SCOWLING SCOFFLAW
Mercedes-Benz unleashes an angry-looking AMG C63 S Coupe, with savage performance to vindicate its aggressive personality
AMG is Mercedes-Benz’s high-performance division. It takes more mundane (if any Benz can be considered mundane) models and with typical Teutonic meticulousness, turns them into dream machines with superlative performance.
Engine, suspension, brakes, steering, seats: Any and all aspects of a car that limit its ability to devour miles of roads quickly, safely and confidently are massaged to the Nth degree before it earns the AMG imprimatur.
The latest such offering is the AMG C63 S Coupe, a snarling, ominous-looking German-style pony car powered by a track-worthy 4.0-liter V-8 pumped up to 503 eager horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque by twin turbochargers.
To ensure the engine meets stringent AMG specifications, each one is hand-assembled by a single craftsman, whose name appears on a signed plaque on the engine cowling.
This monster motor drives the rear wheels through a seven-speed multiclutch automatic transmission with nearinstant response to most any driving situation. The AMG C63 S driver can dial in the car’s performance character with the flip of a switch on the console. Dynamic Select offers Comfort, Sport, Sport+ and Race modes, plus an Individual mode allowing a la carte configuration. Each mode includes settings for the engine and throttle response, shift programming, ESP, suspension, exhaust sound, ECO Start/Stop system and more.
The AMG braking system is well up to task of deceleration, even from the car’s electrically limited top speed of 180 (!) miles per hour.
The coupe’s cabin sports deeply contoured, hidewrapped buckets up front facing a performance-focused dash, trimmed in faux leather with contrasting stitching. AMG instrumentation features exclusive graphics.
The S Coupe is somewhat schizophrenic. In Comfort mode the car is smooth and quiet. But select Sport or Sport+ and the car assumes an aggressive personality. The suspension tightens up, the shift points are higher, the exhaust snarls and the V-8 aggressively launches to 60 mph in the blink of an eye, traveling in supercar territory.
And that’s when you find out what the S in AMG C63 S really stands for.