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MERCEDES 500 CL

Poster: Charlie Flindt 27/11/2006

FROM TRADITIONAL COMFORT TO CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY, THE NEW MERCEDES 500 CL IS – AS MOTORING CORRESPONDENT CHARLIE FLINDT DISCOVERS – ONCE AGAIN AHEAD OF ITS TIME.

When it comes to car-makers with history, they don’t come much better then Mercedes-Benz. There is no other car-maker in the world with the same heritage and tradition. So much so that, when you talk of the history of Mercedes-Benz, you’re effectively talking about the history of the motor car. The two companies that merged in 1926 to form Daimler-Benz, as it was then known, were founded by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz. Astonishingly, these two remarkable men, working independently and within only about a hundred kilometres of each other in south-west Germany, had both invented an engine-powered vehicle. And at the time, in the mid-1880s, neither was aware of the other.

If you want heritage, that’s heritage. So, when Mercedes-Benz start handing out a history lesson, it pays to sit up and listen. And the new Mercedes-Benz CL-class is the latest in a line of coupés that comes with a history almost as impressive as that of the company itself.It’s easy to track the coupé history back to 1956 when the 220 S/SE coupés thrilled the motoring world, and it’s easy to spot the styling clues that M-B have carefully incorporated into the new CL…

The distinctive radiator grill with wide chrome louvers; then there’s the C-pillar, a unique, slightly downward tapering feature made all the more obvious by the lack of a B pillar, and the large, panoramic rear windscreen.Inside, there’s yet more tradition, but it’s slightly more straightforward to spot. Think of a gentleman’s club: lots of soft leather, exquisite wood trim, stylish and elegant dashboard. But there’s something unusual about the dashboard, something slightly different. And it’s at this point that the history lesson stops, and the cutting edge of modern car design begins.There has been a cull of knobs.

No, not Mercedes straying into the world of vasectomies, but they have decided to merge all sorts of different functions onto one control system. The “Comand” controller on the centre console provides easy access to the user-friendly main and sub-menus that control the radio, DVD player, car phone and navigation system.The seats look curiously different, too.

They are now “integral” seats: all the components of the seat-belt system are incorporated directly into the seat, which improves safety as well as access to the rear. There’s another wonderful feature inside these seats that I can’t recommend highly enough. It’s not the active ventilation system, although having cooling air pumped through your seat can be blissful on hot and sticky days. What really got me going was the massage. You see, there are lots of inflatable chambers in the seat, and these can be set to give you a five-minute work-over, pulsing and throbbing to de-stress your back. I used this clever function on the way to see my glamorous osteopath. When I got there, I hardly needed her attentions at all. Mind you, I wasn’t going to let a lack of back pain stop me from enjoying 45 minutes of close quarter contact.

So now that all your stresses are gone, you can get on and drive the CL, and enjoy all the other hi-tech features. Under the bonnet of the CL 500 is an eight-cylinder 285 kW, stuffed with gadgets like shifting camshafts, two-stage intake module and the curiously named tumble-flaps in the intake ducts. In the CL 600 is an ultra-modern biturbo V12, giving 380 kW.Not surprisingly, both powerplants give staggering performance but, once again, M-B have piled on the technology to keep your speeding CL safe and under complete control. “Active Body Control” suspension has specially designed hydraulic cylinders at the axles, responding with slip-second speed to effectively eliminate the CL’s pitch and roll when moving off, cornering or braking.Perhaps the cleverest safety feature is the “Pre-Safe” system. By simply linking the sensors that tell how far away other traffic is to braking sensors the CL can tell if a collision is on its way.

With the minimum of fuss, it will move the seats to maximise the airbags’ effectiveness, pump up those seats to envelop the occupants, and, in some situations, close the windows and sunroof. And as if this weren’t enough, “Pre-Safe Brake” will suggest, through audible signals, that you step on the brakes. Ignore this good advice, and it will do so for you.

There’s not room to go into all the other technological marvels that fill the new Mercedes-Benz CL – like the Intelligent light system, or the “Direct Select” gearshift. I think it’s more important to sum up just what this astonishing vehicle represents: the seamless merging of 50 years of luxury coupé tradition with futuristic technology that almost immediately makes the competition look a little old-fashioned. In yet another segment of the car-making world, Mercedes-Benz, once again, set the standard for others to follow – if they can. Mercedes-Benz CL500 / CL600Engine: V8, 5461 cc./ V12, 5,999 ccPower: 285kW @ 6,000 rpm / 380kW @ 5,000 rpmMaximum speed: 250 kph (both, limited)Performance, 0 to 100 kph: 5.4 seconds / 4.6 secondsCombined fuel economy: 12.1 litres/100 km / 14.3 litres/100 km SUMMARY: Herr Daimler and Herr Benz would be very proud.

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