OM613

The OM613 arrived with the facelifted W210 in August 1999 to replace the prechamber OM606 at the top of the range. Developed with the four-cylinder OM611 and five-cylinder OM612 and sharing their pistons, injectors and glow plugs, it combined common-rail injection with charge cooling and a variable-geometry turbocharger for 145 kW (197 hp) at 4,200 rpm and 470 N·m held flat from 1,800 to 2,600 rpm. That was more than 42 per cent up on the six-cylinder diesel it succeeded, and Mercedes-Benz claimed it as a new benchmark among comparable passenger-car engines.

What made the E 320 CDI persuasive was the pairing of figures that had never previously gone together in a diesel saloon: 0–100 km/h in 8.3 seconds and 230 km/h flat out, on 7.8 liters per 100 km over the European cycle. The same engine went into the W220 as the S 320 CDI. Its run was brief — the OM648 took over in 2003 — but four years were enough to establish the large diesel six as the sensible enthusiast's choice rather than the compromise.