money is dirt
Is it right to compare two cars between the price tags of which a vast aby was lying? Mercedes ML 63 AMG costs 151,000 euros (in test configuration), and the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT 8 is estimated at 65,800 euros. I know what you were thinking about now, I have the same thoughts: money is dirt, the main thing is accelerating. These five seconds, drawn in the performance characteristics of both cars, you need to live, feel, can try, and only then look at what it costs.
No matter how much we started a couple, always at the very beginning of Grand Cherokee tore ML 63 on a corps another. Starting driving SRT, it was generally impossible to understand: where is AMG? Missed? Stayed to stand? And only closer to 100 km/h Mercedes suddenly jumped from behind and stepped forward. The same five seconds in fact turned out to be different. The SRT lower -speed engine ,imated with a modified five -speed automatic transmission (by the way, from Mercedes!), Has no equal when accelerating from a place to 90100 km/h. And the high -speed AMG atmospheric motor with a seven -speed automatic reigns in a higher range.
Each in his own way
You won’t believe it, but both engines are atmospheric. AMG used its 30-year experience in technical participation in GT races and developed a motor from scratch. What are the technology? Hard frame performance of a block carder according to a closed scheme. Mirrors of cylinders with LDS coating. A controlled intake manifold with variable geometry and built -in throttle. The vertical location of the inlet and exhaust channels. Valves drive with plate pushers. There is no place to list everything.
SRT engineers, without the appropriate budget, took as a basis the standard Kraisler Hemi 5.7 liter, known for the semi -spheres of combustion, and increased its capacity by 85 liters. With. We worked with the volume (cylinder diameter grew by 3.5 mm) and the degree of compression. Modernized the head of the cylinder block. They put valves of increased diameter. Changed the inlet and gradu collectors. They put new distribution shafts, a steel forged crankshaft, pistons with floating fingers (cooled by oil jets) and an oil tray that facilitates the oil drain into the oil sediment when operating the engine in the high frequency range.
Not for life SRT 8 car with a rude male character, with an uncertain rear bridge, a low hum of an eight -cylinder motor and a sloppy interior decoration. Need more civilized, soft, suppressed and comfortable? Then ML from AMG: it has a thinner voice, and in general it is much more suitable for everyday life. Here is the brightest illustration: when I went to the ML from underground parking for a tunnel twisted into a tight spiral, I did not experience any problems. Meanwhile, a colleague on Jeep Grand Cherokee screens ahead of the tires, now and then tearing off the wheels into the boxes, as in the film Tokyo drift ...
The first lying policeman on our way succumbed to Grand in his front spoiler, his road clearance is hardly larger than Honda Civic. In this regard, AMG ML is much more practical. In addition, his suspension retained congenital dual -mode, if you are tired of enjoying honed controllability, you can switch to the position of comfort.
P. S. The resume will be short and clear. Buying only five seconds to hundreds can really save, but if you also want to travel, you will have to give twice as much.
Author: Dmitry Leontyev, photo of Alexander Ortnova-Baranov
Source: Magazine 4x4 [February/2008]
