"Buyers are hungry for high performance," asserts Rob Allan, AMG Product Manager. Luckily, performance is the name of the game at AMG, the engineering firm owned by Mercedes-Benz. To meet what the company perceives to be insatiable desire for more, more, more, nearly every model in the German luxury automaker's lineup gets a massage by AMG that adds greater power and torque, better brakes, a tighter suspension, and special trim inside and out. The upcoming 2006 Mercedes-Benz CLS 500 is no exception to the rule. In fact, with its four-door coupe configuration and rakishly elegant bodywork, it's a prime candidate for the AMG hot-rod treatment. Under the 2006 Mercedes-Benz CLS55 AMG's shapely hood resides a supercharged and intercooled 5.5-liter V8 engine belting out 469 horsepower and 516 lb.-ft. of torque. Power is routed to the massive rear wheels through an AMG Speedshift five-speed transmission equipped with shift paddles that are mounted to the steering wheel, Formula 1-style. Acceleration to 60 mph takes about 4.5 seconds. With five forward speeds, the transmission operates in fully automatic mode or as a clutchless sequential manual gearbox that allows the driver to cycle through gears via the paddles or by toggling the gearshift lever. Speedshift doesn't automatically shift when placed in manual mode, giving the driver complete control of gear selection at all times. Active braking downshift technology helps to select the right gear for exiting curves when the transmission is in full automatic mode, and software mapping that Mercedes calls "optimal gear function" delivers gear changes up to 35 percent faster than normal.
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