By Jay Shoemaker
August 27, 2007 -
My co-pilot sat motionless, stupefied from the previous night's revelry. Strangely, this poor fellow thought I could be trusted not to challenge Alka-Seltzer's restorative powers. I allowed him the luxury of this delusion all the way from the hotel to the highway. And then I floored it. The CLK Black Series' engine bellowed WAKE UP FOOL! The uber-bad Benz' back end quivered from side to side. The traction control light sent a steady stream of Morse code through first, second and third gear. The ten second wake-up call placed us well north of 100 mph. The jobbing journo groaned his disapproval. God I love this work!
Of course, any pistonhead who's ever inhaled the smell of burning brakes in the morning and identified it as "victory" knows that AMG on a Benz' butt guarantees straight-line firepower. To that end, the CLK Black Series boasts a near-as-dammit 6.3-liter V8, modded to produce 500 horsepower and 465 ft.-lbs. of torque. But this time, the boys from Affalterbach have wrought something a little different: "a track car adapted for use over the road." Stimmt?
Stimmt. The carbon-covered cabin's cornering bias is immediately identifiable by its miniaturized seats, steering wheel and transmission stalk. Despite its diminutive diameter, the leather-clad, square-bottomed helm is a superb addition to the AMG canon (cannon?). The CLK BS' racing-derived chairs are less successful. Even this 140-pound test pilot found the hard shell seat incredibly confining; the side bolsters are ended right around my armpit, resulting in non-stop elbows akimbo. My 200-pound compadre moaned about his back throughout our journey.
Those of you who say shaddup– adding lightness is the best way to get a sedan to sprint from rest to sixty in 4.1 seconds– don't speak AMG. Yes, AMG's Black arts artists fitted lightweight forged alloy wheels, removed the back seat and carbon-fibered the brake cooling ducts, rear spoiler and rear apron. But the CLK BS is 228 lbs. heavier than a CLK500.
All that extra heft is deployed in pursuit of handling. We're spreching three transverse chassis reinforcements and a new multi-plate limited slip differential. There's also a trick adjustable suspension that allows changes to the CLK's ride height, camber, toe-in and shock dampers' compression and rebound. Provided you're a mechanic in a tuning shop, AMG says "you" can transform the CLK AMG 63 Black Series from a road-compliant commuter to a track-ready monster in an hour or less.
The out-of-the-box, on-the-road solution is insane. Anyone who wants, needs or thinks he could use more lateral grip on a public road should have their license revoked on general principle. The steering is a shout-out to Porsche: "we could match your helm feel on all our cars; we simply choose not to." And the brakes– including 360mm ceramic front discs with six-piston calipers– could stop an evangelical preacher mid-syllable.
I saved my comments about the tranny for last because I liked it the least. No doubt the 7G-Tronic's stubby lever looks cool, but since it is made of aluminum, looks can be deceiving, especially on a hot day. Worse, it feels flimsy. The first time I waggled it sideways to shift the gears, it felt like I was giving the car a prostate exam. Fortunately, the paddles behind the steering wheel are beefy and loads of fun to press. The seven-speed even blips the throttle for downshifts, DSG-style.
Driving the CLK Black Series over serpentine mountain back roads near Half Moon Bay, I hereby solemnly swear that Mercedes can build a car that is not solemn and will make you swear. If nothing else, the CLK BS sounds like the unholy off-spring of a Mercedes - NASCAR union, complete with popping backfires during engine braking. But there's plenty else, and all of it makes this car weapons-grade ammunition for drivers determined to murder corners and terminate straights (with extreme prejudice).
In fact, the CLK Black Series is a slap in the face of BMW's new M3– albeit at a daunting price.
Yes, there is that. At $130k, the CLK Black Series asks for a 150 percent premium over the CLK 350, and demands $40k more of your hard-earned money than the CLK 63 Cabriolet, which packs a "detuned" version of the same engine. Mercedes has sold all 350 U.S.-bound CLK BS– ensuring that your "investment" will seem cheap compared to the resale market. But the onset of AMG's traditional cliff-face depreciation curve can not be forever delayed.
