Mercedes C 63 AMG Black.

Just like BMW has its M Division and Audi has the RS brand and now even Citroen have its own version of them with the DS badge Mercedes has the AMG division.

This division has produced some of the most insanely overpowered saloon cars on the planet for years now. They have been Mercs go to guys for all things mental. The typical AMG car has a big V8 with at least 430bhp. Any less than that and it simply wouldn't be AMG. In fact they used to make the most powerful car in existence and it produced somewhere over 700bhp and had so much torque the chassis couldn't deal with it. That's the other defining characteristic of AMG, they are a lot more leery than their competitors. As a result they earned a place in the petrol heads heart. We keep them close to the warmness of our bosoms.

However it seems as though Mercedes wants us to embrace a new brand in the warm kindness of our bosom. I must admit, the Black division sounds a lot more serious and stealthy and rightly so. What Black do is take an AMG car and make it even more mental. Take the SL 65 AMG Black for example, it was so leery that not many journo types let it get close to the cosiness of their bosoms, I don't know why I keep saying bosom today. In any case Black is back and we're betting back in blacks.

The C63 Black is a roid induced version of a roid induced version of Mercs smallest saloon car. This sounds like a great idea and we should start our assessment with the engine. The C63 Black will use a tuned up version of the 6.2 litre V8 Injection engine in the current AMG. This is going against the grain of putting in the 5.5 litre turbocharged units being rolled out across Mercedes's range. Mercedes say that the engine didn't fit properly into the C63 and handling would be compromised as a result, so they ditched the idea. The Black version of the engine will produce 510bhp and 472lbs/ft of torque. Actual performance figures are unknown.

The Black version of the car has shed only 20kilos from the kerb weight. This makes it sound like it's been on an extensive diet and carried on eating chocolate cakes but that's not entirely true. The C63 is a car designed to have older gents in it. It's meant to be a civilised gentlemans racer. And given the provisional equipment list I'd say that focus has remained in the Black. Quite what that means for handling I don't know. I'm guessing it means it'll be a leery SOB just like all previous Blacks have been. That said, it should be fun.

The styling is something I've always liked about the C63 and this new Black looks quite fine indeed. The wheel arches are flared a huge amount. The bonnot has more agressive looking ridges in it than a Klingons face. There are air vents at the backs of the wheel arches, look at the CLK Black and you'll see the same thing. What remains is the flame surfacing crease that runs down the side of the car. I always liked it because it makes it look sleak and sporty when viewed from the side.

The interior is standard C63 really. The image I've seen shows some red stiching in key areas and a little bit more chrome look than I remember in the standard car. Other than that I'll have to sit in it to spot any differences and since I haven't I can't. What I can say is the Black retains the classy interior of the base car, with very pleasant instrument binnacles.

So how do you sum up this preview. Well it looks like it's going to be just as much of a handful at speed as the previous Blacks. At the same time it looks as though it's going to be reasonably comfortable and grown up inside, if mental on the outside. The key is price. At £100,000 I don't think it'll be worth the extra cost over the standard C63 AMG. In fact it'll have to be seriously good to justify that price. Then again I don't doubt that it'll sell.

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