Mercedes C63 AMG full review (W204) - It'll rearrange your face

I care about getting this C 63 sideways in a cloud of smoke with a VA rumble echoing off the walls .

You alright , mate ?

Are you familiar with the W-2 ?

Oh four Mercedes C 63 .

I've got one over there .

What do you think , man ?

It's mad , isn't it ?

That car has 450 horsepower , so that's 450 of you under the bonnet of that little sports saloon .

What do you think ?

Would you have one over an M three take ?

Take that as a note .

What about your friend about you , mate ?

You e 92 fan ?

Yeah .

No , you're getting a bit scared .

All right , mate , I'll see you later .

I'm gonna find out .

Bye bye .

OK , and here we are .

We're in the C 63 on some incredibly greasy December roads and OK , I'll be honest .

I didn't really understand the AM G thing .

I didn't get the hype .

Of course I knew they were tyre slaying legends , and they had big V eight s big , incredible noise .

But from the outside at least , I always thought they were one dimensional machines .

They're just capable of thrilling you when you first get in it , you hear the noise , you slide it around a bit , and that's it .

But yeah , So I'm driving the C 63 to see if I'm correct to see if there's any more depth to this car than I first realised .

So let's find out , shall we ?

The W-2 04 C 63 is the first AM G to properly hunt down the M three , the title of Best Sports Saloon .

Comprehensive reengineering of the standard car includes wider tracks , front and rear , new kinematics and bespoke spring and damper rates , as well as beefed up anti roll bars all in the name of sharper handling .

Styling is still very much standard C Class , though , until you notice those pumped up front arches , the angrier front bumper and those four fat oval pipes .

Is it as special as something bespoke like a Porsche Cayman ?

Well , no , it's not , but you see , the C 63 has an appeal all of its own .

This is a four door muscle car fitting four or five people in a Cayman would involve some serious bodily harm .

It's the same story inside the dash .

Switch gear and trim are all from the cooking spec car , which is a bit of a shame .

However , the important bits the low mounted , heavily bolstered seat , the nicely sculpted wheel and the aluminium pedals all feel pretty much bang on and in the right place and all these things .

They hint at what's underneath , and that is a 6.2 litre M 156 V eight .

And just sitting in this car , it puts you in the mood to really grab it by the scruff .

It makes its intent known , which I really like .

It's a thug , it's a muscle car and you make no mistake about it .

Yeah !

Oh , man , What a soundtrack !

And we're in a little sports saloon .

450 horsepower , the same amount of talk as a Ferrari 599 with it , six litre V 12 .

I mean , what on earth is going on ?

And we got four doors .

It's a little German muscle car .

Oh , man , it really , really makes you smile .

And from that motor , it is very easy to forget about the rest of the car .

You're just consumed by this soundtrack and the talk and the response .

It is utterly addictive .

This car who the response is great , naturally aspirated .

Big capacity .

That's the way you make power .

And it's a defining feature of this car .

It is the defining feature .

That's why you buy AC 63 .

Is this motor ?

If you're enjoying watching me squeal like a girl in a small German saloon , please hit the like button and subscribe for more sports car drives , classic car reviews and track tests .

Once you get past that , what else have we got ?

Well , at the first turn of the wheel , you realise that this has a super fast steering rack for a Mercedes .

This is meant to be a relaxed cruiser , and yet it just darts into corners .

It's not all that precise .

Off centre .

There's a bit of wooliness there and at low speeds .

Yeah , there's not much weight and not much feedback to work against , but it's a good steering system .

But what you do find is because the car weighs 1700 kilogrammes .

The sparse steering rack can sort of excite it too much at speed , especially when you're making corrections , which you will be doing a lot in this .

By the way , if you've got the systems off in the West , you feel the weight sloshing side to side , and you feel the car get too excited by the speed of the rack .

And yeah , compounding that is the fact that to have any body control at all , the car's been set up really , really stiff and over bumpy British B roads like this .

Yeah , it's it's a bit crash .

It's a bit coarse .

There's not so much for to the ride quality .

And for me , this is a little bit confusing because to me anyway , a Mercedes , a performance Mercedes as well should be a car that's somewhat relaxing and normal to use in day to day use , which this really is .

But the stiff ride quality just seems unnecessary because it'd make more sense to have this big , bombastic engine , but with a CASS setting ride to really differentiate this from the M three , because that , let's be honest , is the sharp driving tool .

It's the car that you take on track and really rag around , and that's better than this at the very limit .

But again I come back to that motor Fuck , yeah , cool .

Do I look like I care about the ride quality because I don't .

I care about getting this C 63 sideways in a cloud of smoke with a VA rumble echoing off the walls .

And if you haven't guessed it already on the limit , this car is all about oversteer .

And we like that .

We really do .

Because of all that talk , you're a millimetre of throttle away from a slide at any given point .

So yeah , this car is all about exciting the rear and getting some big smoky slides going .

But this particular model does not have the performance pack .

And that's significant because this car does not have a limited slip differential .

That , to me , seems just ludicrous .

£440 for the torque without limited slip differential .

Yes , OK , it probably breaks the inside wheel to stop excessive spin up .

But still , when you're coming out of tight corners , it's never really totally predictable , like it would be if it had an l S d .

Because you've got that inside rear snatching and spinning up and doing all sorts and yeah , in a car as powerful as this , you want an L S D in it and all that power and torque is sent through a seven speed automatic gearbox .

It's not a torque converter in this car .

This is the face lift , and the torque converter has been replaced with a set of clutch packs .

And , yeah , so when you're just cruising along , not looking to push the car , I think this gearbox really suits the character of the C 63 because it slurs changes .

It's very smooth .

It's very easy to use .

You don't even notice the changes most of the time .

But then , yeah , when you're in manual mode and you're pushing hard on part throttle , at least there's a bit of a delay in the in the upshifts .

It's not deal breaking , but it is there .

It's not a DC t it's not got that snappy up down the box field .

But so , yeah , what I'm trying to say is that if you want that final nth degree of dynamics and polish from your sports saloon , this probably isn't it .

You'll be better off in an e 92 m three and again if you want to take your car on a circuit or drive it properly .

Hard on the limit .

20th all the time .

This probably isn't the car , either , because it definitely feels like a road car .

It's too heavy to be anything else , and he starts to wallow at the very edges of ER of grip .

And he doesn't like coping with rough roads when you're really , really on it .

But if you keep it below that threshold as a road car , I think this makes such good sense because it is just a love .

And that's what we want from a sports saloon , isn't it ?

At the end of the day , we drive cars to make us smiles and , well , when you've got a 6.2 litre V eight with 450 horsepower to the rear wheels alone , Well , it does this to your face .

Oh , Jesus .

It doesn't get old .

It really , really doesn't .

That would excite you every single day of the week , and you could use this car every day of the week .

God , I love the C 63 .

It has wowed me more than I thought it would .

So if you like the video , please hit the like button and subscribe as well for future drives , and I will see you in the next one .

You can have a bit of VA noise before you go .

Yeah , Jo