Driving straight out of its own roiling tyre smoke comes the latest Mercedes-AMG getaway car, the C63. This four-door Neanderthal can trace its antecedents all the way back to the 1990 Porsche-built 500E, with its 5.0-litre V8 crammed like a schoolroom furnace under the bonnet, and the diesel model’s wing vents added to try to cool the flames.
Add in AMG’s original “Red Pig”, the 300 SEL 6.8 saloon, which won its class in the 1971 24 Hours of Spa and maybe the AMG Hammer (the clue’s in the name), a 1986 360bhp, 5.6-litre E-class, and you can see that big, monster-powerful saloons are home territory for this tuning firm from Affalterbach in Germany.
Up to now the C63 has been powered by the 6.2-litre V8 engine from the SLS supercar. Naturally aspirated, this hand-built unit was a lovely thing, but its dipsomaniac part-throttle operation meant it was a liability for a company trying to meet stringent EU consumption requirements, and a change had to come.
That gave Mercedes-AMG something of a dilemma since the C63 was also one of its best cars and, with more than 40,000 sold over the years, a bestseller. Dilution wasn’t really an option. So it has gone down a well-trodden path by adapting a production Mercedes block with stronger internals and a couple of turbos sitting in the V.
Giving 513bhp and 516lb ft in top-of-the-range S form, the four-cam, 4.0-litre engine cremates its rear tyres via a seven-speed automatic gearbox and limited-slip differential. Electronically limited to 155mph, it will accelerate from 0-62mph in 4.0sec and deliver about 35mpg; supercar fast and executive-car economical.
