The Mercedes R-Class was never the best looking, best-built or best-engineered Mercedes. The market responded accordingly with sales that were far below expectations in America, so low in fact that Mercedes retired the R-Class in 2013 for the U.S market and later in other markets. Today the only market that gets the R-class is rear-legroom crazy China, where the elongated wheelbase model gets enough sales to justify its existence. That makes it rare for the wrong reasons. Our featured model may be the rarest and, curiously, the most desirable. Can you imagine finding one sitting curbside?
America may be the best at making blue-collar muscle cars, but the Germans have us beaten when it comes to making upmarket ones. They’ve simply taken the idea of taking their large engines and putting them in small cars that brought us cars like the Chevelle SS and the GTO and run with it. It’s no secret that the Autobahns have a lot to do with it. And while Audi’s S and RS model’s and BMW’s M-lineup are all well and good, it’s Mercedes and their AMG-insanity range that have been ruling the imaginations of many. And it’s mostly been thanks to a very special engine.
What you see above is the Mercedes M156 engine, up until a few months ago the crowning jewel in their engine roster. 503 horsepower and 464 pound-feet of torque from a naturally-aspirated 6.2-liter V8 (that, because of the wonderful world of marketing, where everything is made up and the facts matter about as much as the Zimbawean currency, is branded as a 6.3). The V12 was smoother and could be made more powerful, not to mention that old adage “A true gentleman never travels behind less than twelve cylinders”, but you couldn’t get it in anything else than the top-tier G, S, SL or CL. In stark contrast, the M156 was much more of an equal-opportunities engine because you could find it in pretty much any Mercedes worth mentioning.
This video should also expose one of the best characteristics of the engine and our featured vehicle, the magnificent sound it makes. Wouldn’t sound out of place in Woodward Avenue on a Friday night circa 1971 would it?
The C63 AMG coupe is hands-down the most hot-rod like of them all, as well as the cheapest way of experiencing the full-on AMG experience. But there were so many other variations; for instance, if you wanted to make sure that the kids made it on time to ballet and soccer practice you could have it on the 7-seater GL crossover or the smaller ML.
If you wanted to win in the mid-exec car wars you could have the E63 in either a sedan or a wagon. Or the most beautiful of all, the CLS63 wagon (Mercedes insists that it’s a shooting brake but…not even slightly. See my comment about marketing above)
And if you wanted the best possible experience with the engine you had to go to the SLS AMG, which was reworked to provide 563 horsepower, becoming the most powerful un-turbocharged V8 for a while. The record would later be re-claimed by Ferrari with their 597 horsepower 458 Italia Speciale.
With such a lineup it was only natural that it would eventually find its way into the R-class which in 2007, it did. And it was a brilliant idea. Think about it: for years minivans have been doomed to be the most uncool vehicle segment in the land. Practical, yes, but no image-conscious person would be seen dead in on one. And here we have a minivan (well, in the same way the first-gen Honda Odyssey was a minivan) that could carry the kids and the gear but also top out at 155 miles per hour and do a pretty good impression of a drift car in the corners. That is, of course if you didn’t get the 4-MATIC all-wheel drive system.
The R63 was never really intended to find many homes,but it seems even by their estimates they had overshoot the market for a 500-horsepower minivan so badly that the R63 became a one-year-only special. By the funny way that building cars works the only place R-Classes are built and assembled is in the United States, the first market it left. If you drive through the AM General plant in South Bend, Indiana you’ll be able to see rows upon rows of R-Classes ready to be sent overseas. Separated from the American streets by a little drive and a lot of bureaucracy. The M156 engine was killed by regulation and in its place now stands a smaller 4.0-liter engine reaping the benefits of advancing technologies in forced induction thanks to two turbochargers. It’s unlikely it’ll see duty in the R-Class.
Another interesting article. No, not quite as interesting as yesterday’s Kia Optima (I’m almost as tired of German luxury cars as I am with ’60’s muscle cars), but still its something different and a very good read.
(Yes, I’m being pre-emptive against the inevitable complaint that the featured car isn’t legal for antique plates anywhere.)
The R Class got some poor reviews here in the UK – it was just too unwieldy for our roads. Having said that, I’d buy one if the price was low. With four-wheel-drive, a big diesel upfront and stripped of some of it’s extraneous tinsel it could still be credible..a kind of uber-Suburban for collecting firewood and towing your neighbours car out of a snowdrift.
