2016 Mercedes-Benz E 63 S AMG SPEEDSHIFT MCT Transmission
Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get…Unless you are getting into a Mercedes-Benz. Seven gears is the standard for all Mercedes-Benz vehicles, which is not something that any competitor can say. In the 2016 Mercedes-Benz E 63 S AMG, the SPEEDSHIFT MCT transmission puts 577 horsepower to the wheels using the most advanced mechanics and technology in the world.
The E-Class Mercedes-Benz is mostly known for luxury and comfort. Once you slap an AMG badge on it, that all goes out the window to make room for insane performance. The E-Class AMG has four driving modes that affect the way the transmission works; Controlled Efficiency, Sport, Sport+, and Manual. The Controlled Efficiency mode turns on the engine start/stop feature for when you are feeling boring. As you climb up the ladder of performance enhancing driving modes, the shifts get tighter, throttle response gets faster, and somewhere in the distance you hear, “Run, Forrest, Run!”
Dual-Clutch Shifting
Here is where the AMG E 63 S SPEEDSHIFT MCT transmission gets intense. For starters, MCT stands for Multi-Clutch Transmission. Integrating more than one clutch allows for faster shifts because the clutches don’t have to move when switching gears. One simply lets go of the first gear while the other grabs the second gear simultaneously. Aside from Mercedes-Benz, with a few exceptions, the only place you will find this kind of technology is in a Bugatti or Lamborghini.
With this dual clutch system, the 2016 Mercedes-Benz E 63 S AMG SPEEDSHIFT MCT transmission can switch gears in 100 milliseconds. That is one tenth of a second, or three times faster than the blink of an eye! So next time you blink, remember that somewhere out there, an E 63 S shifted three times.
Race-Start Clutch
The traditional torque converter was replaced by a wet clutch for heavy starts. This is substantial because it makes the transmission smoother, more responsive, and more dynamic. The reason for this is because the liquid in the sump gives the clutch a lower rotational inertia (resistance to change in motion) than a traditional torque converter.
To sum it all up, the transmission in the E 63 S is faster, smoother, stronger, and lasts longer than competitors in the same class. That’s all I have to say about that.
The transmission without the wet clutch can be found in other Mercedes-Benz models such as the C-Class or CLA-Class, available now at Mercedes-Benz of Scottsdale.
