Comparison Tests
'Europe, what art thou good for?'
The current resident of the White House may not have uttered those words exactly, but no doubt he's been pondering the question of late. Regular readers of this rag can supply him a fast answer: fast cars.
Europe is good for fast, big cars. They rule the left lanes of the Continent's freeways, shipping the Important People around at breathless speeds, wantonly slurping $4-per-gallon fuel, shoving aside the slow goers blocking their way with blinding flashes of xenon. Europe is good for that, plus frilly food and some old churches and stuff. Our President commutes in the back of a Cadillac. He wouldn't care anything about it.
You might, which is why we've parked on these pages a trio of Europe's finest left-lane huggers. Two come from big names and have enjoyed much magazine ink. They star in television commercials and sell through one or three dealers near you. The rookie of the group comes from an Italian boutique with few dealers and no Super Bowl spots, just a plan to splash with the majors in the sub-$100,000 luxo-limo mainstream. Can the Italians pull it off? We'll know more in a few pages.
Meanwhile, let's meet the familiars. Although some obvious choices, such as the BMW M5 and Audi RS 6, are currently out of production, the English can supply Jaguar's all-aluminum leaper, the 390-hp XJR. The flagship feline is glued and riveted together at the same Castle Bromwich plant where Britain assembled Spitfire airplanes during the unpleasantness with Germany. The lads from RAF 12 Group wouldn't recognize the place. New million-dollar amenities at "Castle Brom" include a stadium-size metal shop painstakingly air-sealed and pumped up to positive pressure to prevent dust from marring the delicate aluminum stampings.
The R's $74,995 base price (kicked up to $77,645 with navigation, headlamp washers, and parking-distance alarms) includes an Eaton twin-rotor supercharger and 19-inch rims inside Z-rated 255/40 rubber packing Italian-made Brembo calipers. The supercharger squashes the atmosphere up to 13.0 psi while ramming it down the throats of the DOHC 32-valve 4.2-liter V-8. A six-speed ZF automatic handles the resulting 399 pound-feet of twist.
Charging out of the Swabian hills of western Germany is the Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG, powered with 469 stampeding mustangs. Two careful hands assemble each SOHC 24-valve 5.4-liter V-8 in the basement of AMG's workshop in Affalterbach. At some point, a mammoth IHI supercharger is wedged into the block vee where, with its electronic clutch engaged, the 13.1-psi of peak boost etches a flat torque line across the factory dyno sheet. A staggering 516 pound-feet is available from 2650 rpm. The five-speed automatic sends the power aft, where it steadily converts the 18-inch 265/35 Z-rated radials into smoke. To shut 'er down, eight-piston front calipers clamp onto 14.2-inch Frisbees, with a computer and an electric motor creating the hydraulic pressure instead of your foot.
Porked up with options, including a $1995 phone, a $1530 sunroof, a $1200 nav system, and a $1040 keyless start system, our E55 trades for $94,325. Yet this highly invigorated E-class starts hauling the mail for a base price of $80,970, a relative bargain considering the muscle onboard. The left lane will never be the same.
We brought these two formidable limos to the Po Plain of northern Italy to meet the freshly unwrapped Maserati Quattroporte ("Four Door" in our native tongue). Pininfarina sculpted its new skin into an extravagant consumer of pavement. More than 10 feet separate the wheel centers, 1.2 inches more than the XJR and 8.2 inches longer than the E55. At the headwaters of the four exhaust pipes is a DOHC 32-valve 4.2-liter V-8 pouring 394 horsepower and 333 pound-feet into a six-speed paddle-shifted automated manual. American Important People can start settling into the leather- and wood-appointed cockpit in September for an expected (but as yet unspecified) base price near $92,000.
From Maserati's Modena headquarters, we will roll south through the vine-tangled hills of Tuscany, deep into bella Italia, the sun-baked boot that is also the Continent's metaphorical lead foot. What is Europe good for? Let's merge our 1253 horsepower into the left lane and find out.