Didn’t Top Gear send James May through the middle of London in one, to much pre-scripted hilarity. I believe the R-Class was the slowest way to cross town, after bike, tube and speedboat.
May was driving a GL500
Now my wooden shoe breaks, I didn’t even know that Mercedes built an AMG R-Class. People either bought an E-Class wagon or an ML, not the hideous R-Class. Did it ever had a bit of success in North America ?
My favorite AMG has always been the E-Class sedan. The C-Class AMG is a bit too small, it looks too much as the D-segment’s pitbull. And the S-Class is too big for the AMG-outfit, drug lord or Russian maffia status.
An example. The W126 560 SEC AMG below was owned by Europe’s most notorious drug lord of the late eighties, (the also late) Klaas Bruinsma. Nickname “The Reverend”. A few years ago his Benz was for sale, and IIRC it sold pretty fast for a good (for the seller) price. I must admit it’s my guilty pleasure to drive this. So wrong, yet such a beautiful low riding mean black machine.
AMG Mercedes W126 coupe, drug lord?
He was never featured on an episode of Miami Vice, was he? 😛
I can’t remember seeing him in Miami Vice. Wikipedia doesn’t mention it either: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaas_Bruinsma_(drug_lord)
Drug lord, mafia, I don’t care. Call me whatever you want if I can drive that black beauty. Now *THAT* is an AMG.
The MB V8 engine in 5439cc form (the ‘M113’) with a Lysholm supercharger in the valley is the one to get if you can find one for the right price. There is a Swiss tuning company known as ‘Sportec’ who have an ECU tuning option good for 404kw (550ps) and 780Nm torque. There is also an American company ‘UPD’ that produces a range of smaller clutched supercharger top drive pulleys to improve boost from 11.6 psi all the way up to 18.2 psi. That makes the AMG with this package more than a hot rod. They can’t use the current 7 speed gearbox because it breaks apart under this kind of power ..
Bad ass !
Kleemann from Denmark is another renowned Benz tuner.
Website: http://www.kleemann.dk/
Yaah!! Kleeman gear is good stuff..not cheap, but great quality..!! 🙂
The other side of the coin is cooling, cooling, and cooling . . some pretty impressive power can be retained for up-powering the vehicle if it can be prevented from being converted into just heaps of unwanted thermal energy, particularly when forcing air in under some pretty high pressures like this.. lots of tricks ..thermal coatings and blankets ..phenolic spacers ..reflective shielding ..water wetting and circulation upgrading ..enlargening water/air exchangers ..minimizing gases restrictions (stripped-out ‘dummy cats’ for one) ..and so on
It is an enjoyable exercise if it all works out
On the other hand ..if it does ..and gets known about ..there is no power on earth that can prevent a particular criminal gang of gearheads that will steal the vehicle in NZ short of wiring the car up to 400 volts in a ram-raid proof steel garage
The so-called ‘HeadHunters’ will then simply surveille ..follow ..and lift the vehicle up off the road with a flatbed tow truck if you should be silly enough to park it up while watching a movie or doing your supermarket shopping or whatever.. they also take American classic vehicles and exotic Italian and British machinery the same way
That was how i ‘lost’ my black supercharged Falcon in 2012 . .they just took it one nite from the road outside of my mother’s place ..and i lost 25k of time and effort that nite
So, although you can own it you can’t actually use it .. how sick is that .. lol
Unlike the US, our police are not individually armed and so the criminal gangs are emboldened to do whatever they like pretty much here in NZ, although things are slowly changing with at least a Bushmaster rifle and a 9mm Glock handgun being carried in police vehicle lock-boxes ..a good move!
Damn, too bad about your Falcon !
Actually, criminals often use (steel) Audi RS4 and RS6 Avants here. Do do their “jobs”…These cars are ultra-fast and offer enough room for the co-workers and cargo, whatever that may be.
