Mercedes AMG have unveiled the S63 AMG as their ultimate performance saloon for their uber rich clientele. Apart from looking like the most aggressive S-class ever made, it absolutely looks like the most menacing luxury salon ever made. And once I tell you its performance numbers, you won’t disagree. Let’s take a look.
Exterior Design
As I said above, the S63 AMG looks menacing. More menacing than Sinister Strange to be honest. The aggressive design is not just for show but for purpose as well. A heavily powered AMG needs heavy cooling as well. That’s why you’ll find openings, vents, cuts and inlets all around the aggressive front bumper and those are real ones to send cooling to the inter-coolers and the radiators. There’s also active aero on the front bumper to allow directional air flow. Moreover, the AMG specific radiator grille is now proudly featured at the front of the S-Class without any free standing 3-pointed star on the bonnet. Oh and if those weren’t enough, there’s a night package which adds optional carbon fibre inserts all over the car whether be the front bumpers, the rear diffuser, the side skirts or even inlays on the dashboard.
Coming over to the side, the first thing to note is the side skirts which are also available in a carbon fibre option. New carbon fibre light weight black wheels add further to the “Batmobile” personality of this car especially in the nardo grey resembling paint work. The car has not been lowered even though it might look like it but, interestingly it lowers itself down when going over 120 KPH to improve the straight-line aerodynamics.
Over on the inside, there isn’t much different from a regular S-class which is obviously not bad but the inside of this S63 AMG screams sportiness with its design. Especially if you configure it in a black and red colour theme and choose the optional carbon fibre inserts. There’s also a new AMG specific steering wheel with all the buttons and controls for various modes and driving dynamics. There is an oddly placed LiDAR sensor in the front grille which means there is autonomous driving capabilities in this car as well and has not been limited to the “normal” S-class. Coming over to the displays, the S63 AMG comes with the same two large displays. One for the driver and one as the portrait infotainment screen. The difference is that these displays now offer more driving dynamic/track specific info for the times when you have been to a track.
The back seats still offer the same luxury feel to remind us that it is indeed an S-Class. There’s lounge mode for the rear passenger sitting opposite to the driver to sit back and relax like on a business class suite. There’s rear seat entertainment, seat massage, seat ventilation, posh tables, champagne cooler, etc. on offer for the rear passenger to remind you of your richness at all times possible.
Performance
This is the best part of the car and consequently the most important one especially for the gear heads. The S63 AMG comes with a 4.0L Bi-Turbo V8 with E-power. The E-power means it has an electric motor on the rear axle which combines its instant torque strength with the V8 to generate a combined system power of 802 HP and 1430NM of torque. Take that in nice and slow. The V8 produces 612 HP and the electric engine generates around 190HP to give us the monstrous number of 802 HP. Yes it is still lower than the AMG GT 4-door but 802 HP in an S-class is a different league of automotive.
But, everyone knows that all the power in the world cannot simply mean an exciting driving package in itself unless it has checked all the driving dynamics. Well, the S63 AMG is 2.6 tonnes in weight and that is a heavy bag to lift even for 802 HP. To manage that, the engineers at AMG made a very clever one of a kind hybrid drivetrain driving power to all 4-wheels or front wheels or rear wheels as and when needed making the S63 a dynamic AWD saloon. Add limited slip differential, torque-vectoring, active aero, 2-speed gearbox for the electric motor and sharp steering response and you have a luxury saloon packaged to drive like a 2-door sports car. AMG have also added a stiffer suspension to make it more agile by adding extra struts. All this in numbers means a 0-60 MPH time of just 3.3 seconds and a top speed up to almost 300 KPH!
As for pricing, well that is still a mystery since Mercedes AMG have only “showcased” the car and not launched it fully. The pricing will be revealed in January so stay tuned for that.
