The Mercedes CL 2011 bow is at Goodwood
Mercedes has revealed the 2011 CL500 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. More frugal and more powerful. CL600, CL63 and CL65 no special order only.
We had a peek a couple of weeks ago at the 2011 Mercedes CL facelift after a photo of the AMG version leaked out, but Mercedes has decided to get on with the job and have a proper reveal this weekend at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. And it this facelift for the Uber-Coupe will keep the CL moniker rather than changing to S Class Coupe as we expected.
The big Mercedes Coupe is due in the UK by October and it gets the expected nip and tuck to keep it looking fresh. The bumpers get a re-shaping, as do the headlights; the tail lights are also modified and the bonnet gets an extra contour or two. The grill is a bit more butch and the whole look just freshens up the CL. So nothing major here, but under the skin it’s different story.
The CL500 now gets a twin turbo 4.6 litre V8 (Mercedes seem to have long given up on their names denoting the engine capacity with any degree of accuracy). It replaces the old 5.5 litre but manages to deliver 429bhp (up 46bhp on the old 5.5 litre) and 516ft/lbs of torque (up 125lb/ft). That extra power and torques is enough to give the new CL500 a 0-60mph time of 4.7 seconds – a full half second improvement.
Despite the extra power the new engine is also more economical. It gets a revised version of Mercedes’ seven speed auto ‘box with stop-start and brake energy recuperation. That results in an average 29.7mpg and 224g/km CO2.
The CL500 is the big seller, but also available will be the CL600, CL63 and CL65, but by special order only.
And what about the name change to S-Class Coupe? Mercedes tell us that will now wait until the all new S Class arrives in 2013.
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