Here’s one after a shoot-out on the freeway:
yeeah! too bad! it had a ‘raptor’ aussie set-up on it (similar to vortec) and an American ‘snow boost’ chemical intercooler ..running 10psi …set-up on the VCT inline engine (‘red top’) ..useless until I put an LSD unit in the diff ..then it was a lot of fun
anyway, after about 3 weeks they let me have back what was left of it by just dumping the empty body shell on a rural roadside ..the whole front clip hand been professionally laser-cut …other than that there was nothing left
they had filled the interior of the shell with their unwanted rubbish ..filthy bags of rotten fish heads, used condoms, disgusting filthy rags, empty bottles, old tires etc ..crammed full !
the police then made me take it all away and pay for the disposal
after the scrap metal guy had been paid for the removal truck I had eleven bucks left over from my 25k investment in my modified vehicle
bought a couple of coffees and planned the future (bought a shorty pump action and am ready if the sons of anarchy knock-offs come calling to take any more of my kit . .
hey Johannes ..you might be interested ..this is the Lysholm M113 pulley chart ..so the std crank pulley is 150mm and the std top pulley is 90mm ..by mixing and matching either or both you can set up the level of boost you want …Sportec use a 175mm crank pulley and the std 90mm top pulley, but I have gone two sizes smaller on the top with an 84mm clutched pulley lathed down to 83mm ..and latterly a 77mm one turned down to 75mm to produce around 17.5psi
..at these levels you have to watch real time AFR’s and IAT’s with a datalogger plugged into the diagnostic port .. otherwise it’s potentially goodbye to the rearmost pistons which are the first to suffer
..sustained WOT is not recommended at these levels ..but 30 second bursts are okay
more fun than a Lotus Seven 🙂
Craig, if I ever come across a shitload of money I’m gonna get myself a humble Benz E-Class AMG sedan. Then I call Kleemann, Carlsson, or another name that sounds like a Teutonic warrior or Viking. I keep it clean, just a few proper rims will do. And then I’m gonna use it as my great and all-round practical daily driver.
I certainly can see and understand the allurement of a Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc. And I can even understand that people “adore” them. But they are just not for me.
Johannes ..you don’t even need shedloads of money to have one ..they are cheap as chips to get now that they are such ‘old models’ ..2003 to 2005 E AMGs are flooding in from Japan and are cheaper than a 3 year old Ford Fiesta to buy ..maybe that’s our good luck to be a right hand drive country though cos I have noticed the Japanese lefthand drive ones do have a slight price disadvantage compared to righthand drive ones ..and the bits you need to make them go better than Ferraris are not that expensive either (UPD pulleys on eBay are only a few hundred each, same for their chip program ..and you can use 550cc Bosch injectors for more fuel straight from the local Mustang parts shop . . 🙂 ehehehe zero to sixty in 3 seconds here we come . . . !
Girls and Gentlemen: below here is the text from a very recent MB World posting of a You Tube clip . . (enjoy if you are an MB fan)
“HAHAHAHA! I have seen some fast AMGs in my day, but this machine is laughably, insanely fast. It literally made me burst into laughter at my desk. According to the vid description, what you are looking at is an E55 AMG with a few pulley upgrades to crank the boost up to about 23 pounds. This video is shot from the passenger seat of a helpless LS2 GTO that can only seemingly sit still as the Mercedes rockets down the road.
Seriously, I can’t even put into words how quickly this car speeds down the highway. You just hear this explosion of noise and the AMG is gone. I half considered trying to Photoshop some flames in the shot to make it a modern day Back to the Future launch scene, but this car really doesn’t need CG to be a hit.
Now the video starts off dark, but just give it a second. Right about the time the noise kicks in, the car hits some street lights and you can see it just fine as it disappears into the horizon. Also be warned, there is a touch of NSFW language at the end. Please also remember that this is filmed on a public street, and doing things like this on a public street is bad, and stupid, and dangerous.
Now, you’ve been warned. So press play already!”
Ah yes, the manic Mercedes model proliferation. There’s no niche too small or too off brand when the German luxury giants are looking to grow sales. So why not do a poorly conceived and executed German minivan with the AMG treatment?
Oddly, given their rarity, I know 2 different families who have the R-Class. One is older middle age with grown kids, and they like to go out with friends for evenings in town. 3 couples can fit comfortably in their R350, so it suits their needs and they enjoy it. The other is a family with two younger kids and they hate their R320CDI which has been nothing but trouble. I’m surprised they still have it.
A couple things I didn’t know about the “R” class:
1.) They build them in Alabama (according to a friend whose father works in the plant).
2.) Someone thought these needed the AMG “treatment”.
The R class is M-B’s version of a Chrysler Pacifica…but with RWD or AWD. To me, these look like a German hearse. I think in the last 5 years I’ve seen only 5 or 6 of these cars, almost always black or silver. And yes, the motoring press in the U.K. has panned them. CAR magazine, for example, doesn’t even rate them in their “Good, Bad, and Ugly” monthly summary.
