2008 Mercedes CLK63 AMG Black Series
The Mercedes CLK Black Series was always going to be a legend. A limited top speed of 186mph, 507bhp, 0-60mph in 4.2sec and 0-100 in just 8.8. Heroic numbers from a Benz that can trace its roots directly back to the CLK63 F1 Safety Car of the 2006 season. But a list price of £100k in 2007 – £34k more than the standard 6208cc CLK – meant that sales didn’t exactly go crazy and only 25 rhd CLK Black Series were ever registered in the UK. Rabid, hard-riding and brutally fast, it’s definitely not for everybody and isn’t a classic for mooching around garden centres. What it is, though, is one of the most rare, hardcore MBS of its era. When you look at a proper CLK DTM AMG at £225k, a low-mileage Black at around £70k seems like a cheap ride.
And here’s why you should take notice. Like everything else, prices of the CLK Black are weakening. For ten years values were rock hard and this was a Mercedes that genuinely didn’t depreciate at all – but now asking prices are visibly softening. A private seller in London has just sold a 2008 with 39k miles for £63k and in Silverstone’s July auction there’s a 2007 with 47k-miler estimated at £45k-£55k. That’s a far cry from the £100k-plus price tags that have been routinely required for the last decade. This is a one-year-only ultrarare Mercedes with a hand-built V8 engine powerful enough to worry a Porsche GT3. MB’S second Black Series model (the first was the carbon-roofed SLK55 AMG) the CLK Black was simply one of purest hot Benzes ever to come out of AMG’S Performance Studio.
Unmistakably sinister with fat arches, front air dam, rear diffuser, composite brakes, 19in rims, vents and gills, onlookers know that something wicked this way comes.
Unsurprisingly, quite a few have been written off over the years. But as long as you have the talent, self-control and a very sensitive right foot, the CLK Black Series is one of the most entertaining modern performance classics I know.
In May Historics offered Simon Cowell’s old Black Series CLK ith 14k miles and a £95k estimate but it went home unsold. Watch the market carefully because it won’t be long before a new, lower price benchmark is set for the CLK Black and I expect it to be less than £70k. Bag one of the 25 right-hookers out there at sensible money and you’ll have an awesome classic.