MotorTrend’s Jonny Lieberman is joined by Mike Shaffer and two extremely potent hyper sedans, the 2014 BMW M5 Competition and the 2014 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG S Model. Between the two of them, these two mighty Germans produce 1152horsepower and 1092 pound-feet of torque. On paper.

After a day of horsing around/testing Shaffer and Lieberman grow suspicious of each twin-turbo V-8’s actual output. So, they take them to the dyno gurus at K&N engineering to learn what’s what. The results very well may shock and amaze you.

However, the boys come to the conclusion that numbers are only exactly that: only numbers, and numbers only matter so much. One true test of a super sedan is how it handles a twisting stretch of tarmac. The other is how much you yearn for the car after you’ve walked away from it. How much the keys itch in your pocket. While the results are definitive, this Head 2 Head is much closer than most.