Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
You might be noticing a trend here. About a week ago we featured a W211 E63 AMG wagon and Tuesday we featured a W210 E420 Brabus 6.0 wagon. Both silver, both really fast. Today’s post is no different. This time it’s a 1997 Mercedes-Benz E60 AMG wagon located outside of Vancouver, BC in New Westminster.
Nate’s look at the E34 and E39 Dinan M5s over the past week is a poignant reminder of the factory-backed performance available in these super sedans. In the best style of “Q-Ships” – World War II merchant ships that hid surprising armament behind their docile exterior – they’re turned up but never outrageous. When it came to the E60 chassis though, with 500 horsepower on tap how did one increase the already world-beating performance? In Dinan’s case, there was no replacement for displacement, as they punched out the 5 liter V10 to 5.8 liters. The result was an additional 100 horsepower and around 80 lb.ft more torque while still maintaining the stratospheric redline. Yet that insane performance was available in a wrapper which looked no different than a standard M5:
Mercedes-Benz has made a name for itself in the hyper estate segment. Their C and E class estates have been providing the basis for family vehicles that don’t just haul cargo, but haul a**. We didn’t see an AMG estate Mercedes decided to unleash the E55 AMG estate on the US market in 2005. This was a seven seater supercharged beast that was quickly snapped up by collectors and families with a need for speed. But prior to the W211, the W210 was given the AMG treatment as well. But this W210 estate takes it one step further. This E60 AMG Estate is tempting us at across the border in Canada. This was originally an E420 Estate that was sent to the boffins at AMG and emerged with a V8 packing 376 bhp. The look on the outside is subtle. Step inside the red leather interior and step on the loud pedal, however, and the beast will be unleashed.
You might think that a car that has a simple button to raise its power by 100 horses might have enough, but today we have two E60 M5s that will explain to you why that kind of thinking makes you a peacenik ninny. I mean, if you can get a V10 in used Audis, then you have to do something to make your M5 stick out, right? These two E60s take pretty different approaches to power and style – supercharger vs. stroker, manual vs. SMG, Eurotuner vs. Roundel – but both represent about as insane of Autobahn stormers as you can find.
I know that, amongst the authors that grace these pages, I seem to do a lot of comparisons of cars, some of which are extremely unlikely comparisons. One of our readers termed my picks a “Cheese and Chalk” competition; in many ways, he was right. After all, how can you really compare cars that are in completely different demographic categories? To be fair to me, I don’t always do such, but in that case that’s the appeal of the “10K Friday” series – taking a fixed budget and looking at the wild variety of cars that’s available simply because they’re similarly priced. However, I also like to compare similar vehicles and that’s the case today. I have two rare examples of Dinan-modded BMW 5-series. On the surface, they’re quite similar – both grey metallic, both with light grey interiors, both with normally aspirated motors, both have silver multi-spoke wheels with polished lips, and both have 6-speeds. But the level with which Dinan has breathed on them is quite different; consequently, one has double the power of the other, more technology and more complexity. That model also has one tenth the mileage of the other, and unsurprisingly is on offer at ten times the price making these seemingly very similar 5s very different. Which is the winner in your mind?
