CNG powered Mercedes SL 600 by Speedriven packs 800 hp – seeks healthy gas speed jot down
An engineer down in Texas wants to make his Mercedes-Benz SL 600 clean and immature?
His name is Bernie Towns as well as he has incited this 2007 SL600 Mercedes-Benz roadster into the 5.5 liter twin-turbo V12 CNG-powered speedster he hopes will mangle a jot down for a fastest natural gas-fueled car around. That’s a Texas part.
Partnering with Chicago tuner Speedriven, this really singular SL 600 right away develops around 800 bhp (597 kW / 811 PS) and over 1,000 lb-ft (1354 Nm) of torque as well as does a quarter-mile (402 meters) in 10 seconds.
But a jot down for a fastest CNG-powered automobile is still hold by Hohenester Audi A4 tuned to over 700 bhp (522 kW / 710 PS) that was able to strike 364.6 km/h (226.55 mph) in 2009. Speedriven as well as Towns hope to mangle that with some-more horsepower and the help of a Mercedes-supplied aerodynamic pack fitted to this SL 600 which can safely reason speeds of up to 386 km/h (240 mph).
The team during Speedriven is scheming the automobile for testing subsequent month by fitting a brand new turbocharger system to a car and completing the healthy gas conversion. Towns is set to debut a car during a Texas Mile eventuality in March where he hopes to mangle the speed record.
“I confess it. I’m the horsepower drugdependant. I adore speed, I adore power, and I love my Mercedes-Benz,” says Towns.
We hold you, Bernie.
Source: Speedriven
Press Release(Click to enhance
Speedriven Gunning for CNG Speed Records
A powerful as well as responsive, 5.5-liter twin-turbocharged V12 engine is not customarily what comes to thoughts when you consider of “immature” cars, but – if Bernie Towns and a organisation during Speedriven get their way – it shortly might be.
Bernie Towns is an operative during HighMount Exploration and Production – a natural-gas-focused appetite company based out of Houston, Texas. “Clean” and “green” have been bland buzzwords in a energy-production industry, and Towns’ association (Future Power Technology) is no difference, compelling investigate into new ways to push CNG into a mainstream. In further to being well-versed in stream green-energy trends, however, there is something about Bernie Towns that is dissimilar from a common green-car advocates. “I confess it. I’m the horsepower addict,” Bernie says. “I adore speed, I love energy, as well as I adore my Mercedes-Benz.”
The intent of Towns’ current automotive affections is the 2007 SL600 Mercedes-Benz roadster, which – after nearly the year of investigate as well as growth work by Chicago-based tuning firm Speedriven – right away develops over 800 horsepower as well as over one-thousand pound-feet of torque from the biturbo V12. Good sufficient for 10-second entertain mile runs and the top speed good in excess of 200 mph.
Towns’ massively absolute Speedriven SL satisfied his need for speed, then, though Towns still felt that something was missing. “In a IT universe, we literally spend hours of every day coming up with ways to do commercial operation in more efficient ways as well as (at HighMount) in more environmentally responsible ways,” explains Towns. “So there I am, sitting at lunch a single day and a people have been talking about natural gas cars, as well as it suddenly hits me: we should modify a SL to run upon natural gas!”
“In a lot of circles, immature is the brand new fast,” says Speedriven’s Jo Borras. “I think that’s loyal, and Bernie is certainly a follower. He’ll talk about CNG giving off 80% fewer damaging emissions than gasoline, and he has a resources to figure out flame-front speeds, burr temperatures, as well as alternative technical things we need upon our finish to scrupulously tune for a gas as well as convert a automobile. He doesn’t only wish to do a CNG Benz, yet. Bernie wants to break records.”
“Audi has the current jot down, during 364.6 kilometers per hour that they set behind in 2009. That’s just over 225 mph, that they did in a heavily tuned Audi S4 making about 700 hp,” explains Towns. “That wasn’t standing-mile speed or anything, which was all they could get out of which automobile. The Mercedes has a bigger engine to begin with, as well as it’s a slipperier automobile – from a bureau during slightest. By a time this is all pronounced and finished, we’ll be creation during slightest an additional 100 horsepower over the record Audi, as well as Mercedes has already since us a better aero package to work with. 230 mph to 240 mph run on CNG powered fuel. That’s the goal, as well as because can’t we do it? We know that Oklahoma as well as Texas have an abundance of healthy gas, as well as a ready infrastructure of responsibly handling as well as producing companies that employ thousands of Americans all the approach from manufacture to placement during CNG-filling stations which have been already in place and accessible to a public. This is sparkling and this is fun as well as there is no improved and more shining use of this type of purify energy than in the vehicles.”
The subsequent test of Bernie’s automobile is scheduled for a Texas Mile event in March, and a SL600 is already during Speedriven’s Chicago trickery, removing propitious with the brand new turbocharger public designed to push the boundaries even farther. “The first step to put a ‘pedal to the metal’ upon this plan is for Speedriven to get a hardware to where it needs to be,” says Towns. “I consider 200 in the station mile, with 240 mph or so as a top speed. Once we’re happy with a hardware as well as with the programming as well as we’re removing a formula we want upon gas, then we’ll modify the car’s fuel scheme as well as scale a math reasonably for a CNG. That approach we’re traffic with well known quantities all the approach through, introducing brand new variables one during the time. That’s how Speedriven wants to move brazen as well as that’s how everybody upon my finish likes to do things as well. Methodical. Step by step.”
Bernie Towns as well as the organisation during Speedriven have been relocating brazen as well as gaining await with each flitting week. Towns offers which a organisation has been in hold with Mercedes-Benz USA, as well as that the ANGA and NGV America have additionally been contacted about removing “upon house” with a plan.
“We’re flattering vehement. I’m flattering vehement,” says an emotional Towns. “It’s not everyone who gets to go out as well as do something unequivocally sparkling with emerging technology as well as clean appetite and break speed annals in a same automobile they drive home each day as well as still get to call that ‘work’. This is great!”
