Going by the numbers, the C63 S is not the most powerful super-saloon for its price. But numbers don’t always count.
Even with 510hp, the new Mercedes-AMG C63 S isn’t the most powerful super-saloon you can buy for 10 million baht. Is it the best, though?
Fast four-doors are crushingly effective motorway cars. And needless to say, if you’re buying a super-saloon now, you’ll probably want it with enough grunt to seize total command of the fast lane. Mercedes-AMG has always understood that and by bringing its new C63 S saloon to the market with no less than 510hp, it has provided a fine head start for the car.
But the new AMG C-Class won’t enjoy the numerical top-dog status its maker believes it deserves due to some fierce competition. So as well as measuring up against the 431hp BMW M3, the C63 S will also have to out-drag the 577hp Vauxhall VXR8 GTS, a car that appears to offer 15% more grunt than the AMG for 20% less outlay.
Mechanical convention reigns supreme in this sector, so we need waste little time in the set-up. The VXR8 is the largest and heaviest car of the trio, being a refugee from the next saloon class up. But there’s still less than 200kg between it and the M3, which is the lightest car here.
All three cars honour the classic supersaloon template of a longitudinal engine driving the rear wheels. All are made predominantly of steel, with independent suspension via coil springs and adaptive dampers.
The engines themselves range from the VXR8’s deliciously anachronistic 6.2-litre Chevrolet small-block V8 with rocker-arm induction and a supercharger, to the M3’s ultra-modern 3.0-litre straight six, with its pair of parallel twin-scroll turbochargers. The C63’s new 4.0-litre lump splits the difference between the other two expertly, offering V8 mechanical allure coupled with a downsized capacity and twin turbos.
Suffice to say, all three promise to deliver exactly what you want from cars like this: extraordinary performance in what is otherwise a relatively ordinary family car. But if bang for your buck is your main motivator, the C63 S and the VXR8 promise more than the M3.
So much for promises. When you actually line up all three on a long, empty piece of asphalt and then let them explode into full stride, those promises suddenly count for little. Power gets you nowhere without traction.
The VXR8 has launch control, torque vectoring and angry modes for its dampers, engine and stability control. The M3 and the C63 S add to that various modes for their automatic, multi-clutch transmissions and electromechanical power steering systems.
But whatever you do with these systems, there’s no way to make the VXR8 perform quite like its headline power and torque figures suggest. The C63 S is the fastest-accelerating car here by a fairly wide margin over the VXR8, at first only by a smidgen over the M3.
In real-world motoring, the BMW makes up for it with cleaner engine and transmission responses, so the AMG’s advantage isn’t decisive. But it’s there; you can feel it from the driver’s seat, see it in the numbers. And it counts.
The VXR8’s disadvantage is the most surprising thing. The Vauxhall never seems to make its power tell, even at higher speeds. The conclusion is that the 6.2-litre V8 isn’t making the power it’s supposed to.
So the C63 S asserts itself — on the dragstrip, in the outside lane, wherever you happen to stretch its legs. And besides having an advantage over its rivals in objective terms, its engine also levels up with the VXR8’s inimitable Chevy V8 on the intangibles of theatricality and soul.
It just won’t be upstaged. It answers the BMW’s range and response with not just greater perceptible propulsive force, but also a more authentic charisma whose soundtrack needs no digital augmentation through the stereo.
And what of the rest of this contest? Super-saloons are a great deal more than just engines on wheels, and the C63 doesn’t boss this comparison in every department.
The beauty of a saloon is its usability, and the most practical car here is, no surprise, the biggest. The VXR8 has big back seats, but it doesn’t offer the same advantage on boot space; both the M3 and the C63 are close enough to it to make the VXR8’s victory in this area a negligible one.
It’s certainly negligible enough that, given the superiority of the German saloons’ driving environments on material quality. The VXR8’s interior is like a discount-store tracksuit and trainers compared with the BMW’s smart, restrained premium-brand fittings and the AMG’s more lavish designer label luxury. The C63’s is the cabin of choice by a distance.
Add to that its sizeable lead over the Vauxhall on desirability and a modest one over the BMW on the same front and you have to conclude that the C63 is the car with which you’d want to live.
On ride and handling, the BMW comes into its own. You’d expect it to, but perhaps not quite to define its accomplishment exactly as it does. The M3 has a dynamic repertoire of astonishing breadth. It rides gently in Comfort mode, only to transform into the grippiest and most direct car here when you delve deep into its handling abilities. It’s a natural athlete that conducts itself every bit as keenly as its flared arches and huge, dished alloys hint it will.
But what it forgets, somewhere along the way, is to flatter and engage you, or to make daily motoring as flavoursome and exciting as the C63 does. Where the M3’s steering wheel is weighty but muted, the C63’s is tactile and encouraging. The AMG will respond with a languid shake of its hips, a flare of revs, a flurry of wheel-spin and benign, playful, low-speed slide when the moment presents, while the BMW is more straight-laced.
In the final reckoning, it’s the VXR8 that props up the order. Drive it too hard and you’ll be disappointed by several things: its lack of first-order pace, the lightness of its steering under load, the softness of its directional responses and the way in which harsher surfaces trouble the structural integrity of its body and cabin.
The M3 and C63 S are both excellent driver’s cars — and it’s a struggle to recommend one above the other. The BMW undoubtedly handles more keenly, rides more sweetly and makes better use of the combustive firepower at its disposal.
But the C63 is more spectacularly endowed, has much greater charm and richness, greater communicative facets and better high-speed stability. And it makes every bit of driving more memorable than in the BMW.
That’s what most of us want from a supersaloon, I reckon.