Posts Comments

You are here: Home / Archives for Mercedes

Road test snippets: SMMT Test Day 2013

May 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The ‘Good’ the ‘Really Quite Good’ and the ‘Bloody Brilliant’

Jaguar F-Type

SMMT Test Day 2013

Another year, another SMMT test day. For DrivingTalk readers not au-fait with what an SMMT test day is, its purpose can be summarised quite succinctly thus: it’s a speed dating event between motoring journalists, car companies and their four-wheeled wares. Except there’s no romance – aside from fleeting flirtations betwixt (wo)man and car. Moving on.

Thankfully the sun shone again this year onto a packed Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire. Cars were driven, relationships forged, preconceptions shattered, opinions formed and suncream was smeared onto new upholstery. Not by me, I might add.

A summary of noteworthy drives now follows.

2013 Audi A3 Sportback 1.4 TFSi SE – £19,825

Audi A3 Sportback 1.4 TFSI

The new Audi A3 Sportback. A high quality fitted kitchen of a car

There’s more excitement to be had elsewhere in Audi’s range than this, the entry-level A3 Sportback. But even at the lower echelons of the Golf-on-a-better-pay-grade range, there’s much to like about this junior Audi. Restrained, understated style, the slightly oleaginous feel to its slickly-damped controls and an eager, willing gait on the road. The cabin is almost sparse in its simplicity, but predictably Audi and beautifully finished. It’s a high quality fitted kitchen with soft-close drawers, the A3 – satisfying to own but hard to get excited about.

Quick verdict: Audi A3 1.4 TFSI Sportback: Good
 

2013 SEAT Leon FR 2.0 TDI 150 – £21,385

2013 SEAT Leon FR TDI 150

The new SEAT Leon FR TDI. Like a Golf… and an Audi A3

On the subject of VW Group offerings, I liked the new Leon, a lot. Shorn of the prestige pretentions of its four-ringed sibling, it’s got a genuinely attractive interior which reminded me of a high-end hi-fi. That’s a turn up for the books, because the old one reminded me of a lump of featureless, injection-moulded plastic. Which indeed it was. The driving experience is positive too – this torquey, tight-handling Spaniard is very easy to drive fast. Even the faintly astonishing claimed economy of 68.9mpg is nearly worth getting excited about. Shame it’s lost the distinctive looks of its predecessor, mind.

Quick verdict: SEAT Leon FR TDI 150: Really Quite Good
 

2013 Mercedes E63 AMG – £73,745

2013 Mercedes E63 AMG

The E63 AMG. What a mean looking thing in black

Audi has made the latest RS6 less powerful than its predecessor. Perhaps that’s a subtle white flag from a weary Ingolstadt, its power-crazed engineers having grown tired of the German horsepower war. “Nein! Nicht mehr Pferdestärke, bitte!” they might say if this bizarre vignette of mine had any roots in reality. And onto my point. Which is that Mercedes doesn’t seem to care about calling a truce, a point evidenced by the fact the latest pumped-up E-Class has more power than its amply-powered predecessor. So in standard, off-the-shelf E63 AMG guise,  the 5.5-litre V8 Biturbo (say it, it sounds good) engine produces 557 horses. And those horses sound really, really pissed off about being trapped under the big AMG’s nose. I can’t comment on the E63′s prowess through the twisty bits, as driving time was limited to the high-speed bowl only. Suffice to say, this unassuming Merc is quite breathtakingly rapid. How about 0-62mph in 4.2 seconds? There’s an even quicker ‘performance pack’ version available too.*

A full road test of the E63 AMG will follow on DrivingTalk.

*Insert cliché of your choice. Something about sledgehammers & nuts would do nicely.

Quick verdict: Mercedes E63 AMG: Bloody Brilliant
 

2013 McLaren MP4-12C – £176,000

2013 McLaren MP4-12C

The McLaren MP4-12C on track at Millbrook

Topping off the accelerative vigour of the E63 wouldn’t be easy, I mused whilst handing it back to the nice people from Mercedes. Where upon I clapped eyes on this scissor-doored delight, looking a picture in white. Fortune favours the brave apparently, and a foolish motoring journalist hadn’t turned up for their scheduled date with the MP4-12C. So I asked if I could hop in instead. Which I duly did.

