Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG 2011 Review - International

After all, it uses 22 per cent less fuel, it has a twin-turbo 5.5-litre V8 in place of the naturally aspirated 6.2-litre V8 in the outgoing model and has new steering and a faster gearbox.

On sale everywhere in the world at almost the same time, the October launch of the E63 AMG will also come with a surprise: all this, and no added cost…

Though some will bemoan the arrival of turbochargers to nibble away at the crisp response of the endangered naturally aspirated V8. There are convincing reasons why this engine is a better idea.

One of them is that, on top of the disturbingly generous numbers of 386kW/700Nm, you can sign an even-larger cheque and Benz will rip the boost up to 1.3 bar (from 1.0) and give you 410kW/800Nm instead. The torque peak is smaller and moves up the rev range a bit but, really, why wouldn't you?

The Performance Pack, as it's known, also delivers an Alcantara (err, artificial suede) trimmed steering wheel, painted brake calipers and a carbon-fibre spoiler lip and boot lid and if that all seems a bit trivial, remember that it's a) measured alongside 800Nm as an improvement and b) the standard car is pretty well kitted out in the first place.

Besides new 10-spoke alloys (flow-formed for strength and low weight, just like Maserati's wheels have been for years now), it also gets bigger front wings than the standard E-Class so it can accommodate a wider track, chrome-plated exhaust tips and, for those unmoved by subtlety, V8 BITURBO badges on the front guards.

It steals the three-spoke steering wheel off the CLS63 AMG, too, and uses aluminium shift paddles, which feel a damned-sight nicer than the plastic buttons you shift with on the E-Class.

That means, for the E63 at least, a 5.5-litre, twin-turbo V8 dubbed the M157. It shares its rough size, and nothing else, with the old supercharged E55 engine and doesn't have much in common with the outgoing E63's 6.2-litre V8, either.

It's a mighty piece of hardware, with spray-guided direct fuel injection meting out the fuel for a four-valve motor with everything from an aluminum crankcase to a variable valve timing and, for economy, a start-stop system.

The use of turbo-charging to get high horsepower has slashed 2.8L/100km from the E63's fuel bill, as well as boosting performance. It's a reasonable effort and the thing now scores 9.8L/100km (or 10.0 in wagon form), which is 230g/km CO2/km. In the real world, that's not bad.

We won't dwell on the engine, because it's essentially the same unit as you'll find in the S63 and CLS63 AMGs, as is the seven-speed transmission.

Like it is in its AMG siblings, the E63's 'box is a variation on the Benz family seven-speed automatic, but it chops off the torque converter and replaces it with a tougher, crisper wet-clutch pack. Effectively, it's a bit of an auto and a bit of a sequential manual unit, and has been extensively revised for the E63 in response to criticisms of its manual upshift speeds in the CLS63.

That leaves the major mechanical fiddles as the new suspension system and a new steering system. It still sits as wide on its haunches as the old car (56mm wider at the front than the E-Class), but adopts an electronically controlled damping system that is much faster than anything that's gone on previous AMGs.

The steering system is also a speed-senstive electromechanical unit with a more-direct ratio (14:1 for the nerds) that adjusts to match the suspension mode (Comfort, Sport or Sport Plus) you've chosen.

The most obvious newbie is the three-spoke steering wheel, pulled into service from the CLS63. The flat-topped as well as flat-bottomed, the leather jobbie has proper aluminium shift paddles behind it.

Behind it further still is a TFT screen in the centre of the speedo for all manner of information options.

There are a pair of AMG sports seats which are leather, heated and cooled, bolstered and padded and adjustable in more ways than a standard bottom could appreciate. You can adjust them fore-and-aft, naturally, plus up and down and the backrest angle can do whatever you like. And then the tricky bits begin. You can adjust them to squeeze the side bolstering on the bottom part of the backrest, the top part and the seat base. And you can set them to adjust the bolstering automatically, depending on how hard you're cornering.

Tricky as it sounds, it's clearly trickier to organise because it doesn't quite get the job done properly and is always about half a corner behind the action. Best to set it as you want it manually.

The back seats are surprisingly well thought through, too, with enormous headroom and a huge door opening to slide through. There is marginally less legroom than the E-Class (because the seat bolstering is thicker), but the air conditioning, seat material and fittings are all first rate.

Pretty much every piece of  contemporary safety technology is lurking here somewhere and the acronyms are too many to name, even with the almost unlimited space offered by the internet.

