Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Coupe 2011 Review

Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Coupe

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Mercedes-Benz's performance arm, AMG, is not known for its subtlety or for tippy-toeing around problems... It's known for stuffing standard Benz bodies full of outrageous V8 engines, monster brakes, and oversize tyres and gearboxes that struggle to keep up with it all.

Part of blame for that reputation lies with Mercedes itself, because prior to the arrival of the new C-Class Coupe, AMG never had to worry about losing the handling 'sparkle' of its donor cars. But given the stellar performance of the stock C-Class Coupe the lads from Affalterbach had to think the new C63 AMG Coupe through with unprecedented care and there are a few key numbers that prove the point.

For starters, while they've gone up in rubber size to 18 inches, AMG has actually reduced the width of the front tyres from the standard car while widening the rear ones. It keeps the same ratio even if you option up the larger, 19-inch wheels, too, so it clearly regards the tweak as a handling key.

With a thumping big lump of 6.2-litre V8 sitting up front, it's an effort to bring the handling balance back to the exquisite compromise of the C250. And, to a large extent, it's worked.

Even though the engine is a relative lightweight (195kg), the entire car is almost 180kg heavier than the lightest petrol-powered C-Class Coupe and 115kg more than the C350. That indicates how much more equipment sits inside the AMG version aside from the engine upgrade. Thus it's taken some delicate juggling of the suspension to retain the handling prowess. It has wider tracks at both ends, runs more negative camber all around, uses its own three-link front suspension, a stronger version of the standard rear suspension and adds bigger anti-roll bars. 

But realistically, most AMG buyers won't see any of it. They'll be looking at the added V8 thump. While the 6.2-litre V8 has been largely superseded across the rest of the AMG range in favour of a twin-turbo V8, its peakier power delivery feels right at home in the C Coupe.

It's not just that it throws the two-door C-Class to 100km/h in just 4.4 seconds, either. The sound it makes is a deep, spine-wobbling burble at idle and an urgent snarl at its 6800rpm peak, but it doesn't deliver its 600Nm of torque until an unusually high 5000rpm. That gives it a fundamentally linear character that stretches the already-balanced chassis and turns it into a hard-core machine for hard-core drivers.

It's the linearity of the engine that begs you to lift your commitment and drive the C63 hard, because this isn't the C-Class Coupe you can drive around on part-throttle and expect it to give its best. The engine likes to be deep into its rev range before it really gets raging, but when the fireworks start, it's an impressive, full-sensory experience. It's a bellowing, crackling, popping, snarling monster of a thing -- even if it's toting around 1730kg in the relatively small C-Class body.

While it doesn't quite offer the same beautifully nuanced steering and chassis feedback of the C250, it compensates with far higher levels of outright grip and, of course, a far higher ability to punch out the far side of any corner.

Where the C250 is alive with information and dances with each subtle change in steering input or road surface, there's a blankness to the C63's steering on turn-in that no amount of power can compensate for. More grip or not, most people will be faster at the front half of a corner in the standard car just because it's easier to get to. Fire it into a longer corner though and it's a different story. The weight of the chassis quickly sits over the outside rear corner on throttle and you can alter the loaded wheel easily, depending on your inputs.

It's on corner exits that the C63 comes together, though. With the seven-speed gearbox paddled back for maximum effort, the combination of the V8 bellowing at high revs, the less-laden front end finally giving detailed feedback and a rear end squatting hard into the bitumen, it turns an okay experience into a pretty special car.

The grip on offer is tremendous, but the impressive thing is how easy the grip is to access. It's not a daunting car, unlike some other AMGs. Rather, it's probably the most user-friendly of them all.

Its biggest hiccup is the seven-speed transmission. This is a gearbox nearing the end of its use as a stop-gap between AMG's old five-speeder and a more-modern double-clutch unit, and the simple expedience of fitting a multi-plate clutch pack to the back of a strengthened Benz seven-speed auto is wearing thin.

The Speedshift transmission can be caught out on part-throttle upshifts, taking its time before jerking your head back and forwards in the change. Plus it's generally slower to shift than you want and you find yourself waiting and waiting for it to fit into the slickness and integration in the rest of the car. It never quite does.

Its brakes are, as ever, stupendous and (are you listening, BMW M division?) cleanly good looking inside their 18-inch wheels, while the interior boasts a few new trim bits that AMG would like to boast of instead of providing a clinically ergonomic driving position.

Not that it matters, because this is a car whose main charms lie below decks, not above them.

With 22kW more power at the same 6800rpm, the Performance Pack is enough to shove the little coupe to 100km/h a tenth quicker, at 4.3 seconds, than its sibling.

It's a little lighter in the engine (strangely, AMG quotes it 3kg lighter) but the same overall weight and it's also got the same 600Nm torque peak, presumably to keep the transmission alive.

AMG insists about 20 per cent of its global sales come with the performance pack, and with no downsides (not even fuel economy) to ordering it, it's tough to see why you wouldn't, assuming you can afford the extra dollars.

The new C63 AMG Coupe is expected to arrive in Australian showrooms along side its sedan and Estate siblings in Q3 of this year (2011).

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