Confession time. The MP4-12C is a supercar that’s never leapt off the pages of a car mag and into my affections. It’s not in my lottery win fantasy garage. And the reason why is pretty much the same as what many others have said about this car – it’s lacking emotion. Silly reason really – it’s phenomenally capable and brutally quick – the magic 62mph arriving in just 3.1 seconds. What’s more, the speed with which you can rifle through the gearbox’s seven ratios using the steering wheel paddles is mesmeric, and the explosiveness of the performance without question. Thank 616bhp for that. But the noise  is not awfully seductive and there’s just something missing from the experience. Yet perversely, the fact the MP4 isn’t universally loved is a bit of a draw for me – that and the fact it’s not a shouty Ferrari. The thinking man’s supercar just got my vote.

Quick verdict: McLaren MP4-12C: Really Quite Good
 

2013 Audi RS4 Avant – £55,525

2013 Audi RS4 Avant

Uber-dog carrier: The 2013 Audi RS4 Avant

“It’s easy to sell cars when they look this good” comes the swift reply from Audi PR man Jon Zammett when I ask about the appetite for Audi’s latest steroidal small estate. He has a point – the latest generation RS4 looks staggeringly aggressive with its UR Quattro-aping boxed wheel arches and unapologetically squat stance. It’s also a hoot to drive – 444bhp and a quattro drivetrain see to that. The grip is seemingly never-ending and the enthusiasm with which the 4.2-litre V8 spins up to its 8,250 rpm limiter is incredible. So too, the seven-speed S-tronic dual clutch gearbox and its ability to play ball or relax into slush-matic mode. There’s got to be a dog carrier on the lottery win garage list and the RS4 rather superbly fulfills that brief.

Quick verdict: Audi RS4 Avant: Bloody Brilliant
 

2013 Jaguar F-Type V6 S – £69,500

SMMT Test Day 2013

Delicious – the new Jaguar F-Type V6

It would be a bit remiss not to mention the headline act. Like going to a film premiere and then only talking about the trailers, I feel duty bound to opine some pithy wisdom on the new F-Type. However, I do so in a slightly guarded fashion as firstly, you already know the F-Type is good, very good in fact. And secondly, a relatively brief, chaperoned drive in the V6 S wasn’t enough to really get under its skin. The successor to the E-Type? Not really, as the original was just that – an original. Any sequel to that would never quite be the real deal. Thank Jaguar the F-Type is not a retro-facsimile of its forebear then.

Yet the F-Type is its own car, and even after the briefest drive is evidently a very, very special piece of engineering. From the delicacy with which it scythes through turns, to the faintly astonishing compliance and damping finesse, it’s a genuine treat to drive. I tried the 375bhp V6 S, which not only felt plenty rapid enough on the sinuous Millbrook hill route, but sang a deliciously anti-social tune from the twin howitzers poking out of its rear valance. And in Dynamic Drive mode it’s even louder and more focused. I can’t wait for the coupé to arrive, but in the meantime I need a longer date with an F-Type please, Jaguar.

Quick verdict: Jaguar F-Type V6 S: Bloody Brilliant
 

Filed Under: Featured Articles, Road Tests Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

New Mercedes CLA four-door coupé revealed

January 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment

This is the new Mercedes CLA. It’s a four-door coupé based on the new A-Class platform – and it goes on sale later this year.

  • New CLA is a compact four-door coupé;
  • Claimed to be the most aerodynamic production vehicle on sale with drag co-efficient of 0.23Cd;
  • Most powerful CLA at launch to be CLA250 petrol with 211bhp
2013 Mercedes CLA

The new Mercedes CLA compact four-door coupe

Where does the new Mercedes CLA fit in to the model line-up?

Think of the CLA as a shrunken CLS and you’ll be on the right track. Taking a bread-and-butter platform and grafting a sleek coupé-like four-door body on has proved a hugely successful and much-imitated formula for Mercedes since it launched the original CLS in 2004. And there’s little to suggest that downsizing the concept won’t reap similar dividends for the Stuttgart firm.

Chairman of Daimler’s Management Board, Dr Dieter Zetsche: ”The response to the Concept Style Coupé was overwhelming. The most frequent comment by far was ‘Please put this car into series production.’ That’s precisely what we are doing now.”

