The German Challenge

THE GENTLEMANS CLUB

It happened to me again today. Pulling up at a set of traffic lights with one car in each lane ahead of me. I quietly changed lanes to sit behind a hotted up Supra knowing he'd take off quicker than the businessman's barge Mercedes next to him. The lights change and I'm left standing in a cloud of tyre smoke as the two cars quickly disappear in to the distance. Even more disturbing was watching the Merc overtake the ToyMotor before sweeping around a corner without a hint of body roll.

That's right. Gone are the days of overweight uber-limos with company directors being chauffered from power lunch to power lunch. The proffesional businessmen of today have taken hold of the wheel and manufacturers have stepped up to the plate with some very impressive machinery. A few calls to some dealer contacts and I'd lined up three of the best autobahn mobile offices the world has ever seen.

DAY1

First off the rank is the Mercedes E55, tuned by AMG. With 469BHP and a whopping 699Nm of torque this car will throw its 1910kg of metal, glass and leather down the quarter mile in an astonishing 13.128 seconds. A price tag of 105,330 credits will serious damage the average punters wallet, but when you look inside it is quickly apparent where the money has gone.

Second to the plate is an all new Audi RS6. This car should mount a serious challenge with its all-paw drive and 443BHP / 559Nm power although the 117,060 credit price tag will make anyone wince. This car posted a fastest quarter of 12.887 seconds on its first run, showing the 70kg advantage over the E55 has been put to good use.

Last bullet out of the gun will be the critically acclaimed BMW M5. Like the E55, the M5 puts its power to the ground via the rear wheels and while 499BHP puts it well ahead of the field, it also has the least amount of torque with only 520Nm. Some clever gearing by Bavaria's best sees this 1715kg beast rip off a 12.506 quarter mile making it fastest from one set of lights to the next. But at 116,650 credits this performance is still costly.

I'd managed to arrange a handful of helpers for the day (and beaten many others off with a stick) so just before dawn we convoyed out to a well known test track to see what the big guns of Germany could produce. After running the quarters to scrub in the tyres a 1000m trap was laid out and the cars roared back to life. The Bimmer easily saw off its competition with a 22.079 second pass, more than a second ahead of the Merc with the Audi snapping close at its heels in last. The Audi's performance raised a few eyebrows but the difference between the 400 and 1000m marks was put down to unsympathetic gearing.

We packed up and headed off down the road to our next port of call, a little known track that is a replica of Tokyo's street racing circuit. All cars arrived okay but Jurgen, our lead Audi driver, felt that something was not right with the RS6. "Sloppy" and "wierd" were some of the comments he gave us, showing that maybe the Audi was not going to be the rocket we had all expected. With the track opened up we headed out and enjoyed not only the breath taking speed of these wonderful machines, but the comfort and elegance of each ride. Again the M5 showed the field a clean pair of heels, scorching a 1'51.609 lap and looking rock solid on the road. Obviously the lighter weight and greater power had overcome the lack of torque.

The 5.4L V8 Mercedes again filled the second spot on the podium with a sub 2'00 lap, while the Audi never looked comfortable and came in a whisker over 2'00. The RS6 was producing plenty of grip but the cornering speed just wasn't there.

DAY2

With the cars freshly washed and drivers well fed, we headed away from our hotel in high spirits for today we run the might 'ring. But before we challenge ourselves to that task, a quick stop at a small village in the shadow of Trial Mountain gives us a chance to try their local motorsports venue. A nice collection of corners and short straights gives drivers a good chance to test the cars abilities to link corners and relatively lower speeds should bring the Audi back in to the fight. Alas it was not to be...

With a demonic howl that only the M5's 5L V10 can produce, the BMW ran away with this one again, leaving the other drivers scratching heads and looking at their feet wondering what it would take to be competitive. At 1'40 dead the Bimmer left the E55 a good 3 seconds behind with the RS6 another 1.5 seconds further afield. At this stage it became apparent that the Audi's 4WD system was not enough to make up for the lack of grunt.

