Latest news with #CLK
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Affalterbach battle: Can a CLE 53 keep up with a CLK Black Series?
Old meets new: does the CLE 53 capture some of the CLK's magic? The arches give it away. The Mercedes-AMG CLE 53 Coupé arrived on a wave of exciting claims – ones we knew we would have to put sternly to the test. But given that AMG had gone to the effort of extending its rear wheel arches by 75mm (accommodating a similarly widened axle and wheels wrapped in bespoke Michelin rubber), it was safe to assume it would hit harder than the 53s before it. And it promptly did. Golly, did AMG need the shot in the arm that the CLE 53 brought too, after its reputation had been more than a little shaken by the response to a hybridised C63 with half the usual cylinder count. That car had proved a far cry from the AMG glory days – a time perhaps no better represented than by this gleaming white CLK 63 Black Series. Launched in 2007, the model became a bona fide modern classic very soon after. It's a pure distillation of the DNA scattered more sparingly beneath the CLE's skin. The perfect barometer to see just how 'AMG' this 53 really is, it also has bruising rear arches, although it wears them like uncouthly tacked-on shoulder pads. On a biting winter's day like today, when the roads are cold and greasy, the newer car should be the more immediately inviting of the two, but the scarcity of the CLK makes its door handle impossible to resist. Just 30 were allocated to the UK at its launch, and while this left-hand-drive example suggests a few might have sneaked over since, reckons just 28 remain in Britain. No wonder it's worth more now than its 'frankly ridiculous' £99,517 at launch. Yes, those are the words of our ever-scrupulous testers… 'This is the most extreme Mercedes currently on sale, including the SLR,' we declared when we drove it in January 2008. The gawps and guffaws it still elicits at mere walking pace prove its enduring shock value. And there is true substance to back up its style. This was the contemporary Formula 1 safety car wearing a pair of numberplates. Over and above the 'regular' CLK 63, it gained 26bhp, revisions to its gear ratios, brakes and steering and a newly adjustable suspension set-up (albeit manually), with wider tracks – 75mm front, 66mm rear – necessitating those cartoonish arches. There was extra bracing in the engine bay and swathes of carbonfibre just about everywhere – even across the chasm left empty by its absent rear seats. Yet its kerb weight matched its base car, despite a bank of blanked-out switches; there's not even a parking sensor to be found, somewhat terrifyingly, given the car's value. However, this doesn't immediately feel like the track-hardened, driver-focused weapon it was lauded as in the late noughties. Sure, its engine fires ferociously into life, practically rocking the bodywork around you. But the steering wheel looks mundane Merc, no aggressive wings or roll-cage latticework fill your mirrors and a fiddly lever operates an occasionally reticent automatic gearbox. It's a world away from the lightened flywheels and chuntering revs of other Stuttgart-born specials of the era. Like the very best driver's cars, though, the Black Series' magic is easily found. While the transmission does feel ponderous under interrogation (even its sportier modes need a mental 'one… two…' between shifts), every other element of the car feels so constantly alive that you'll never pine for anything else. Beyond the Comfort, Sport or Manual modes of the 'box, there's nothing left to press beyond the ESP button (which does 'on' or 'off' with a mere tap), so you can get right into the thick of driving it. It's surprising how compliant the ride feels. We're used to the gnarliest specials rattling our teeth and spine in road use, but the Black Series is never anything other than a fast, ferocious Mercedes-Benz, smoothing the edges of Britain's road surfaces. You could spend hundreds of miles ensconced in its bucket seat and feel brilliant. There's certainly little need to trailer it to a track day, even if an SUV with a tow hook might deliver better fuel efficiency. But you will almost certainly set an early alarm so you can take the long route there. This is a real 'last gallon on Earth' contender, a car designed with its focus almost unwaveringly on fun. And despite its incongruous comfort, it's no softie, providing the feel and fidelity of some of the greatest track specials yet demanding little of their commitment. Its steering bubbles away, telegraphing the movements of a car that teeters on the edge of mimicking a V8 Caterham in its swagger. You feel the moment its driven wheels begin to relinquish