E55 Takes Off It's Tie....
This last few days I was in LA on business. Everyone loves their cars it seems and almost every car is clean and looked after. One of my counterparts has a 2003 Mercedes E55. The guy is sucessful, loaded and loves cars. We were at a function at a bar and started talking about cars when he told me he has the E55. I asked him how fast it was and he tossed me the keys.......I thought he was kidding and gave them back but he insisted we take it for a spin. NOW...I didn't do anything other than drive normaly and enjoy the opportunity, but after we stopped for gas he drove and that's when the fun started......no more shirt and tie style......
We were at a light and pulled up beside a lightly Moded Chevy Silverado....in S Cal it seems to be popular to put Flowmasters, rims and stuff on pickups/SUV's......and they do look and sound nice. Anyway my (new buddy) says "watch this" and inches a bit at the light to indicate he's gonna pull the trigger and the truck revs at us.......no suprise when the light went green we launched like a champ and never saw the truck till the next light when he honked, waived and made a right turn. I was pealing myself off the back of the seat at this point. I couldn't tell how much we beat it buy because I was hanging on, but I can't see the truck having been close behind. Very impressive.
A short time later we were stopped on #1 heading towards LAX (big 6 lane road) when a black Musatang GT pulls up on our right and revs the engine.......I knew right away it wasn't 4.6 under the hood from the sound and the rumble. Up to this point I had seen about a dozen V6 convertables but no V8's......till now. I yelled over at the guy and asked him what was under the hood.......he replied "408 with a blower"........"Eaton or Vortex".........."Eaton" ......."What's in the rear end?"........."8.8 with heavy axles and 4.55's, running a T56, Lakewood drags and a cushion"..........."Tight ride man, this will be a hoot"......"You're gonna try it?"......."I have a Mstang so I know better, but I'm not driving"........."Gotcha.......you're gonna love this then...."
My buddy asked me if I thought we were going to lose and I said we would lose hard but hope that the other made a mistake. The light goes green and the Mustang got the launch on us and pulled over a car, then proceeded to pull away to almost 2 1/2 cars in the short run to the next light. My buddy said "That's a bad ride" and at the light I yelled over again..."Nice car man....we're going put our suits and ties back on now!" The guy laughed and peeled away at the light when it turned. My buddy said "Some of those Mustangs down here are mean, and so are the Vipers. I can beat a lot of the regular Mustangs but the modified ones are almost impossible to catch" I told him that even his worst run of the night was impressive, it was a plesant unexpected suprise on my trip to So Cal. I think I left about 8 gallions of drule on the floor after seeing that Mustang.......and driving the Merc.
Footnotes: Driving the Merc was cool, it turned on a dime in the parking lot, had balls for days and was very plush. I still can't belive there was an engine under the hood because I never heared a sound from it! Things I didn't like: the shifter, you have to pull it to the right to shift (auto trans) rather than press the button and shift straight up and down the column..........and the parking lights, you have to leave the dial for the lights at the noon position, otherwise your parking lights on the left or right will be left on. Beautiful ride....but I'd still rather have a Stang!