[Deuuuce]

Test drove an E63 on Sunday. Cliff note: Highly refined, other than the HP, it's like a CSRT-8 as a C6 Z-06 is to a GTS Viper.

The 7spd Automatic and lack of interior noise made it deceptively fast. The tach is too small on off to the right to take advantage of the steering wheel paddle shifters - you can't judge a shift-point on the sound because it doesn't change much in pitch or tone when approaching redline. It's quiteter than my GFs SLK350 exhaust too. Also the paddle shifters do not follow the steering wheel when turning and are a little short since they don't. The power is exceptional with 3 passengers total. Hearing it start up it sounds great while outside the car, though.

It's actually a little small, like a personal 4-door coupe, if you will. The right armrest storage is a bit small and if you have bottled water, leaves no room for your elbow. I also noticed I had to pull my arm back to grab the door handle rather than forward in the Charger. Point being, it's a bit small inside compared to ours. I kinda liked that though.

I didn't get a chance to test the handling. The braking is very smooth and seemed to have less nose-dive than ours. You sit lower in the E63 as well. Had a nice feature that lifts the car (or front end) to avoid scraping which would be great vs. us going SLOW at an angle. Lambos have this too, btw...

It also has rear dual zone climate control and while not roomy like ours in back, at 6'0" with long legs, it was adequate. Next to a CLS63, it's a little shorter and sits a little taller. Is the 507hp E63 worth $92k? Well it is significantly different than ours and if you can afford it, than I guess it is. However, I like the raw, visceral feel and sound of the Charger as well.

Hopefully I'll test drive an M5 soon and make a comparison as well.

On a side note, there was a guy there, obviously had money, who claimed the following: His small-block, totally custom built powertrain EVERYTHING, pump gas, naturally aspirated C5 Vette had a 10K redline and made about 1200hp on the engine dyno. I had never seen a throttle body so large. Claims it ran a 8.7 or so at 180+mph in the quarter on slicks and skinnys w/ 4:10 gears. I'm having a hard time with this but with a 10k redline (and a short lifespan at that rpm), is it possible? He said he couldn't remember the compression ratio. Figure NASCAR motors on pump gas could make around 700hp at 9k rpm?