Mercedes C 450 AMG Sport for Oz
Australia won't get the standard C-Class range flagship, the C 400 – here's whyA hotshot, AMG-tweaked version of Mercedes’ new twin-turbo 3.0-litre petrol V6 has emerged as the real the more mainstream C 400 sedan won’t be coming to Australia.
Benz has announced its new C-Class sedan will become available here in August, initially in C 200 petrol and C 250 petrol and diesel forms.
The C 200 diesel and C 350 BlueTEC Hybrid will follow later this year, followed next year by the bahnstorming new E 63 AMG, plus wagon, coupe, cabriolet and even hatchback derivatives.
However, motoring.com.au sources have now revealed that the C 400, which was lauded as the flagship of the new C-Class family and was expected to spearhead the local line-up, has been overlooked for a car that’s “halfway to becoming an AMG”.
That car is the yet-to-be-revealed C 450 AMG Sport, which will also preview a new Mercedes-Benz range of cars positioned midway between its standard models and those produced by its crushingly fast AMG offshoot – not unlike BMW’s M Performance models and Audi’s S models.
Even though the C 400 had its global launch in France two months ago, complete with 245kW of power and 480Nm of torque, Mercedes-Benz Australia has decided there isn’t room for both it and the C 450 AMG Sport.
That’s because the AMG-tweaked machine will have the same M276 V6 powerplant, but with more turbo boost, a more aggressive exhaust and greater software freedoms, which combine to deliver around 275kW of power. It will also have more than 500Nm of torque, with the peak arriving somewhere around the C 400’s 1600rpm figure.
It will also have slight bodywork changes, more rubber underneath it and a slightly sportier suspension, while still leaving plenty of space for the C 63 to arrive above it later next year.
Officially, Mercedes-Benz Australia says it is still deciding the make-up of its new C-Class sedan range – beyond the C 200s, C 250s and C 350 hybrid.
“We’re currently in talks with Germany to see what form the C 400 will take in Australia,” said spokesman Jerry Stamoulis. “If it (the C 450) was available to us it would certainly have a place in our C-Class range.”
Asked if there was room for both models in Australia, he said: “That’s what we need to decide”.
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