The big news is that the new Mercedes CLA is front-wheel drive – which is a first for an ostensibly saloon-like Mercedes. Although it’s not such big news when you consider that the underpinnings are shared with the front drive A-Class hatch.

New Mercedes CLA

Mercedes CLA

What new equipment does the CLA come with?

Safety hasn’t been forgotten in the name of style – there’s a standard-fit radar-based Collision Prevention Assist system. It works by identifying obstacles on the road ahead – and if it decides a collision is imminent, applies the precise amount of braking assistance required to avert disaster. It operates at speeds above 4mph and supplements the driver’s own application of the brakes, which should make it handy in the kind of nose-to-tail traffic where rear-end shunts are common.

When combined with the Distronic Plus radar cruise control, the system, dubbed Collision Prevention Assist Plus, can carry out ‘autonomous’ braking at speeds of up to 124mph.

New 2013 Mercedes CLA

New gadgets on the CLA include radar-guided Collision Prevention Assist

What engines are available in the 2013 Mercedes CLA?

At the business end there’ll be three engines – two petrols and a diesel option – available from launch. The entry point is the CLA 180 with a 1.6-litre 122bhp petrol engine, capable of hitting 62mph in a claimed 9.7 seconds when coupled to a six-speed manual gearbox. Further up the range, the CLA 250 gets a 211bhp 2.0-litre turbo which manages the same sprint in a much swifter 6.7 seconds, equipped with a standard seven-speed dual clutch transmission.

Likely to be the fleet buyer’s choice is the diesel-powered CLA 220 CDI, equipped with a 170bhp 2.2-litre direct injection unit and 7G dual-clutch gearbox. Combined fuel consumption ranges from 50.4mpg for the base CLA 180 to 67mpg for the CLA 220 oil-burner.

What about a Mercedes CLA AMG?

It’s a sure-fire bet that there’ll be an AMG version of the new CLA along fairly shortly. Likely to be badged CLA45 AMG, rumour has it the hottest CLA will get the steroidal 2.0-litre turbo motor also earmarked for the A45 AMG. That means around 350bhp and four-wheel drive to keep it all on the blacktop.

What about the price of a new CLA?

As yet there’s no official word on pricing, but Merc’s stylish new four-door is likely to cost somewhere around £20k for the entry-level CLA 180 when it goes on sale in March. UK Deliveries start in June.

2013 Mercedes CLA picture gallery

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , , , , ,

Milking the brand

August 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment

A relentless stream of new AMGs have been splurging out of Mercedes’ tame tuning offshoot over the past few years. Rather than being overjoyed at the advent of yet more quad-piped German über-rods, it’s got me thinking. Are the likes of Mercedes, BMW and Audi taking a scattergun to their S, AMG and M badges and just firing them at anything that moves? I reckon they might be.

Recently, Mercedes announced that its largest and most carbuncular SUV, the GL-Class would be blessed with the AMG treatment. That follows the release of the madcap G 63 AMG, based on the pensionable G-Wagen, a car which continually evades the corporate guillotine despite its advanced vintage. A truly unhinged V12-powered G 65 AMG is also waiting in the wings – proof that the Germans do have a sense of humour after all.

Mercedes GL 63 AMG

The GL 63 AMG. A quad piped torque monster too far?

Then there was the news at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, that the forthcoming A-Class would spawn a proper AMG version to frighten off the Audi RS3. And lets not forget the R 63 AMG of 2006 – a disparate blend of luxury MPV and V8-powered 503bhp thrust. What’s that? Prefer your hot-rod in small roadster guise? Step forward, SLK 55 AMG. And SL, CL, C-Class, ML-Class, S-Class, E-Class – all available with a sinister torque monster under the bonnet and those three letters on the bootlid.

They’ll keep coming too. The news hailing from Mercedes’ special ops division in Affalterbach is that AMG will significantly ramp up production over the next few years, with ambitions to build 30,000 cars per year by 2017, according to recent press reports.

Mercedes isn’t the only one at it. Now Audi is plastering SUVs with their ‘S’ branding. The SQ5 TDI is by all accounts a pretty good specimen of its genre. That being the rather niche high performance diesel SUV genre, since you’re asking. But this all begs the question – how thinly can you stretch your brand equity before it becomes a meaningless shadow of its former self?

