Rockstar Tom Clarke's Epic AMG Adventure: Part 1

Editor-in-Chief's Note: When The Enemy's Tom Clarke texted me a photo of his E55 AMG sitting pretty on Isle of Man's famous road course, I knew we had to get his story on Car Throttle. The following is a firsthand account split over two parts. Enjoy!

My job is pretty cool. I get to travel the world playing music, and I get paid for it. And that makes me feel exceptionally lucky.

What you probably haven't considered, though, is that I spend more time in the back of vans on UK motorways than any other Brit thanks to a heavy touring schedule. And this gets incredibly boring. So, I decided the next tour would be done in a super saloon capable of eating miles but incapable of eating my cash savings.

Tom's "day job" playing to a packed crowd at Wembley

Performance, luxury and badge bragging rights are reserved for the ultra-flush elite, right? Mere mortals like us make do with mundane things like practicality, reliability and economy.

Unless your name ends in Kardashian or begins with Sheikh there's basically no way you can own a car with a seriously plush interior, a mile-long spec sheet, a badge that can hold its own amongst the automotive elite and an engine and drivetrain combination that can worry people in supercars.

Well, what if I told you there was? What if I told you, you could own a top-spec Mercedes-Benz E Class, with a plethora of gadgets, and an engine hand built by a single engineer at AMG that can hurl you from 0-160mph in under thirty seconds? And for the same sort of money that many people spend on their Vauxhall Insignia or Ford Mundaneo. You'd probably ask, what's the catch?

Well, I wouldn't be able to answer that honestly unless I put my balls on the table and actually bought one.

So I did. (Man points please).

One gleaming £10,000 E55 AMG, ready for testing

It began around Christmas time. I was getting an itch - not from a tragic, festive jumper - but for a new car. The problem was, I've owned and driven some amazing cars over the last few years. I've hit 200mph in a BMW M6, driven the Scottish lakes in a Porsche 911, destroyed a TVR T350c and then rebuilt it, been pulled over for speeding past the Grand Canyon in a Lamborghini and pedalled a Jag XKR across America in the Gumball Rally (Ed note: don't forget blasting a Jaguar XKR-S with Team CT, Tom!).

Whatever it was, it was going to have to be epic, and capable of doing a lot of stuff very well. To make matters worse, I'd set myself a £10,000 budget. What could possibly tick all the boxes for under 10k?

The answer came from an unexpected place.

A survey to find the most reliable car (usually reserved for boring, Alan Partridge, Lexi type stuff) had published a piece - that the most reliable car in Europe over the last few years was the W211 version of Merc's E Class. This got me excited as I knew there were two AMG versions of the W211, and surely the most reliable car in Europe was the perfect base for a sub ten grand supercar killer.

The Merc E55 AMG's stonking 5.4-litre V8 block

The E63 I immediately realised was way out of my budget. Shame, because the 6.2-litre, naturally aspirated V8 with its active exhausts creates one of the best noises know to man and gets you moving from 0-60 in 4.5 seconds! That's supercar quick. At £20k plus though, they're pricey.

The E55 then, offered a 5.4-litre V8, but this one was supercharged and would hurtle you to 60mph in 4.7 seconds! Hang on, 4.7 seconds? That can't be right. That's only a fraction slower than the E63 and yet costs under £8k!

I'd stumbled upon a gem. A couple of weeks later I headed to Kent to test drive one, and ended up buying it.

Aesthetically it was a minter. The service history was all with Mercedes' main dealers and it appeared mechanically sound. In addition it had been remapped and was being sold by none other than Tony Gilham's BTCC Racing team. I headed back home, tingling with Clarkson smugness, in absolute astonishment at how refined it still was for a ten year old car. A few weeks prior, I'd driven the new E Class and been less than impressed. The materials didn't feel very premium and the whole car felt like it had been made for the American market without a thought for the refinement we've grown to expect from Mercedes in Europe. The W211 though, that was built at a time when Mercedes was desperately trying to repair its image of poor reliability and under-engineering. And boy can you really tell. The soft pleated leather with tiny perforations to let air-conditioned air through, the exceptional Harmon Kardon sound system, electric everything, automatic everything. All a catastrophe waiting to happen.

And then, it did.

"Aesthetically it was a minter"

I was almost home, when the glorious V8 went quiet and the throttle started ignoring me. My heart sank. Years of TVR ownership had hardened me to breakdowns though, and so in limp mode I crawled to my local independent garage. Everybody needs a garage they can trust and mine is excellent. They established my E55 needed two ignition coils replacing, and recommended changing the spark plugs at the same time. It was still with a heavy heart that I handed over £600 but I was glad to have the beast back with a clean bill of health.

Back to the tour and all 3000 miles of it looming on the horizon. To be an effective touring vehicle, the AMG needed to tick two major boxes: it needed to be comfortable and economical.

The first box I had no issue with. The second, errr, hmm, yeh this is awkward... How do I casually drop into a conversation with our two band members that the car we're going to use as the main tour vehicle is a 5.4-litre, supercharged V8 that weighs about 17 tonnes? There was no way I was wading into that conversation without some actual IRL, real life economy figures to hand. Not the ones they quote on the manufacturer website, they don't mean anything. I bought a BMW M6 once expecting 20mpg to find it averaged eight. Yes eight. I wasn't expecting much better from the AMG to be honest and I expected the planned economy test would ruin any dreams of touring in it.

Photographic evidence of the E55's surprising economy run result

The route was planned, Coventry to London on the M40 at night. Our drummer Liam was to accompany me to make sure I didn't lie, fall asleep, or turn the economy test into a top speed test. 64mph turned out to be the most economical speed, so we went to London at 64mph and arrived in a massive, and I mean massive state of disbelief. The monster had somehow managed to average 26mpg and had peaked at 28mpg!

It was decided, the AMG was going on tour.

Stay tuned for Part 2, next Friday, when Tom takes his E55 to Isle of Man for a proper roadtest!