Besides crash safety, which the Benz offers in spades, the E63 also offers stupendous grip levels to help avoid trouble, plus a dozy driver warning system, lane-change warnings that brake the exact wheels just so to keep you in the lane if you meander across a painted line, blind spot warnings if there's a car in the way when you change lanes… it's all here.

If you crash one of these, there's nobody to blame but yourself.

There are any number of Porsche Panameras out there for those who can survive looking at them long enough to clamber inside their surprisingly spacious and comfortable cabins.

The Turbo might be the one with all the power and the all-wheel drive version might be the one with all the security, but the simple, cheaper Panamera S is the one with the most fun and agility.

Yet, this market is not as simple as once it was, and plenty of traditional E63 buyers are going to look up to Porsche's Cayenne range as well and, why not? It's better looking than the Panamera and is a much-improved device in its handling package.

Jaguar is about to burst forth with an upgraded XFR, which is a terrific beast with silken power, balanced handling and a beautiful ride-handling compromise, but it's a consideration for the financially brave given the Anglo-Indian car's propensity for depreciation.

Audi's not best represented here, because the RS6 is an extremely low volume beast that shares its stonking V10 engine with Lamborghini's Gallardo (albeit with the addition of two turbochargers) and shares its depreciation with the Jaguar XFR.

It's also a bit of a one-trick pony, because creating a big enough hole for the V10 and then keeping it off the ground hurt the handling of an already-compromised chassis package. Audi's also on hold with hot, big sedans, with the new A6 just hitting the streets, the S version of the A7 still to arrive and management unsure of whether to bother with a hot version of the A8.

The biggest competitor, aside from Porsche, turns out to be AMG itself. The CLS63 is a cracker. It might be a four seater, but it's essentially the same car with a different bodyshell.

So choose which one you like best.

Possibly, that's because the E-Class body is a bit innocuous in its angular conservatism or, equally possibly, that's how AMG wanted it to be.

The seats are incredibly comfortable or incredibly grippy or any compromise between those two extremes you prefer. The adjustments are absurdly wide ranging, and the flat-bottomed steering wheel makes it even easier still to find the right driving position.

It doesn't quite fire up with the throaty menace of the naturally aspirated V8, but it's not miles behind.

There's enough noise there if you prod the throttle and there's enough aggression, too. The turbochargers help, if anything, to smooth out some of the vibrations and lumpy burbles that some found charming in the 6.2-litre, but you soon forgive the new engine.

For a five per cent trade off in charm, it gives a huge benefit in economy and an even bigger benefit in sheer, unburstable urgency.

Flick the button into the Sport mode, build up some revs and step off the brake pedal and you'll find the oh-so-clever traction control limiting wheelspin to a 1990s throwback memory and the E63 hurling to 100km/h in just 4.3 seconds.

Leave it to its own devices and it will keep bellowing and blasting all the way to 250km/h. Left to the even-more liberal devices it gets in Germany (when you pay for the Performance Pack and take a day's advanced driving test) and it will hit 300km/h with no problems at all. And that's still limited…

One thing that has improved enormously is its ride quality and its ability to put its power to the road out of lumpy corners.

The more supple ride, even in Sport mode, means it can keep its tyres planted hard and it ends up carrying ludicrous amounts of mid-corner speed for this style of car. And it never resorts to uncomfortable head-toss to get there. It just holds its body reasonably flat and leans on its outside rubber and powers through.

The steering isn't a highlight, even if AMG thinks it ought to be. Compared to the steering in the C-Class Coupe, it just doesn't rate. Partly, that's because it's got a much heavier engine lurking above it and, partly, that's because it's a different system.

The brakes are stupendous as well (even though there's a carbon-ceramic option, which we'd not bother to recommend) and it's even comfortable in low-speed work.

Criticised in the CLS63 for its slow upshifts, the gearbox has seen a lot of work and it has become much faster than it was. Unfortunately, that's still not fast enough and you can find yourself waiting for a full second or even more sometimes, which can mean that by the time it's delivered the gear you've asked for, the straight bit has finished and you don't want or need it anymore.

In Sport Plus or manual, that can mean you actually get delivered two downshifts when you only wanted one or you get a body-wobbling gear shift well after you've already turned in to a corner.

It's about the only obvious flaw in a pretty convincing package, actually.

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