Audi SQ5 TDI

Vorsprung Durch Marketing - the Audi SQ5 TDI

And over to you, BMW. The purveyors of The Ultimate Driving Machine spilled a tin of M badges onto the X5 production line, but still decided to put the heroically pointless X5 M on sale. The same thing happened with the X6, and BMW gave birth to the Ultimate Posing Machine, the X6 M. Has it damaged the M brand irretrievably? Well it’s irritated the purists, riled a few motoring journalists – but aside from the pant-wettingly obscene depreciation these monsters suffer, no one seems too worried. Least of all BMW.

BMW X6 M & X5 M

The BMW X6 M & X5 M in a multi-story car park. Wrong on so many levels...

Yet both cars are about as far from the original and iconic E30 M3′s mission statement as it’s possible to be. Somewhere along the way, the ‘M’ moniker stopped standing for Motorsport and instead developed the unmistakable whiff of Money. More of it than sense that is.

And so what, you might say. Well on the one hand, it’s great that manufacturers have found a way to keep building these things in ever swelling numbers, rather than giving in to the legislators. Clever start-stop and cylinder shut-down technology mean that a 5.5-litre Biturbo V8 can deliver the kind of mpg that you’d expect of something with half the power a few years back. That’s progress. So is increasing production volumes in an automotive industry where wobbling demand make economies of scale essential for survival. Manufacturers need to keep inventing ways to grab new customers – and that’s why Merc is giving everything from crossover to convertible, family saloon to supercar, the AMG treatment.

The problem lies in brand dilution. Whilst Mercedes, Audi and BMW know they can splatter monster power SUVs with their performance branding and get away with it, the ‘specialness’ gets eroded when they become two-a-penny. The halo-effect so often used as a marketing tool to shift boggo C-Classes begins to diminish.

BMW M3 E30

M means motorsport. The E30 M3

AMG used to have a rare, bespoke flavour 45 years ago when it started as a niche tuner, fashioning Q-cars in the form of tweaked 6.3-litre 300SELs. Likewise BMW’s Motorsport sub-brand, born out of the M1 supercar and then properly commercialised with the E30 M3 – a car which boasted a bona fide touring car pedigree. In those days, the AMG or M badges were a mark of an engineering-led philosophy. That’s a strong foundation to underpin a performance sub-brand. Marketing isn’t.

What’s the answer then? How do you find new customers without damaging exclusivity?

Well actually, it doesn’t matter. Mercedes, Audi and BMW can milk AMG, S and M for all they’re worth, because there’s always the weapons grade stuff to satisfy the punters who want something more exclusive. The Black Series brand is AMG turned up to 11 – and it’s spawned some great cars, which are good enough – and pricey enough – to ensure relative rarity. Similarly, Audi’s RS brand has stepped in where the UR Quattro left off, fulfilling the wet dreams of Vorsprung Durch Technik fetishists. BMW may be swimming against the tide with the ‘M Performance’ range – a kind of Fisher Price ‘my first M car’ affair – but still, early signs are that the cars are good, and it leaves the M badge for the proper stuff.

C63 AMG Black Series

The answer? Invent a more upscale badge

Devotees of S and M – and AMG will benefit too, in theory. The more new cars that get the performance sub-brand treatment, the greater the supply trickling down onto the second-hand market. Simple fag packet economics would have it that supply of pre-thrashed high performance metal will increase and prices will therefore plummet. That’s surely good news for the fiscally challenged petrolhead. In that case, milk them for all they’re worth I say.

Filed Under: General Blogging Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

I Want One: Mercedes 500E (W124)

January 20, 2012 by 2 Comments

In the beginning was the AMG Hammer. It was good, and Mercedes saw that it was good. But it was too bloody expensive. Around 70% more than the first gen E28 M5 to be precise, so not many people bought one.

£50k was a heck of a lot of wedge to part with back in 1986 for a W124 Merc. So in the fight for ’80s city bonuses, the default 911/328GTB/SL won the day. Which was a shame, as the forerunner to today’s hotrod AMG saloons would have blown the pinstripes off many a stockbroker, had they seen fit to, err, put the hammer down with their Gucci loafers.

