Drive Wire: May 12, 2016
A new E63, spy shots of the next Camaro, a FWD Chrysler 300, a stove that will burn anything, and some old-school BMX.
Hey guys, it’s Marisa Hunter and this is Drive Wire for Thursday, May 12.
Just when we thought the automotive world was falling to the dreaded c-word – yes, crossover – Mercedes AMG drops a 600 horsepower, rear-biased all-wheel-drive wagon. Appearing to be loaded to the gills with go-fast goodies, this long wheel base monster will definitely hold up to the E63 name. All this power goes through a nine-speed wet-clutch automatic and although, this isn’t a rear-wheel drive car, we’re confident you can chirp the tires on this grocery getter. Long live the wagon.
We have new spy shots of a heavily modified Camaro variant testing in Germany. And while it’s wearing a lot of cover-up, nothing can hide the aggressive aero and some truly massive Brembos on this thing. We’re going to go ahead and speculate that this is a Z28 in the making, but whatever it is, it’s positively predatory. We’re also happy to live in an era when the pony-car wars are fought on the Nurburgring. The last Z ran a 7:37 lap there; this one, with its huge spoiler, might turn a sub 7:30.
Possibly some sad news out of Fiat-Chrysler. According to FCA top man Sergio Marchionne, it’s entirely possible the Chrysler 300, also known as the only Chrysler anyone cares about even a little, may be going front-wheel-drive in the near future. Although Marchionne mentioned this in passing at Chrysler’s plant in Ontario, Canada, we cannot yet confirm that the Chrysler 300 successor will be front-wheel drive. As disappointing as the move may be, it’s not surprising – the 300’s rear wheel drive makes it an outlier among its competitors. We may be looking at a time when the all-wheel-drive version is the sexy one, and that’s a little sad.
Turning to gear, we have the biomass-burning Enki Stove Wild. The idea here is to use any flammable stuff you find laying around the forest in an efficient manner for cooking and making coffee. In other words, no lugging of fuel is needed – although lightweight fuel pellets are available. Sounds like a neater, tidier alternative to both the camp stove and the campfire. Find the Enki Stove Wild on Kickstarter.
For today’s ridiculous video, we have a great childhood flashback to the golden days of BMX. Watch Simone Barraco risk life and limb on the streets of Barcelona and wish you and your knees were twelve again so you could go risk shattering them! But seriously, we’d probably last 30 seconds now before a career-ending injury.
That’s it for today’s edition of Drive Wire. For more, be sure to come back to thedrive.com, and follow us @thedrive on all your favorite social media platforms.