Another hour down the road and we reached the pinnacle of German road racing... Nurburgring. Nothing I write can come close to describing the exctasy and sheer terror of pushing yourself to the limit on this famous piece of tarmac. Luckily for us there were few other cars using the circuit today, and what there was would be fast enough to keep out of the way. Setting out for a sighting lap I realised just what it would have taken to racer on this course back in its heyday; lots of guts and little regard for self preservation.

When I turned the Merc in to that last corner before starting my hot lap I felt my pulse race, knowing that this day may never come again and , above all else, I didn't want to become a smear of red against any of the many safety barriers. 8'03 later it was all over and I breathed a sigh of relief. I'd done it. A near perfect lap. There was no way the M5 would leave me in its dust after driving like that. Yet again I was proved wrong. The BMW roared across the line in just 7'47, the smile on Rob's face visible even at 20 metres and 100kph. The now lonely Audi crawled home in 8'13, with Jurgen cursing every minute of it. It seems the all wheel drive is more problem than it's worth, slowing down corner entry speeds to swing the nose around before stomping on the gas and waiting for the speed to pick up again.

As we drive away from the track we know that our last day will be one to remember.

DAY3

A very long drive is what awaited us today, but at the end was the Le Manns 24HR track. After agreeing to change from the E55 to the RS6 to see if I could extract any more performance from it's 4.2L V8, I was instantly awoken to the fact that the car feels all wrong. The suspension is too stiff for a business car, but not stiff enough for a sports model. And the 4WD! The engineers at Audi would have been better leaving this out and going with a good rear drive layout. The rear end skipped and jumped all over the place and the front never wanted to turn in under power. 4'51 later I crossed the finish line and gratefully pulled to car in to the pit lane.

Next out was the AMG E55 with its supreme ability to soak up anything thrown at it. Displaying near zero body roll through the sweeping chicanes down the tracks long back straight the Mercedes crossed for a time of 4'40.5, destroying any credibilty the Audi had left. The M5 hit the track last and as we all stood at the pit wall, staring intently at the track timer, bets began to be laid as to how much in front it would be. A blistering 4'27 suprised everyone, including the driver who felt the lap was boring, a common sign of a well balanced car.

So as we packed up for the last time, we all reflected on how the tests went. The BMW M5 was by far the best performer and the extra money you have to shell out for the priviledge is money well spent. The Mercedes AMG E55 was unflawed. Just a great car beaten by a better car. The Audi... well this is best left with the secretary to collect the bosses dry cleaning.

Well done and well written! I like some of the comments about driving to the venues. Jurgen's comments about the RS6 are sadly accurate and I was hoping this car would be more of a hoot to drive. Oh well, we still have the M5!

The Jaguar S Type R is not in the M5's league, nor is it German, but it's a gentleman's driver worthy of your parade.

It's got the best shifting transmission (or should I say clutch?) I've found on a production car, snapping between gears smoothly with no lag, and can break the 8 minute mark on the 'Ring, stock.

Loved the write up- awesome job!

Great informative write-up! And great story too! 👍

I moved this to the appropriate forums for all to see and appreciate.
Good write up.
Misnblu

misnblu

I moved this to the appropriate forums for all to see and appreciate.
Good write up.
Misnblu

Click to expand...

Thanks to all for the kind words.

I thought the Cars in General thread was for real life cars not GT4 fantasy comparisons, but as long as people are enjoying I don't mind.

Even though it evolves around the GT4 format, doesn't really deal with the game as far as information so it was moved to cars in general.
It's very good, informative and thought it was more automotive oriented.
Hope you don't mind, you've got excellent writing skills, and may get more to read it in this forum. 👍
Misnblu

nice story, in the beginning i thought it was for real. 👍

maybe next time you should include a quick stop at tsukuba racetrack. i heard it rains quite often there and you may find a chance to check whether the AWD of the audi gives it at least a small advantage there.

i would also say that although the BMW is the fastest of the three, but it also has quite a hard ride when compared to the e55, so the merc also has its advantage.

vladimir

maybe next time you should include a quick stop at tsukuba racetrack. i heard it rains quite often there and you may find a chance to check whether the AWD of the audi gives it at least a small advantage there.

Click to expand...

I'm working on a large performance write-up at the moment and Tsukuba will be in there for sure. Just narrowing down the field from around 100 entrants to about a dozen (lots of test driving involved)