Mercedes AMG Hammer

image courtesy of Insideline.com: Mercedes AMG Hammer

The Hammer was a car that made me, as a child of the eighties, double-check the Top Trumps cards to see if the stats were correct – 5.6-litres (bored out to 6.0-litres if you threw a weighty brown paper bag at AMG), 0-60 somewhere in the mid-fives, and a top speed of 186mph for the ‘under-the-counter’ version. All this in a sober Mercedes saloon, confusing for a schoolboy whose staple automotive pin-ups wore prancing horse or raging bull badges. The subtle nuances of Q-car cool were lost on me back then. Wolf-in-wolf’s clothing was the only language I knew…

Which clumsily leads me on to the point of this post. The even more ‘Q’, innocuous-looking 500E of 1991. This V8 super-saloon, a divine collaboration between Porsche and Mercedes in the early nineties is oh-so-subtle, but to these eyes, massively desirable. And I Want One.

Mercedes 500E (W124)

No, not an airport taxi

Based on the W124 300E, it was hand-built in conjunction with Porsche and had a 5.0-litre V8 developing 322bhp squeezed under the nose. That saw it pass 60mph in 5.5 seconds in the hands of some motor mags at launch, earning it the ‘four-door Porsche’ label. And yes, today you could stick that label on any number of pumped up über-saloons, thanks to the relentless German horespower race.

Back in its day though, as a criminally understated, quietly brawny weapon, it was the kind of car that appealed only to those who knew their super-saloon onions and didn’t care if people thought it was an airport taxi. It’s an allure that appealed just as much to F1 drivers as Belgian arms dealers. And that well-known connoisseur of special metal, Mr. Bean.

Mercedes 500E

If it's good enough for Rowan Atkinson...

Fast-forward a bit, and the 500E still looks hard-as today. With its widened track and mildly flared arches, it doesn’t shout loudly, but it could definitely do you over if it felt like it. Riding on innocuous 8-hole alloys looking almost identical to a 300E’s, it’s the most successful demonstration of less being more that I’ve ever seen on a performance saloon. Paint it beige and it’d blend into a German taxi rank as well as a 300D. Actually, don’t do that, there aren’t enough left to mess about with.

In truth, the 500E only seriously arrived on my radar after seeing Luc Besson’s film, ‘Taxi’, in 1998. But it’s lodged itself firmly into the ranks of ‘must-have’ ever since, and now it won’t go away. It’s the car that I window-shop the online classifieds for, again and again. This obsession has spawned an ambitious new year’s resolution — to get my name on the V5 of a nice one towards the end of this year. By which time I’ll have worked out which of my vital organs I’ll miss the least.

It could be harder than I thought to find a good one though. Thanks to a £57k price tag in the UK, it found less than ten homes through official channels. There’s more in circulation, due to subsequent Japanese and European grey imports, but good ones are properly rare beasts. The hunt is on.

Filed Under: General Blogging Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Mercedes C63 AMG Black Series Coupé revealed

July 25, 2011 by Leave a Comment

2012 C63 AMG Black Series – official details

Mercedes has now fully revealed its menacing C63 AMG Black Series Coupé. The official unveil was timed to coincide with the German Grand Prix this weekend, and although leaked pictures have already been circulating on the internet, technical details are only now confirmed.

  • C63 Black Series to get 6.2-litre naturally aspirated V8 with 510bhp;
  • Fully adjustable coil-over suspension, wider front and rear tracks and standard LSD;
  • Optional rear seats for the first time on a Black Series.

Mercedes C63 AMG Black Series

C63 Black Series engine borrows SLS components

The Black Series shares the 6.2-litre V8 of the vanilla C63, but gains forged pistons, conrods and a lightweight crankshaft, as used in the SLS. In partnership with a new ECU, these changes mean the Black Series pumps out around 510bhp, trumping the performance pack-equipped C63 AMG Coupé by 32bhp. Preliminary estimates put the 0-62mph dash at 4.2 seconds, although it is not unknown for AMG to be conservative with performance stats, so it could go quicker – particularly with the optional sticky rubber of the AMG ‘Track Package’.

