Just raced a Mercedes SL55 with my 540i and.......

[Jimmy540i.com]

Ok let me make this short. This happened less than 1 hour ago, a short race with a Mercedes-Benz SL55.

Took my gf for a little drive in my old school supercharged 540 (picking her up from her house), got off her community, made a left at a light and follows a current Mercedes SL class on my left, and we both came to a stop light.

I look at the driver (40ish man), he look at me & my car and then talked to his female passenger (a blonde). I glanced at the side fender of the SL-Class, noticed that "V8 Kompressor" badge, realized it's a SL55 (appeared to be bone-stock).

I then told my gf "Wanna see who's faster? A 4.4 liter supercharged BMW or a 5.4 liter Supercharged & Intercooled Mercedes Benz?", she laughed.

Light turned green, yep, we both have some sort of agreement and gunned it.. I jumped ahead about 1/5 of my car length and I can hear the sound of the SL55's blower right by me, I had wheelspin on 1st gear from 3600RPM all the way til 6750RPM and when I was approaching the end of my 2nd gear (approx. 72mph), the race is over due to the traffic ahead (next light stop), the SL55 never caught up (I was so afraid that he would blow by me during the race lol..) but right at where he was at the beginning of the race (1/5 car length), I didn't get a good look at the driver after the race as we were separated by the traffic. But I’m sure he’s pretty much in shock and wonder what kind BMW he was racing with.

So there. End of the story

Some points I want to mention here:

1. My 540i now pulls 377RWHP on dyno (on current pully) vs. 395+RWHP on SL55 (according to MBworld.com).

2. My 540i weigh 3775 lbs (last time on truck- scale) vs. 4235lbs on SL55 (According to Mercedes website).

I would assume SL55 would pulled on me at the speed over 100mph because of the HP advantage. Just that this little race is worth mentioning because the SL55 owner knows me being a old BMW 5-series and even, if it’s an E39 M5 he was encountering, he would still take it with ease.

So I win, from 0 to 75mph vs a SL55.

Sorry I didn't make this post too short..lol.. Your thoughts on this race? Comments are welcome.

Jimmy540i
- Jimmy540i.com

 

[Doughnut]

Did you cut a double legger?

 

[selavia]

Did you know, that (at least in MD) if an off-duty police officer witnesses you racing on a public road, that officer can (within 48 hours) show up to your home address, so long as they are on duty and are certain that the person who they issue the ticket to is the person that was driving the vehicle) and issue you a ticket for reckless endangerment?

A buddy of mine actually did that; he saw two knuckle heads doing this in his neighborhood. Waited till the next day when he was in uniform, issued them both a ticket. The judge upheld both tickets!

I'm not familiar with the SL55, but assuming that it is a newer car wth relatively better tech stats and the technology should be more advanced than that of your 540i, I'd venture to say that may driver skill had something to do with your 'edge.' Granted the SL55 is heavier than yours by a substantial amount, still, I would like to say that he may not have been gunning it as hard or may not have had as much skill as you possess to give it serious gas on a public street where other drivers share the road.

 

[DrValidus]

One, Your buddy is an ashole.
Second, the SL55 AMG lags a lot due to its weight.
At 500hp I thought it would be pretty quick, so I test drove it.
It was sooooooooooo much slower than my 98 Corvette.
Totally not worth all the money.

 

[Kirby]

The really scary part of Jimmy's write up is that he wasn't watching the road while racing, he was watching the tach and speedo. What a fool...