After a pair of four-pots, Mercedes finally give India the big V6 turbo-diesel. We find out how much more go comes with the show.
Story: Jim Gorde
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, the old saying goes. What am I on about? Let me try some other words. Don’t count your horses before they arrive. That’s about right. This whole thing about horsepower. Engines deliver numbers among many other things. Manufacturers rate and print them. People read them. Enthusiasts and prospects compare them. Then there will be comparisons between V6 petrols and diesels and the horsepower they make. Wake up! Did they notice another, substantial figure probably just below that? Probably, and they probably ignored it as well.
Torque is what delivers acceleration; that whoosh you feel when you step on the pedal and see the needle climb. It is the actual work done. Horsepower is only a measure of what rate the work is being done at. Over time, torque has grown, with the help of turbochargers, all engines, yes, but more so with diesels. Mercedes have come a long way since they gave the world its first production diesel car – the 260D. In fact, diesel engines have come an even longer way over the past decade or so. High-pressure common-rail direct injection, piezo-electric injectors and micro-second precision in fuel delivery, with pre- and post-injection sprays to help it burn better. It’s mind-numbingly complicated to imagine. Yes, it delivers more power, more torque and more efficiency and cleaner emissions. Wizardry!
Go back 10 years and 600 Nm of torque would be something coming from a V8 with over six litres of displacement. Now, three-litre V6 diesels make the same, or even more, as in this case, leaving their benzine-sipping counterparts far behind. The E350 CDI delivers 620 Nm of it! Yes, Munich has a three-turbo 3.0 making 740 Nm. Yes, Ingolstadt has a bi-turbo making 650 Nm. But they aren’t here, are they? Competition? The Jaguar XF V6 and the Maserati Ghibli overseas – both make 275 PS and 600 Nm. The Merc we have here is just 10 PS short, but has 20 Nm more. Add the smooth 7G-Tronic transmission funnelling all of that to the rear wheels and you have the torque of the town.
So, the W212 facelift E-Class arrived sporting two turbo-fours, one sipping petrol, the other oil. The mad AMG bi-turbo V8 petrol arrived later, but that’s another story. Now, however, the turbo-diesel V6 comes in as an attractive proposition for those who want even more bang for their buck; there’s only so much a fully-loaded four-pot can do.
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