Mercedes-AMG is absolutely on form at the moment. MOTORING takes to the flowing curves of Goodwood Motor Circuit in the UK to find out why.
The new turbocharged era has been a mixed bag for great cars. It used to be easy to make any old car fun – just make it light and give it a rev-happy petrol engine – but now it’s not so easy at all.
Turbocharged engines are less responsive than normally-aspirated equivalents. Fact. So as far as engine tuning goes, there are two priorities: what you do with what you’ve got, and how you compensate for what you haven’t.
Mercedes, as the Stuttgart-based firm’s domination of the current turbocharged era of Formula One will attest, has found a performance formula that works.
A complex design of engine, which houses a turbocharger inside two banks of cylinders arranged in a vee shape, was thought technically impossible until recent years. It’s known as a ‘hot vee’.
Race track to road... and back
That technology has passed to the road. The Mercedes-AMG GT S is an even more powerful evolution of the first model to benefit from the full hot vee design, which shunned the old but glorious 6.2-litre normally-aspirated V8 in favour of a mere 4.0-litre newbie with clever turbocharging on its side.
The capacity dip means it qualifies for certain financial advantages in large overseas markets.
It also comes in a brilliant yellow colour, which looks absolutely stunning in the metal. But what if a two-door sports car isn’t your thing? Well, Mercedes has also shoe-horned a slightly older V8 into the C-Class; a mighty 5.5-litre fire-breather not as cleverly designed as the 4.0-litre, but with buckets of character. Mercedes recently took both to the Goodwood Motor Circuit.
If looks could kill
Between the C 63 AMG S and the AMG GT S, it’s hard to pick a favourite. The eye-popping paint and bullet-sleek lines of the latter mean business in a deliciously obvious way, but the sinister, dark blue C-Class carries just as much menace under its cloak of relative understatement.
Both ‘S’ versions have been tuned to excel on the track, and both have adjustable driving modes that can be turned up to 11 for just that purpose. These two have been cut from the same cloth. Setting off in the GT S is a completely surprising experience, not just for its initial docility and user-friendliness (if you discount the iffy outward visibility), but for the hardness of the torque.
Utter perfection
To explain, in most turbo cars there’s a wait while the mechanics spin up to speed, and it feels like a soft swell to the driver’s foot. The GT S, though, is far more immediate. You’re expecting forgiveness at the pedal and this car gives none. After a few warm-up laps, picking up corner speeds and braking ever-later, you begin to see just how capable it is; how tightly you have to grab the car by the scruff of its neck. By jingo is it good. Here, now, it’s perfection.
The C 63 S is softer in delivery, if not in suspension. Like the GT S it corners flat, like it’s glued to the road – until you prod the angry dragon beneath the bonnet a moment too soon on corner exits. Do that a lot and you’d better be able to control a slide – or have the sense to leave traction control switched on.
Deep rumbles, throaty roars and a chorus of rolling thunder pound from the four exhausts as the flagship C-Class dominates the circuit. Its 5.5-litre engine may be slightly less direct than the newer unit, but it has a deeper, barrel-chested character that you can’t ignore. And why would you want to? These two cars are deeply, deeply wonderful. Both leave you with lasting memories.
Mercedes has hit the nail so squarely on the head with its turbocharged AMG engines, and with such incredible force, that it’s a wonder the hammer didn’t shatter. It’s easy to miss the old days of the 6.2 but this sort of progress is the kind we can happily live with.