There are now 15 models in the AMG line. Die-hards (literally) will be glad to hear that more Black Series AMG cars are on their way. While the CLK 63 AMG Black Series is a very special car, it's worth waiting for these details to be applied to a more interesting chassis, like the SL-class, before making the jump to hyperspace.
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More Reviews34 Responses to “ Mercedes CLK 63 AMG Black Series Review ”
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POWERED
August 27th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
A sweet “alternate” ride for the private equity guys when the Ferrari is in for detailing………
August 27th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
indi500fan:
All 350 of them apparently. :)
I vote the “Driving the CLK Black Series…” paragraph as the single most entertaining paragraph in all of TTAC’s reviews. We have 3 home-run descriptive sentences here that are truly words of poetry.
Great write up. I wonder if one will show up on leasetrader.com in a few months for $3.5k/mo.
August 27th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
I waiting for the R63 AMG BS.
August 27th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Jay, very well said. Great write up. Thanks.
August 27th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Wow, that’s a serious ride. Thanks Jay.
And somehow I don’t think this one will depreciate like other AMG Benzos either. Wow.
August 27th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
The AMG black series Unimog ist mehr cool.
August 27th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Wow CLK (Pronounce “Silk” for street name).
Well nice car and review but I feel Like a D.O.M (Dirty Old Man) with a young blonde with me.
August 27th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
I choose to ignore this car like I choose to ignore bentley’s, roll’s, and maybach’s…
My salary, no matter how many multiples may apply to it in my lifetime, will never justify the expense on a car with such mixed emotions.
A special series for the purposes of a special series helps define the word “special” when used in the form “education”.
In other words, it’s stupid. But God Bless Mercedes; they have single-handedly reinvented the need to put larger and larger engines in otherwise staid sedans, coupes, convertibles. Now they’re just adding some “sick” in the form of quality suspension, steering, and braking.
Jay, I’m surprised Merc didn’t opt for some pneumatic seats i.e. BMW M5. Comfort and lateral support. Higher weight, true. But who needs a passenger anyway?
Joe
Joe
August 27th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Another great read, Jay. Thanks.
In all my years of examining prostates, I’ve never once equated that with shifting gears. Now I have to find out for myself if Jay’s analogy holds true for me.
Like I didn’t already have enough reasons to want to try on a CLK BS.
August 27th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
So let me understand this, MB has so tarnished the AMG name by slapping an AMG badge on just about anything and everything sold in the MB dealership that they now need the “Black Series” to revive the AMG name to actually mean something again.
I know that I might be in the minority here but what the hell has happened to MB over the last 10 years? What was once the premire automaker of the world has morphed into a sorry Toyota/Lexus like company with a “full” lineup of car and (bite my tongue) trucks of which NONE are truly class leading anymore. This same company has done much to reduce the cache of an AMG tuned Benz to that of the equivalent of a Chevy SS model. Someone please tell me they remember AMG from the 1980s when it was a seperate company that made such delights back then like the 6.0 Hammer.
The way I see it, if MB is trying to be a full scale automaker like Toyota or GM what is the point of MB? At the rate that Toyota is pushing and continuously improving its Lexus line MB will be in serious brand image trouble in the very near future? A premium automaker needs to be able to justify it premium price. Nevermind people ability to pay said price, the product must be better or offer more is some decernable way for people to continue to see it as special. IMHO MB is losing what made it special in the first place.
In the last 10 years MB has been trying to position itself as a “performance brand” forgettting the simple fact that the vast majority of its customers throughout the world could carless if their Benz can outperform a BMW. What made MB the brand that it is was building the best cars in the world. Cars that NEVER said “cheap”. The luxury and premium of this brand was the feeling that you were owning something that was engineered better than the competition. A Cadiilac was alway more “plush” than a Benz but a plush POS is not “premium”. MB plush was a car that would ALWAYS start and would run forever, a car that would hold up and look good for twenty years. Today’s Benzs are just plain cheap(er). The paint fades, the trim falls off, the electronics breakdown, chome pieces are now applied to the car with glue, the interiors feel like upmarket japanese cars from the 1980s, yet the prices are still tops in the market?
Please MB go back to just making the best cars. Make AMG an independent company again. Let them create there magic on the proper cars, no more AMG RLs. The automotive world will be a better place.
Oh, the CLK BS is fast though.