grip, as the rear starts to arc wide, and it's your choice whether to feed in more power and indulge it or back off and neaten things up. It can do neat and tidy, but it feels at its most authentic moving around, smearing the Tarmac even with the ESP on. And, boy, is it quick once you're pointing straight, bounding forwards in a way that belies its 1.7 tonnes. It's a car I simply don't want to hand back. If it's this spectacular now, what must it have felt like at the time? The CLE 53 can never match such large heart and character, but it exhibits real dynamism right from the off. Its 4Matic+ four-wheel drive continually shifts power around but has a definite rear bias and, allied with all-wheel steering (a first in a 53 model), it demonstrates more urgency than its endlessly plush (and pixel-rich) cabin might otherwise suggest. There's certainly no bank of blank switches in here. Mind, it's disarmingly easy to manoeuvre compared with the burly Black Series. The rear steer and an abundance of parking cameras make moving it around a doddle, yet as soon as you're rolling, there's evident nous to the more mechanical bits beneath. It exhibits real tension in the ride, whichever of the multitudinous modes you've selected, and a pleasing snarl from the six-cylinder up front in its sportier settings. The whooshes and hisses of turbocharging that are proudly absent in the vociferously atmo CLK bring welcome character to the progress you make in here. Although it will never match the gargling war cry of that venerable 6.2-litre V8, this CLE sounds good. Its powertrain is largely free of lag too (gaps in the power delivery are papered over by a 22bhp mild-hybrid element), but the keener among us are still encouraged to wring out the revs. Just shift up slightly below the limiter in manual mode: it cuts in keenly. Even though its headline accelerative benchmark betters that of the Black Series, the CLE 53 doesn't feel as outrageously quick, its 58 fewer horses and 165 extra kilograms taking some of the blame. I like its relative modesty, though: it's not as outlandishly, unusably fast as some sports saloon rivals have become and you can at least feel like you're exploring its performance and approaching its limits like in the more slapstick CLK. This CLE represents a much more rounded package and can't help feeling a bit staid in such company. But even a cursory scroll through its bewildering mix of modes unleashes something that can thrill, something that will provide depth as an ownership proposition. It's never going to imitate the slightly unhinged hot rods it shares those evocative three letters with, and it definitely prefers grip to slip, but its rear wheels can still scrabble naughtily on dank days. You can take it by the scruff on the right road. A whole suite of AMG Dynamics stuff keeps the 4WD, rear steering and stability control systems in check through a range of 'difficulty levels' from Basic to Master. Spec the optional £7500 Pro Performance Package (not present here) and you even get a higher, Black Series-matching 186mph top speed and a RWD-only drift mode, once you have loosened the electronic helpers to enable it. But this AMG is an involving car without it, even if you do need to be laying on at least a little aggression to unleash its mischievous side. It only ever moves under your duress, whereas the old CLK is unashamedly, belligerently itself and drags you along with its whims while keeping you fully versed on its intentions. The CLE 53 makes you go looking for its own, cloaking them beneath a few more layers of luxury and awaiting your command to loosen its inhibitions. But crucially, it still will. Just as those arches promised. ]]>
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Why This 2007 Mercedes Grand Tourer Is Destined to Be an All-Time Great
When Pontiac put its biggest engine in its smallest chassis, it created the muscle car. When Mercedes-Benz put its best AMG-built V8 into its CLK sports coupe, it created a legend. It's called the CLK63 AMG Black Series, and it's one of the most extreme cars the German brand has ever made. There are plenty more sedate versions of the CLK. The standard CLK63 AMG that was sold in some markets in 2006 spat out 475 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque and was already an upgrade over the, ahem, adequate CLK55 AMG. Below that sits the pedestrian CLK 500 and plebeian CLK 350. More from Robb Report An Ultra-Rare De Tomaso Pantera Is Now Heading to Auction F1 Might Bring Back V-10s and Their Famous Noise This James Bond-Inspired Land Rover Defender Is Now Heading to Auction The Black Series pushed the 63's numbers to an even 500 ponies. It was hardened and honed into a completely