As with the standard C63, power is transmitted to the rear wheels via a seven-speed AMG Speedshift gearbox – which uses a wet-clutch, in place of the lazier torque-converter auto seen in the old CLK63 Black Series. In this application, there are four gearbox settings, with the most brutal map bringing shift times down to 100 milliseconds. A ‘race start’ mode is also available for maximum attack launches.

Traditional Black Series styling cues

This is one brawny looking ‘Benz. Eschewing the slightly apologetic, understated appearance of the C63 AMG Coupé, Mercedes has gone for the pseudo race-car look with the latest Black Series, as Ola Källenius, AMG CEO explains;

“AMG has its roots in international motorsport. The new C 63 AMG Coupé Black Series is the best proof there is for the permanent transfer of technology from the race track to the roads. The numerous successes in the DTM, the customer sports range featuring the SLS AMG GT3 and our commitment to Formula 1, where we have been providing the Official F1Ô Safety Car and the Official F1 Ô Medical Car for the past 15 years, continuously spur on our engineers and technicians. The C 63 AMG Coupé Black Series embodies the new AMG brand claim, Driving Performance, like no other AMG model”

The short, squat stance of the Black is emphasised by blistered wheel arches, which widen the bodywork by 56mm at the front and 84mm at the rear. Meanwhile, a plethora of 6.3 badges, air intakes, splitters and diffusers clearly stake the Black Series’ claim as a serious track toy.

Sharper handling

Lightweight forged alloy wheels (9 x 19 front, 9.5 x 19 rear), which save 11kg per corner, help reduce unsprung mass and heighten the suspension and steering response. Reinforcing the C63 Black Series’ track-biased brief is full coil-over suspension, with several settings, whilst a standard limited slip differential is partnered with 3-stage ESP that can be fully switched out to exclude electronic intervention.

AMG has also re-tuned the speed-sensitive power steering and ABS settings, whilst the brakes have been upgraded to larger, ventilated ‘fade-resistant’ stoppers. The composite, motorsport-derived discs measure a massive 390mm at the front, and 360mm at the rear, with six and four-piston calipers respectively.

Mercedes C63 AMG Black Series interior

C63 Black Series – on the inside

The pared-down, road racer feel is continued on the inside, with deep buckets seats wrapped in DINAMICA – a light microfibre fabric. Red seatbelts and red stitching on the steering wheel and door trim add contrast to the darker hues. It also gets a unique steering wheel, which is flat-bottomed, and unusually, flat on top, although it’s not quite the full-blown ‘quartic’ squared-off look which found fame in the Austin Allegro.

For the first time, a Black Series can be had with four seats – as an option Mercedes will fit the sports seats from the standard C63 AMG Coupé along with two rear seats.

AMG Track Package and AMG Aerodynamics package

In another first, an optional aerodynamic package and track package cater for buyers who want an even more focused C63 Black Series. The latter comprises ultra-grippy 19″ tyres, developed specifically for the Black Series by Dunlop, along with additional rear-axle transmission cooling designed for punishing track conditions. The aerodynamic package comprises a carbonfibre rear spoiler and front-splitter, both designed to improve on-the-limit balance.

C63 AMG Black Series price and release date

The C63 AMG Black Series will be on sale from spring 2012, with a price tag of around £100,000. There’s no word from Mercedes yet as to the cost of various options.

With demand anticipated to be high, and the production run likely to be limited, the C63 Black Series may attract collectors’ status – just 700 examples of its predecessor, the CLK63 AMG Black Series, rolled off the AMG production line in Affalterbach and lightly used examples still command strong money.

2012 Mercedes C63 AMG Black Series pictures

Filed under: Car News

Mercedes-Benz

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , ,

Coulthard to be AMG brand ambassador

July 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Coulthard to assist with AMG development and marketing

AMG has appointed David Coulthard as its brand ambassador. The 40-year old Scot will assist Mercedes’ performance division with press and customer events, as well as having a hand in future development work.

Coulthard’s first task for the Affalterbach tuning house is to promote the latest über E-Class, the E63 AMG. According to AMG, the marketing campaign will see him demonstrating the 557bhp E63′s split personality “in both racing attire and in a business outfit”. Not at the same time, presumably.

