Mercedes-AMG E 63 S v Porsche Panamera Turbo 2017 Comparison

Even before the driving starts, the numbers generated by this comparison between the Mercedes-AMG E 63 S 4MATIC+ and the Porsche Panamera Turbo are mind-boggling.

Consider these…

The combined price of these two German superstars is $624,700 before on-road costs and options (and won’t they add up!)

Then there’s combined total engine output: 854kW and 1620Nm.

And what about acceleration? Both claim to reach 100km/h from rest in well under four seconds. The officials are an incredible 3.4sec in the case of the AMG and just 3.6 for the Porsche (with the $4790 Sport Chrono pack fitted to the test car… 3.8sec without). Top speed? 300km/h and beyond in both cases.

Kerb weight? Close as dammit to four tonnes; 1880kg for the Benz and 1995kg for the Porsche.

This is truly an epic battle of the heavyweights!

The motivation for all this
It’s not often two 4.0-litre ‘hot-vee’ twin-turbo V8 all-wheel drive high-performance passenger cars arrive on-sale in Australia within months of each other boasting this stupendous level of price, performance and panache.

First on the scene back in February was the second-generation Panamera Turbo, replete with a less fugly hatchback look than its predecessor. The steel/aluminium hybrid bodyshell covers the new Volkswagen Group, Porsche-developed MSB architecture, a new-generation engine punching out 404kW and 770Nm via a new eight-speed dual clutch PDK box and upgraded full-time and fully variable PTM (Porsche Traction management) all-wheel drive working with a mechanically-operated locking rear diff.

The ask is a hefty $384,800 and Porsche being Porsche, it’s already snuck that price up once since the launch.

The E 63 has only arrived in the last few weeks. Based on the latest W213 E-class, it retails for an enormous $239,900, yet still undercuts the Porsche significantly. It also tops the Panamera in terms of outputs, its highly-tuned version of the hand-built M177 engine making 450kW and 850Nm.

All that fire and brimstone is channeled by a new nine-speed Speedshift MCT automatic and the new fully variable 4Matic+ all-wheel drive system working with an electronically activated locking rear diff.

This is an important change for the E 63, which was previously rear- drive only in Australia. However, to quell the discontent, AMG has introduced a ‘drift mode’ which drives only the rear wheels under specific circumstances.

Porsche doesn’t offer that feature, but drill down a bit deeper and you’ll find several important technical similarities between the two cars. For instance, both ride on three-chamber air springs, have electro-mechancial rack and pinion steering and are braked by massive composite front discs (410mm for the Porsche, 390mm for the AMG) clamped by six-piston brakes.

Our Benz came with $9900 optional front carbon-ceramic discs, but ‘made do’ with staggered 20-inch rubber while our test Porsche rolls on $4410 optional 21s, including massive 315/35 rears. Both cars use Pirelli PZeros and neither comes with a spare tyre.

Measurements are close. The Benz is 4993mm long, 1907mm wide, 1460mm high and has a 2939mm wheelbase. The Panamera is 5049mm long, 1937mm wide, 1427mm high and has a 2950mm wheelbase.

The Benz is a five-seater, the Porsche has four seats, but they do split-fold, growing luggage space from 470 to 1310 litres. The E 63 S has a 570-litre boot but no split-fold capacity.

For more on the Panamera Turbo check out these previous articles:

And here’s some more on the Mercedes-AMG E 63 S:

Mercedes-AMG E 63 Unveiled
Mercedes-AMG E 63 S 2017 Review
Another Mercedes-AMG S Review
Mercedes-AMG E 63 S Video

With its tricky combination of cambers, blind crests, hard braking, long radii and squiggly bits, it poses a really tough challenge for these two big, bulky and supremely powerful cars – and their tyres. Time to get motoring.com.au’s own pro driver Luke Youlden into the cockpit then…

Both cars were dialed to maximum attack mode (Race in the Benz, Sport Plus in the Porsche), tyre pressures were kept standard and timing was electronic. Luke got a warm-up and a couple of fliers in each car before giving them a chance to cool and having another go.

