Tavarish is lucky enough to be able to work on supercars for a living. For better or worse, a wide range of projects end up in his garage from Fast & Furious Lamborghinis to totaled McLaren Longtails. He certainly knows a thing or two about them. So what happens when he confronts the claim that a V-12 Mercedes is actually a supercar?
Setting The Stage: Here's What Led To This Supercar Debate
"Car Trek" is a video series starring Tavarish, Tyler Hoover of Hoovies Garage, and Ed Bolian of VINwiki, where they buy the best cheap cars available and determine who'll come away with the best deal. It provides both a comedic and informative cohesion that highlights the consequences of car buying on a budget. The first series focused on supercars for the same price as a Corvette C8 while the second one focuses on supercars that depreciated the most. The first episode of Series two aired on October 5.
In that first episode, around the 8:29 mark, Hoover invites the guys to come check out his car after they’d been lounging poolside. The opening shot reveals a bright-red Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG that's later revealed to’ve been wrapped in tribute to the Red Pig. Right away, Ed Bolian – having famously used a Mercedes CL to set a Cannonball record in 2013 – argues it’s not a supercar.
The Hoovies Garage Defense
Hoover is quick to back the supercar claim, pointing out that the 6-liter twin-turbocharged V-12 is a version of the same engine used in the Pagani Zonda. In the big red coupe purchased for $13,000, it produces 612 hp (probably) and 738 lb-ft of torque (not anymore). Tavarish is not having it, though, claiming it needs that much torque because it “weighs like six-thousand tons.” Hoover quips that it’s a luxurious Pagani Zonda.
Two Red Pigs
Their attention next goes to the red wrap, which Hoover also did to make the car look more exotic. His logic follows, in part, paying tribute to the Red Pig — a race car responsible for putting AMG on the map. Tavarish and Bolian are happy to call it a red pig.
Still, the CL65 pulled off supercar-ish numbers at the time it was built from ’03 to ’05. Mercedes reported numbers between 4 to 4.5 seconds to 60 miles per hour from a standstill and less than twelve seconds through the quarter-mile. These numbers have since been dwarfed by the current AMG GT.
How does this long coupe perform in Hoover’s hands? Anticipate the remaining episodes of "Car Trek" to show up on Tavarish’s YouTube in the coming weeks.