different animal from the rest of the Coupe Leicht Kurz class. As the most pointed Silver Arrow of Mercedes' quiver over the first decade of the 21st Century, the CLK63 AMG deserves a seat at the table of historic Benzes. Here are five more reasons why it's destined to be a future classic. Best of Robb Report The 2024 Chevy C8 Corvette: Everything We Know About the Powerful Mid-Engine Beast The World's Best Superyacht Shipyards The ABCs of Chartering a Yacht Click here to read the full article. Like all AMG-built engines, a single technician assembled each Black Series V8. This 'one man one engine' philosophy allows the marque to affix a signature plate atop each engine, a unique identifier that may not add horsepower but certainly adds mystique. The M156 was the first engine to be designed completely in-house by AMG engineers. Depending on the year and the chassis it's nestled in, the 6,208-cc powerhouse produces between 451 and 518 hp. It spins to a 7,200-rpm redline and makes max power a scant 200 revs before its limit. AMG has produced many memorable engines, but the 6.3 (to the disdain of mathematicians and magazine editors alike, Benz rounded up to match the displacement badges of historical models) remains the brand's naturally aspirated apogee. Turbochargers may be the de facto replacement for displacement, but the linear power delivery and symphonic soundtrack of the M156 is unsurpassed even today. Cars destined to spend their lives on the street don't need adjustable suspension setups, let alone suspenders that require tools to tweak. But the Black Series can hardly stretch its legs without a sanctioned stretch of asphalt free from pedestrians. The car's ride height, compression, rebound, camber, and toe-in are all adjustable. A fancy suspension isn't worth much attached to a flaccid chassis, so AMG engineers added bracing between the front strut towers and in the trunk. The front and rear track measurements are increased by nearly three inches, necessitating flared wheel arches to cover the wide 265/30 front and 285/30 rear Pirellis on 19-inch wheels. The CLK63 AMG was employed as the official Formula 1 Safety Car in 2006 and 2007. It was driven by ex-DTM racer Bernd Mayländer, and to hear him tell the tale, it was a big step up from the CL55 AMG he previously piloted. 'When it rained, it was quite treacherous due to the light tail,' says Mayländer, 'It was a real beast to drive – but it was really good fun.' An F1 Safety Car has to be fast. 'In the smaller racing series, I drive the safety car at about 70% of its capacity,' explains Mayländer, 'but in Formula One you're always over 90%. It's like a real endurance race and everyone wants me to go faster so their tires do not cool down.' The flashing lights didn't make it from Safety Car to production Black Series, but the free-breathing exhaust system, actively cooled limited slip rear differential, carbon fiber rear diffuser, flat-bottom steering wheel, interior trim, and, perhaps most obviously, its widebody design did. From 2000 through 2003, Mercedes-Benz competed in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters racing series with a car based on the CLK. It was significantly modified for racing duty, but perhaps the most important link – the car's appearance – was clear. Spoilers, wings, air vents and pumped-up bodywork made the DTM car look like a beast on the race track, and the look was a clear inspiration for the production Black Series. Mercedes actually produced a limited-edition CLK DTM model for the street to celebrate its DTM championship in 2003. That car, while extremely desirable, used the older 5.5-liter engine and its aero bits weren't quite as extreme as the Black Series that superseded it. Included in the Black Series package were air intakes in the front bumper and fenders, side skirts, and a spoiler all hewn from carbon fiber. Each of these aero bits adds a sinister look, and each has a functional use for downforce or cooling purposes. It's got a bigger, badder engine. Its chassis is braced, and its exterior is plastered with extra bodywork. Still, at a smidgeon under 4,000 pounds, AMG managed to drop nearly 100 lbs from the car's less powerful non-Black-Series sibling. Carbon fiber weighs less than steel or aluminum, but much of the diet is attributed to the lack of a rear seat. There's no denying the CLK63 Black Series' appeal. And the car's current price on the used market is appealing as well. According to the average sale price of a Black Series stood at $121,000 when this was written. That's less than the car's original asking price, leaving lots of room for what we believe should be an upward trajectory considering the car's potential as a future classic.