The Benz is first out and the experience is worth listening to as much as watching. AMG rolling thunder echoes around the valley as Luke reminds himself of the joys of all-paw traction.

The AMG’s time is a 64.95sec, only a few hundredths better than we saw here in a rear-wheel drive C 63 S coupe last year. Luke is frustrated as he pulls in. Not because the tyres are throwing in the towel... Instead, it’s the top speed that’s dropped after a couple of fast laps.

“It could only do one or two laps before it got too hot, even then I saw up to 215 to 220km/h,” he explains.

So, we wait and then Luke goes again, this time setting a 64.687sec lap. He’s happier but not completely satisfied.

“I am quite impressed. It just needs a little more turn to get the ultimate lap time out of it,” he reveals.

“It has some turn-in to mid-corner understeer, which is what I expected in a big car with all-wheel drive. But once you get the car facing where you want to go, traction’s not a problem anymore. You can just smash the throttle and drive where you want to go.

“It even lets you get a mid-corner oversteer trend to it. It doesn’t just plow on power -- it actually tries to dig the front around on power, which means the diffs are working quite well,” Youlden explains.

Luke fires up the AMG’s rear-only drift mode and has a crack with two turning and two burning, but the best time is more than one second slower.

“It doesn’t have the traction off the corner [in rear-drive mode] and that’s where the lap time disappears,” he laments.
Porsche’s turn

Now it’s time for the Panamera, and Porsche’s flagship four-door sounds more refined yet still fearfully aggressive. It also looks jet-fast and purposeful without the front-end push the Benz displayed.

This shows in the consistent laps times, with the best a 64.4sec effort. A narrow victory to the Porsche then.

“This car responds a lot better to turn,” Luke explains.

“It doesn’t feel like an all-wheel drive car on the turn-in. Yes, it feels heavy, but it’s not pushing too much. It’s a lot more rear-biased in the way the torque is distributed as well. You can get it to oversteer mid-corner.

“It’s not quite as rapid in a straight line as the E 63; still rapid nonetheless,” he states.

“Traction between both cars is similar. As all-wheel drives they are not really traction limited.”

Our next exercise, the 0-100km/h sprint, further emphasises that.

With Race Start (launch control) engaged, the AMG explodes cacophonously off the line, front wheels barely staying in contact with the bitumen. The result is a 3.568sec run. Luke has another go, just hammering the throttle without the aid of launch control and it’s a 3.567sec effort. Yep, 0.001sec quicker.

Across to the Porsche and with Sport Chrono’s launch control engaged it’s stunningly effective; 3.538sec. You read that right. The heavier, less powerful Porsche is faster than Affalterbach’s finest. Again.

This is classic Porsche script here. When it comes to performance, under-promise and over-deliver. On the limit the Panamera car works devastatingly well.

By the end of the day the front-left tyre of the AMG has been devastated too, demonstrating just how quickly soft road rubber and street suspension geometries can conflict with the requirements of a racetrack. Not likely to be a concern for 99 per cent of owners, however.

To the road
Having established these are two extraordinarily potent cars with incredible manners on the track, it was time to establish whether they behaved on the road. And you know what… Of course they do.

The surprise again is the Porsche. Having established its incredible on-track abilities it also adapts to the road with more ease than the AMG. With its steering wheel-mounted mode switch (which comes as part of Sport Chrono) dialled back to Normal, the Panamera is both quieter and more comfortable, capable of soothing surfaces the Benz reacts to and patters over in the Dynamic Select controller’s most relaxed Comfort mode.

Now that doesn’t mean the Panamera is the best riding and quietest big saloon out there. It’s not, but it does outpoint the E 63 S.

You could argue the Panamera is a GT and the AMG a sports sedan, except the Porsche is also exceptionally capable when being punted along a winding country road. Dial up Sport or even Sport Plus mode (which is not 911-esque in its track-oriented severity) and everything becomes deliciously sharp and attentive.

