They were actually going to do it. Chrysler, the company that had been riding the emotional and financial rollercoaster since the 1970s, was going to crank out a supercar. And not just a shape of a car, oh, not even close. After the “merger of equals” had formed DaimlerChrysler in 1998, Chrysler suddenly had access to engines they didn’t have before, like the 6.0L Mercedes-Benz V-12 that the S-class cars used. They had ambition, and about this time there was still some money in the bank on the Chrysler side of the house. Why not dream big? Why not take that baseball bat and swing for the stars? In 2003, they did just that by unveiling the ME Four-Twelve at the Detroit Auto Show. Keep in mind…the LX cars were still a couple of years off. If it didn’t have “SRT” or “Ram” on it, you probably needed to walk away, and early signs of Daimler’s cost-cutting strategies were starting to appear in the interiors of the cars coming out of Auburn Hills. This was Chrysler, a company that had just killed off Plymouth. Sure, they were known for putting crazy-assed concepts into production. That was part of their charm in the 1990s…Viper, 1994 Ram, PT Cruiser, Prowler…if they made a concept car, you had to pay attention because there was a good chance it was going to hit the streets real soon.
So, the name: ME was for mid-engine, four was the amount of turbochargers, twelve the cylinder count. The bragging figures were 850 horsepower, a seven-speed dual-clutch trans from Ricardo, and a projected top speed that would’ve unnerved McLaren F1 owners. Out of a car that looked like an Audi supercar prototype with the grille badge from a Sebring on the nosecone. They were going for production. Mule cars were being tested. Deiter Zetsche and Wolfgang Bernhard kept making claims that the car was going to see the light of day. That is, until the mules actually started cracking off numbers: 10.6@136 quarter mile times, a top speed that could’ve been near 240 MPH, and a 0-60 MPH of 2.9 seconds. This car was going to straight up rip…and then Daimler got wind of what was going on.
Having Chrysler build a badass in short time, that was good. Chrysler with a halo car, even better. But Chrysler using a Mercedes mill and stomping the shit out of the Mercedes-McLaren SLR? That’s where things got bad. According to the legend, Dr. Z himself got straight-up torn apart in a meeting, and it’s widely believed that it was a strong reason why Bernhard was removed from the leadership head role at Mercedes. Of course the program was cancelled…there was no way Chrysler was going to beat Benz at their own game.
Cue the music… “Those were the days, my friend, we thought they’d never end…” Aah, what could have been!
A shame. It would’ve been awesome.
My cousin has been a designer at GM for 30 years and his best friend worked for Chrysler back then. He said before the deal went thru, a large group of “important” people got a tour of the place. When they got to his department they came past everybody’s work station and said “ya ya vie like vhat you are doing here. It is wunderbar!”. Then a few months later when the deal went thru they came back thru again and took all the designs they liked for themselves(including the Charger concept car). Then they went to each desk with trash cans and wiped the desks clean and said “ok, this is vhat you vill be working on now” and stuck them with a bunch of lame projects. Everybody was in shock. Up to that point they had believed all the lies about them working together. Oops!!
That was never a “merger”. It was the most hostel German takeover since Poland in 39. To this day every time I see Deiter Deutschbag on TV at an F1 race or whatever I’d like to take that toilet brush he has hanging under his nose and smack it off his face.
The Germans screwed up here. They let their pride get the best of them and it kept them from being part of a legend in the making. There’s a reason people still revere the A/C Cobra 60 years later, if Ford had yanked the engines away from Carroll Shelby we wouldn’t have the amazing stories we do today.
What I want to know now is… how the hell did DUB get their name on there!?