C450 tagged posts

Today comes the news that, Mercedes-Benz will announce the W205 C450 AMG model in next January’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

The C450 AMG is not the “real” AMG model such as the C63 AMG. It is something similar to BMW’s “M Performance” line such as the M235i.

The C450 AMG will use the same engine on the C400, but with higher boost pressure to bump up the output to 367hp. Refer to our previous report for more details about the C450 AMG spy shots, pricing, and more technical stuffs.

Today comes updates to the future BMW M2:

– Start of production in late 2015;
– Used a N55 based 6 cylinder turbo engine, 365-375 hp

The M2 is a must-do for BMW because Mercedes-Benz will introducing the 367hp W205 C450 next year. Without the M2, currently BMW has no product to compete with the Mercedes rival.

The reason why BMW not take the turbo 4 cylinder engine route for M2 may due to:

1. Larger turbo lag for the 4 cylinder engine to achieve same output;
2. Excessive developement cost to overcome the shortcoming mentioned in #1.

For enhancements made to the “standard” N55 engine to achieve 370hp-level ouput, the following are some speculations:

– Tuning to the ECU to ...