Coulthard said: “I have been a member of the Mercedes-Benz family since 1996, and now I am also joining AMG as an exciting high-performance brand. This is without doubt the perfect complement to my job as a DTM driver, where I already drive an AMG C-Class of course.” And judging by these pictures, he looks quite pleased with the appointment.

As a driver for the Mücke Motorsport DTM team, the 2001 F1 runner-up has campaigned an AMG C-Class in the series since 2010, and currently lies 14th in the championship. Coulthard’s involvement with Mercedes dates back to 1996, when he moved from the Williams team to take a seat alongside Mika Häkkinen at McLaren Mercedes. He doesn’t seem to have stood still since retiring from F1 in 2008, and presenting duties with the BBC will see him sat alongside Martin Brundle in the commentary box at this weekend’s German Grand Prix.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , ,

Mercedes C63 AMG Black Series leaked

July 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

New C63 Black Series Coupé spied

Mercedes has unofficially revealed its new C63 AMG Black Series Coupé to a group of motoring hacks in France. These snaps, which reveal the extreme Merc to have a predictably squat, aggressive stance and massively blistered wheel arches, were reportedly taken at the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France.

Mercedes C63 AMG Black Series

The Black Series brand, a more extreme arm of Mercedes’ Affalterbach tuning house, caters for those who find the ‘vanilla’ AMG approach a bit tame. Previous offerings have stuck to a formula of similarly aggressive styling cues, and beefed-up performance coupled to stiffer suspension and weight-saving measures. The latest Black Series model pictured here, is the successor to the previous generation CLK 63 Black Series, AMGs last hardcore offering which the inimitable Clarkson termed ‘weapons grade’.

Like the old CLK Black, the new car gets the AMG-tuned 6.2-litre n/a V8, packing a rumoured 510bhp and 640Nm of torque. These figures are very close to the old car, but apparently the C63 Black Series, which shares its basic body architecture with the standard C63 AMG Coupé, sheds 20kg over the cooking model. In common with the C63, the Black Series car transmits power to the wheels via a wet-clutch MCT gearbox, but gains a limited slip differential to help deploy that power onto tarmac more effectively. Larger brakes and some optional ‘track-focused’ features can also be expected according to sources.

Mercedes C63 AMG Black Series interior

For the first time on a Black Series, rear seats make an appearance – leading to suggestions that the new car may be slightly less uncompromising than the last W209 CLK-based Black Series.

Prices and release date are unconfirmed, but reports suggest it will hit German dealers towards the end of this year, pitched around the 100k Euro mark. That makes a UK debut in the new year, at somewhere in excess of £95k likely.

Pictures from Speedfans

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , , ,

The thrill is gone – reflections on seven months with a Mercedes C55 AMG

October 3, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Tomorrow sounds the death knell on the relationship with my C55 AMG. As a prolific changer of cars, (three months being the average shelf-life before I get bored), I’m used to the sight of someone else driving off in my pride and joy, warmed by the knowledge they are wearing the same grin that I did when I twisted the key for the first time. 

This one is going to be harder than usual. Firstly because it makes a noise like Brian Blessed gargling vintage Bordeaux and I’m a confirmed sucker for the bent-eight burble. Secondly, I’ve become used to gradually ‘climbing the ladder’ with cars, each sale being accompanied by the anticipation of getting my grubby mits on something I want more than the last one. Sadly it’s a stretch too far, even with my loose sense of car-choice logic, to imagine that running a 367bhp 5.4litre V8 which rewards you with single figure mpg in traffic, would be sensible on a student budget. 

The thrill is gone. Sob...

It could be worse, in parallel with the C55 I’ve been doing my own unofficial long-term group test with its older boxier brother, a 118k mile C43 AMG which has had my name on the V5 for a record 14 months. Mercifully then, I won’t be without a V8, a truly frightening thought. 

Here are my reflections on seven months and 10,000 miles with the C55. 

Driving and owning 

The experience from behind the wheel is best summed up as most un-Mercedes like. Sharp, focussed steering, and a very well resolved ride and handling compromise, mean it steers and handles in the same league as an E46 M3. Despite the weight of the V8 up front, it doesn’t understeer, but keys into the road surface and goes exactly where you point it. This has something to do with the fact that from the ’A’ pillars forward the C55 shared nothing with the rest of the C Class range - it had a wider track, 10cm longer nose to accommodate the 5.4 lump, and a much quicker steering rack. 

