For the lucky few who can afford such cars, this offers something that many cars in this price range doesn’t. Exclusivity. Sure there are Porsche Turbos and Astons, etc. but in most parts of the country where these cars roam, they are considered “dime a dozen”. The Black Series is something that you don’t see everyday no matter where you are

Check out this nice walkaround video of the CLK63 AMG Black Series.

Or having a AMG 63 in a ML.

With such a powerful engine in a only go straight body, it can turn but not with pedal to metal like a go kart or something with high lateral Gs.It’ll make more sense to put a Jet engine in it.

What is the real reason for 7 or 8 speed?

Will it change speed every 10 secs? Its only going to make the tranny worn out quicker.

I guess they’re marketing these cars to people with lots of money and very little brain.

Certainly, flicking an SMG or DSG paddle with your finger gets you to that next gear much faster than you could do by depressing a clutch, grabbing a lever and slotting into that next year with your hand, and squeezing on more power while skillfully releasing the floodgates with your left foot.

It also has all the passion and involvement of selecting channel 5 on your Tivo remote.

http://www.mensvogue.com/design/articles/2007/08/jaguar

I also hope for this kinda money they improved the interior over the base CLK. My father-in-law recently picked up a new CLK55 for ~$65k…and while blazingly smooth and quick for its heft, the interior materials (except the seat leather) are severely lacking next to my 10-year-old $27k Passat. I also find the steering feel in all late model Mercs I’ve driven–mostly E-class, but also CLK–to be bland and detached.

The old man’s ‘66 230SL Pagoda still gets me excited though, at a fraction of the speed.

This is definitely among Jay’s all-time 10-best lines to date, IMHO.

I vote him above J. Clarkson, who is irreverent but crazy. (I read him more for his comments on British life than on automobiles.) C&D also tries but its guys can only wish that they can come up with such phrases as often as Jay can.

BTW, great review… best testosterone laden one yet…

whatdoiknow1, well said as you surely know AMG is now owned by M-B no longer a seperate independent entity.

The AMG phenomenon is an example of if a small number is good, a larger number must be better, lets AMG every model good way of making more money.

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.