To many people, Oberlin, Ohio is the home of Oberlin College, a progressive liberal arts school famous for its civil rights initiatives and talented student body. Ask a fan of Nissan’s flagship R35 GT-R performance car about Oberlin, Ohio, and they’ll tell you about Switzer Performance, a family-run tuning house famous for turning GTRs into 8-second, 250+ MPH war machines. After building a 2000+ HP GTR last year, however, Tym Switzer and his dedicated crew have turned their attention elsewhere.
“We’re still not at the limits of what that car, or what this shop is capable of in terms of GTR,” says Tym, the head of Switzer Performance. “We’re still pushing the envelope with that car, for those clients that want to test those limits,” he explains. “But most GTR customers will be best served by our 1000 HP Ultimate Street Edition or one of the race-oriented R1K-X/Goliath builds. What our customers are asking us for isn’t always more GTR, anymore. Lately, they’ve been asking about other cars- especially the new AMGs.”
With an advanced all-wheel drive system and computer-controlled, twin-turbocharged multivalve engine, there are plenty of superficial similarities between the Nissan R35 and, for example, the car you see here. Meet the Switzer Performance P700 Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG.
The Switzer P700 CLS follows the same naming conventions as Switzer’s Nissan and Porsche product offerings, with the “P” representing readily-available “Pump” gasoline, and the “700” representing the fact that Switzer’s crew has coaxed a staggering 700+ horsepower from (what is normally a 550 HP) AMG’s 5.5 liter twin-turbo V8. “With a good launch, you should see zero-to-sixty drop to around 3.0 seconds,” explains Tym, casually. “Even with all-wheel drive, with the amount of torque this car is making you need to get the launch right to get it into the 2s.”
60-130 MPH acceleration should greatly improve as well, because – in addition to the 150 HP advantage Switzer’s P700 CLS enjoys over the “standard” CLS63 AMG – Switzer’s version is making more than 850 lb-ft of torque (!), a 300 lb-ft advantage over AMG’s claims 531 lb-ft. More impressive, perhaps, than that peak TQ figure might be the fact that Switzer’s P700 performance PKG enables the Mercedes V8 to begin making more than 500 lb-ft of TQ at less than 2000 rpm, and that number stays above 500 all the way to redline.
“It’s a great package,” says Tym. “The way the P700 builds power is very linear, very predictable. It’s a nice car to drive because it’s not peaky or jumpy like some tuner cars can be. It really feels like the kind of car AMG would be happy to build, and like the refined hypercars that have become synonymous with the Switzer brand over the last few years.”
The Switzer Performance P700 Mercedes-Benz performance PKG is available for Mercedes’ current CLS63 AMG from Switzer Performance or select Mercedes-Benz dealers. Contact Switzer Performance in Oberlin, Ohio, for more information, or for E, SL, and S Class 63 series AMG performance upgrades.
