Spied in the classifieds
Simon Cowell’s old AMG Black
He can spot a star and, if his choice of wheels is any guide, a car, too. The X Factor judge Simon Cowell is the first name in the log book of this CLK63 AMG Black Series. A couple of others follow him but, as far as we know, they’re not music moguls.
It’s a 2008-registered car with 14,000 miles on the clock. Just 25 right-hand-drive Black Series were made out of a total run of 700. New, it cost around £100,000. This particular car’s association with Cowell has bolstered its value but, even so, it’s a relative bargain compared with the £52,000 someone was asking 12 months ago for a crashed left-hooker imported from the US. (Its front end was a mess.)
AMG says the CLK63 Black Series was inspired by the Porsche 911 GT3 RS. That’s a high bar, and to clear it, the company went to work on a ‘standard’ CLK63, adding more power (from 478bhp to 507bhp), better cooling, bulging wheel arches to house a wider track, adjustable suspension and lighter 19in alloys.
Elsewhere, the responses of the seven-speed automatic gearbox were sharpened and the limited-slip diff gained a dedicated oil cooler and pump to keep it from overheating.
The cabin was given a makeover, with carbonfibre-reinforced plastic trim, a forged aluminium gear selector and bucket seats.
The result of all this lightening, cooling, sharpening and tweaking was even better handling than the standard CLK63 and a 0.3sec reduction in the 0-62mph to 4.3sec.
Along the way, the exhaust note gained extra character, too – the kind that has T-shirted music moguls rising to their feet to utter improbable percentages.