Rear-wheel drive vs permanent all-wheel drive, V10 vs V8, turbo versus naturally aspirated, Audi vs Mercedes, Manchester United vs Liverpool… wait, ignore that last one.
We have yet another awesome shootout of German super-coupes on our hands, and it's something you guys need to watch. The brand new Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG Coupe takes on a familiar car, the Audi R8 V10.
In our eyes at least, the R8 is the underdog by a mile. It might have its engine in the middle, but weight balance counts for basically nothing if you're only going in a straight line. Its 5.2-liter Lamborghini V10 is smaller than the 5.5-liter V8 in the AMG car and it doesn't have the mountains of low-end torque provided by a twin-turbo setup either.
The numbers Auto Express states in the video are a little wrong. The 5.5-liter V8 doesn't make 630 horsepower, that's for the S65 AMG Coupe. It actually produces 585 hp and 900 Nm (664 lb-ft) of torque, which is still more than the Audi.
That said, the S63 has one disadvantage on paper. It might be available with all-wheel drive in Germany, but not in Britain because the 4Matic system doesn't fit on RHD models. Thus, the Mercedes needs all the grip it can get from the massive rear tires. Having four seats placed inside a well insulated and equipped cabin also puts it at a major disadvantage, since this Goliath tips the scales at just over 2 tons.
Despite a bad start, the Audi R8 wins the day with a time of 27.24 seconds, about half a second ahead of the S63 AMG Coupe. The price of victory? You'd be surprised. The V10 Audi starts at around £115,000 in Britain, while the AMG model costs £124,000. Just one more point for house Ingolstadt.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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