As with many ‘over-engined’ cars, it’s the power house under the bonnet that defines this car. The headline power figure comfortably eclipses the M3 (367bhp vs. 343bhp) but that doesn’t tell the full story. A displacement of 5.4 litres endows it with ferocious mid-range clout (376lb ft of torque at 4000rpm) which the Munich straight six can’t match. As if you needed any convincing of just how proud the boys from Affalterbach are of their engines, there’s a little plaque on the engine cover signed by the chap that hand-built it.  

5.4 litres, 367bhp. Ample

Faux bespoke touches like that may be a little contrived but this car felt genuinely exclusive, and was commendably understated where an M3 is just a bit, obvious. I never saw another on the road in my time with this car - if you want to avoid the ubiquity and borderline thuggishness of an M3 or RS4, and don’t need to show off, you really can’t find anything at this price point that comes close. 

It is tempting to talk in clichés when reflecting on this car: Bouncer in a Savile Row suit, sledgehammer to crack a nut, and so on. The one that sums it up is Jekyll and Hyde. Happy to mooch around at low speed in traffic, shuffling up and down the gears imperceptibly and with minimal input from the driver. Exactly what you need to get to and from work in unstressed fashion. If you feel dangerous though, the C55 plays the rude, dirty V8 very easily. Flick up and down the gears using the steering wheel paddles and you have control that the conventional auto in the C43 denies you. Unlike many, it’ll hold to the red-line in manual mode and bounce off the rev limiter without changing up, if that’s your bag. 

What did it cost me? I try to buy well to preserve my ‘car fund’ for future indulgences, so this one which had been chopped in at an Audi dealer came to me at £15k seven months ago. I’m offloading it for £14.5k, so, excluding running costs, depreciation after 10k miles and seven months is negligible. Owner number one had ticked every option when speccing it so I was still finding things to play with a couple of months in. Some of the equipment was surprisingly useful, like the electric rear sunblind, and the built-in Bluetooth phone. I couldn’t have lived without the thumping Harmon/Kardon 7.1 surround sound or the brilliant satnav. Other gizmos I could have managed without – the electric memory steering wheel, linguatronic (sounds like a pasta dish, but is Merc’s version of voice control for the stereo, nav and phone), and the fire-extinguisher bolted to the driver’s seat – I genuinely never wanted to find a need for that last one. 

Look closely and you can see the fire extinguisher. Never got my money's worth out of that.

Reliability 

A voracious thirst for Mobil 1 (common AMG trait), and a fondness for needing new ball joints and steering arms took the shine off slightly. Thankfully I had the foresight to buy a Mercedes warranty (after the C43 demanded a new gearbox last Christmas, it painfully asserted the fact that older AMGs can be financially ruinous). Much has been said about declining Merc quality, and the era of the over-engineered ‘hewn from granite’ Merc may be long gone, but it felt tight and rattle free after 68k miles, with not one shred of wear evident inside - it even smelled new. Sadly, the legendary and oft-publicised Mercedes customer service was far too evident on my visits to three separate main dealers in the Midlands, and would genuinely make me think twice about ever buying a Merc new. Changing the track-rod ends and then failing to re-adjust the tracking, leaving the car pulling wildly to the left was pretty poor. Taking weeks to resolve the issue and forcing me to seek intervention from Mercedes UK was unforgivable when you are paying main dealer labour rates. As was keeping the car for days, returning it with a grubby interior, half a tank of fuel gone and lending me a ‘courtesy car’ with no road tax. I could go on but, the fact that I’ve experienced exponentially better service and levels of technical competency by independent specialists tells the story. 

Final thoughts 

Hugely capable as an all-rounder, furiously quick and laden with toys. There was genuinely nothing that bothered me or made me question my decision to buy this car – aside from one obvious truth, the shocking fuel consumption. I never acclimatised to the speed with which the fuel needle dived south, even when driving sedately and making a real effort to be frugal. They are addictive these AMGs, right up until the moment when you review the bank statements and find out exactly how much of your income is funding the welfare of shrimp boat fisherman in Louisiana.

Filed Under: Garage Tagged With: , ,