If I had the money for any M-B product the R wouldn’t even be on my list….unless a perfect example was available at a “giveaway” price.
local chauffeur company swore by these beast not at them. After cancelling clients due to the fact that his S classes were no good traction wise in snow he replaced them with R class. Now he chauffeurs in all weathers with up to 6 passengers!.
The only AMG diesel, so far, was the W203 C30 CDI AMG. It had a 231 hp 3.0 liter inline-5 diesel, good for 155 mph top speed and 0-62 mph in 6.8 sec.
That kind of power from a 3.0 liter diesel is rather modest these days, way over 300 hp is more like it.
Also as wagon.
As for the legroom.
I always think for the preference of Chinese ( big legroom, narrow car, and tiny engines ) they deserve getting brand new Chrysler like this instead of 2.0T Audi A4 with stretched body.
When. I worked as a volunteer at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore (used building supplies, a great resource for those in the U.S., with all profits going to home-building) I loaded many customers’ cars and trucks. One of the pleasant surprises was putting a huge piece of furniture into an R-class. It was surprisingly spacious even for its size and easy to load. Vanagons, Priuses and of course Volvo wagons could always squeeze in a bit more than one would expect; modern compact crossovers (RAV4 and CRV for example) were always a pain.
Thanks for featuring this! I’m a Benz fanatic and am very interested in this model. I actually saw one the other day at a WalMart! Production numbers on many AMG models are VERY low. They seem to be harder to resell than standard models as well and so many have a branded title.
Gawd, those things were ugly… Never knew if it was a wagon or CUV or whatever. It’s like a Chrysler Pacifica, but worse.
Even as an AMG, it’s still very homely. Just like the Nissan Puke… It has a turbo, but what’s the point, if the exterior looks like a rhino.
When I think of AMG… Give me this sexy, sinister W126. 😉
I was considering the purchase of a used R-class among other vehicles as they carry a lot and since they are a MB I could count on safety and longevity. I scratched the vehicle off my short list when I became aware of their horrible service records. They can be a money pit; I spoke to one guy who spent more than $24,000 in one year in parts and labor. This might have something to do with their resale value being substantially below other MB models. In the later model years, MB did not produce them at their factories because they did not have the space. Rather than build more production space, they contracted out the work to AM General. It makes me wonder if quality standards were met and if that was one of the causes of the high repair needs.
I used to work at a company where one of the execs had an R63. It may have been his daily driver…. he occasionally showed up in a Ferrari, too. And once in a Gullwing. (Can you imagine, seeing a Gullwing parked in the lot right next to the Camrys and CR-Vs!)
I can imagine.
A couple years ago, me and my girlfriend went for seafood down the Cape, when we noticed a few cars parked next to each other.
The furthest car was a Lamborghini Diablo, next to it was a Jaguar XJ6, next was an Olds 98 Regency, and the last car parked near it, was a Ford Festiva.
Talk about an automotive pecking order. 🙂
If only there were an R-Class after the Festiva the pecking order would be complete….
Ouch. Hahaa
Not much love for the R- Class, I guess. 😀
As an aside, the 155 mph (250 km/h) top speed Gerardo mentions, was and still is a sort of gentlemen’s agreement between the major automakers. It’s a limited top speed.
Alpina, Brabus and all the tuning-houses will happily sell you a sedan, wagon or coupe that can easily do more than 300 km/h (185 mph). Although the latest 850 hp Brabus models, like the wagon below, have a 350 km/h speed limiter.
Oh no, they won’t be able to outrun a Lamborghini Aventador!
Remarkable is that Brabus’ 850-engine (a 5.9 liter V8 Biturbo) was good for 1,069 ft-lb (1,450 Nm) of torque. Too much….for the rest of the powertrain, basically. So it was detuned to a still healthy 849 ft-lb (1,150 Nm) of torque. Without the limiter it could probably hit 400 km/h. For “safety reasons” (tires) it’s limited to 350 km/h. (According to all the info I read about these beasts)
Ah, the Arrrrrrr class. U-G-L-Y in my opinion, no matter how much power it has. Mercedes has made some bland cars here and there, but very few legitimately unattractive ones…the R-class is perhaps the worst.
The best use for an AMG R-class would probably be as a drivetrain donor. Give me one of those and a W114 coupe with a bad engine….
Interesting. The CLS63 looks like an R63 after it’s partially melted.