And is there any auto more responsive than a Porsche PDK in Sport Plus? The paddles aren’t fitted out of necessity.

The Panamera’s biggest drawback is its size. Driving a car this vast (worth more than $400,000) around a multi-story car park is a nerve-shredding experience. Then you park it and wonder whether you’ll return to find it keyed.

The AMG doesn’t draw the crowds the Panamera does, but it keeps your attention from behind the steering wheel. And that’s why some people will prefer it.

In all ways it’s an earthier, more visceral, louder experience. Very AMG in every respect!

For petrol-heads there is no better driving experience than ripping down the road in the E 63 S, exhaust snapping and crackling, clamping those big discs hard, wheeling into a corner feeling that front-end bite and then stomping on the throttle and having the rear hook-up and shove you forward.

Ultimately, we reckon the Panamera will cross the ground that little quicker and more comfortably, but in the E 63 S any trip is potentially a more memorable experience.

Should we even bother talking about fuel economy? Only to mention both engines come with cylinder deactivation and stop-start. Hate to think what they’d suck fuel like without them.

Inside the cabin
Cars of this price have to deliver more than an outstanding driving experience, they have to be special inside and loaded down with gear. Tick both boxes for these two.

The Panamera oozes class from every leather, walnut and aluminium gram. It’s also the host vehicle for the new-generation Porsche Communication Management system, which includes a 12.3 monitor in the centre of the dashboard. This is intended to be as intuitive and personalisable as a smartphone. Thankfully there’s still a nod to the analogue generation in the instrument panel where the traditional rev counter resides at the centre of a series of digital dials.

The Benz’s Widescreen Cockpit is its starring interior act, with two 12.3-inch LCD media screens stretching across much of the dashboard under one sheet of glass. Again, the graphics are stunning and the personalisation mind-boggling.

Both cars have exceptionally supportive front seats and plenty of interior space, the Benz aided by the gear shifter’s position on the steering column.

One gripe with Panamera is the way the base of the B-pillar intrudes into the door opening. I kept hitting my hip on it as I slid into the seat. How does stuff like that get past the testing stage?

And of course, it couldn’t be a Porsche test without some glitch or other – I’ve had some weird things happen over the years. This time it was the right-side digital dials in the new Porsche Advanced Cockpit IP intermittently going fuzzy like a TV struggling for reception.

The Benz has the higher-tech standard equipment, highlighted by its more advanced (albeit still limited) autonomous ability. There’s also nine airbags (as per all Es), three-zone climate control, a digital TV tuner, a panoramic sunroof and oodles of connectivity.

The Panamera gets 10 airbags 14-way power front seats, four-zone climate control, 14-speaker BOSE stereo, LED Matrix headlights and a rear seat entertainment system including two screens that attach to the front seatbacks. It also gets a beautifully executed four-way adaptive rear spoiler. The way it deploys and shutters is a work of mechanical poetry.

The verdict
And that aero-mechanical feature captures the Porsche’s appeal in concentrate. This is a car in which forensic attention has been paid to almost everything we see, hear, touch and feel. The outcome is breathtaking performance capability and relaxed comfort in one all-encompassing package.

The snorting, rampaging AMG can’t quite match its achievements. But it’s still tremendously memorable and for some people, be it $150,000 cheaper or not, will still be the preferred drive.

For us though, it’s impossible to go past the Panamera Turbo. Yes, it’s much more expensive and yes there are options that should be standard (like Sport Chrono), but it just kept on getting more and more impressive the longer we drove it.

Typical Porsche. We shouldn’t be surprised should we…

Mercedes-AMG E 63 S 4MATIC+ pricing and specifications:
Price: $239,900 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 turbo-petrol
Outputs: 450kW/850Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed auto
Fuel: 9.3L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 212g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: TBC

2017 Porsche Panamera Turbo pricing and specifications:
Price: $384,800 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 petrol
Output: 404kW/770Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel: 9.4L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 214g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: N/A