Amble the 2003 Mercedes-Benz CLK 500 at the speed limit through one of the tres belle towns around here and invariably a local garcon would close up on the bumper with allez-allez blazing in his eye.Stay your course and a small fleet of French cars would gather, each one of them piloted by a driver with vite-vite in his heart and 2-litres under the hood.
They would follow impatiently until the edge of town and then the car directly behind me would make a move as if to pass, which is when I would summon every cc of the 5 litres of V8 under the hood and leave the crowd of cars behind, like Han Solo making the jump to light speed.
I'd blip beyond the speed limit just to extend the gap, and then dial back to about 10 kmh above the legal maximum. They would bustle like crazy to catch up, and I would make no effort to keep them behind me on the open road if they tried to pass.
I'd smile beatifically at them as they went by, though few looked my way as they passed. They may have been getting ahead of me, but it was only because I was letting them, and we all knew it. After you, Alphonse, hee-hee.
Superior acceleration is by far the best thing about the new compact coupe from Stuttgart, when you can apply all that magnificent German power to put lesser cars in their place.
And in Europe, just about every car on the road is a lesser car to a compact Mercedes with a hairy V8. A CLK 500 almost always has more displacement and more power than any two other cars in its vicinity, and that gives you a distinct advantage when you're leaving a multi-gate toll booth and racing, say, seven vehicles across the plaza for one of the two available lanes.
They would follow impatiently until the edge of town and then the car directly behind me would make a move as if to pass, which is when I would summon every cc of the 5 litres of V8 under the hood and leave the crowd of cars behind, like Han Solo making the jump to light speed.
I'd blip beyond the speed limit just to extend the gap, and then dial back to about 10 kmh above the legal maximum. They would bustle like crazy to catch up, and I would make no effort to keep them behind me on the open road if they tried to pass.
I'd smile beatifically at them as they went by, though few looked my way as they passed. They may have been getting ahead of me, but it was only because I was letting them, and we all knew it. After you, Alphonse, hee-hee.
Superior acceleration is by far the best thing about the new compact coupe from Stuttgart, when you can apply all that magnificent German power to put lesser cars in their place.
And in Europe, just about every car on the road is a lesser car to a compact Mercedes with a hairy V8. A CLK 500 almost always has more displacement and more power than any two other cars in its vicinity, and that gives you a distinct advantage when you're leaving a multi-gate toll booth and racing, say, seven vehicles across the plaza for one of the two available lanes.