C63 AMG Performance Pack v 997 t
C63 AMG Performance Pack v 997 t
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IMI A

Original Poster:

9,959 posts

227 months

Saturday 21st November 2009
quotequote all
Chaps, a mate and i have swapped cars for a month and I have to say I reckon the C63 is a damn fine car and relatively speaking very good value for money. Didn't expect it to be as good as it.

Still looking forward to get back in to my turbo at the end of the month but the C63 has been a nice change. First impressions are fantastic chassis, drivetrain and I kid u not an exhaust note that would make a Ferrari 430 quiver. Porsche should wake up and smell the roses with other manufacturers offering a 450bhp power train and stunning chassis for £50-£60k.

I wouldn't go near a Cayman for this sort of money and it would be a very very tough choice between a C63 and a standard Carrera. Think the C63 would edge it.......

squeezebm

2,319 posts

231 months

Saturday 21st November 2009
quotequote all
IMI A said:
Chaps, a mate and i have swapped cars for a month and I have to say I reckon the C63 is a damn fine car and relatively speaking very good value for money. Didn't expect it to be as good as it.

Still looking forward to get back in to my turbo at the end of the month but the C63 has been a nice change. First impressions are fantastic chassis, drivetrain and I kid u not an exhaust note that would make a Ferrari 430 quiver. Porsche should wake up and smell the roses with other manufacturers offering a 450bhp power train and stunning chassis for £50-£60k.

I wouldn't go near a Cayman for this sort of money and it would be a very very tough choice between a C63 and a standard Carrera. Think the C63 would edge it.......
Believe me you'll get bored of it.........had an E92M,which the journos say beats the C63 hands downrolleyes sold it and got myself a Cayman much more fun,the HP race for me is over prefer to have something that handles wink


altho' they sound awsome ears

ZeroH

2,917 posts

215 months

Sunday 22nd November 2009
quotequote all
IMI A said:
Chaps, a mate and i have swapped cars for a month and I have to say I reckon the C63 is a damn fine car and relatively speaking very good value for money. Didn't expect it to be as good as it.

Still looking forward to get back in to my turbo at the end of the month but the C63 has been a nice change. First impressions are fantastic chassis, drivetrain and I kid u not an exhaust note that would make a Ferrari 430 quiver. Porsche should wake up and smell the roses with other manufacturers offering a 450bhp power train and stunning chassis for £50-£60k.

I wouldn't go near a Cayman for this sort of money and it would be a very very tough choice between a C63 and a standard Carrera. Think the C63 would edge it.......
The C63 is very impressive... experienced it on the AMG driving experience and it really took me by suprise in terms of how well planted and responsive it was on track, and also how easy it was to control on the wet skid pad.

Would be my choice over an e92 m3 (which for some reason left me cold at the wheel) & RS4 (which felt like it had 300hp instead of 400hp) for the road - The AMG models of today are so much more thoroughly engineered than before, and it really shows.

R2FU

1,232 posts

284 months

Sunday 22nd November 2009
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+1 on the sound. Guy at work has one and it sounds amazing.

Badjwa

610 posts

203 months

Sunday 22nd November 2009
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Worst interiors ever on C63 not befitting a car of that price.

vinnie83

3,367 posts

219 months

Sunday 22nd November 2009
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I found it to be slow (after how much it was bigged up in the media) and soft and wallowy (sp?) in the corners.

I think it's a great car for fast straight line driving, but handling wasn't up to much - it never inspired any confidence in the corners, I'd dare say that my old E55 felt more planted in the turns.

The noise however... WOW!

IMI A

Original Poster:

9,959 posts

227 months

Sunday 22nd November 2009
quotequote all
Badjwa said:
Worst interiors ever on C63 not befitting a car of that price.
yep but u can't have everything for £50k and the 997 interior is hardly a masterpiece. On the AMG all one would have to do is to send it to a specialist trimmer to cover up huge swathes of airfix plastic with leather (basically this is what Porsche do)

Badjwa

610 posts

203 months

Sunday 22nd November 2009
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IMI A said:
Badjwa said:
Worst interiors ever on C63 not befitting a car of that price.
yep but u can't have everything for £50k and the 997 interior is hardly a masterpiece. On the AMG all one would have to do is to send it to a specialist trimmer to cover up huge swathes of airfix plastic with leather (basically this is what Porsche do)
You can get leather on the dash but from memory is a £5k option.

IMI A

Original Poster:

9,959 posts

227 months

Sunday 22nd November 2009
quotequote all
vinnie83 said:
I found it to be slow (after how much it was bigged up in the media) and soft and wallowy (sp?) in the corners.

I think it's a great car for fast straight line driving, but handling wasn't up to much - it never inspired any confidence in the corners, I'd dare say that my old E55 felt more planted in the turns.

The noise however... WOW!


E55 definitely better on straight line performance and low down torque and dare say in the right hands quicker on road. Round a track the C63 would murder the E55 on a ten lap race of say the West circuit at Bedford AD. Chassis in C63 is in a different league all together. You need to try the car with the AMG performance pack which sorts out soft dampers of standard car.

Chap that i borrow Mercs off used to be CEO of Mercedes UK and he tells me the Gen 2 C63 will be released with 518 Bhp version of 6.3 litre engine with 465Lbs Torque yikes

SFO

5,171 posts

209 months

Sunday 22nd November 2009
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IMI A said:
Chap that i borrow Mercs off used to be CEO of Mercedes UK and he tells me the Gen 2 C63 will be released with 518 Bhp version of 6.3 litre engine with 465Lbs Torque yikes
hopefully it will have the MCT wet clutch transmission from the SL63 and the new E63

vinnie83

3,367 posts

219 months

Sunday 22nd November 2009
quotequote all
IMI A said:
vinnie83 said:
I found it to be slow (after how much it was bigged up in the media) and soft and wallowy (sp?) in the corners.

I think it's a great car for fast straight line driving, but handling wasn't up to much - it never inspired any confidence in the corners, I'd dare say that my old E55 felt more planted in the turns.

The noise however... WOW!


E55 definitely better on straight line performance and low down torque and dare say in the right hands quicker on road. Round a track the C63 would murder the E55 on a ten lap race of say the West circuit at Bedford AD. Chassis in C63 is in a different league all together. You need to try the car with the AMG performance pack which sorts out soft dampers of standard car.

Chap that i borrow Mercs off used to be CEO of Mercedes UK and he tells me the Gen 2 C63 will be released with 518 Bhp version of 6.3 litre engine with 465Lbs Torque yikes
You're probably right about the performance pack, I think the one I drove was the standard one...

If only they made a C55 AMG with the supercharged engine.... now that would be special!

matc

4,735 posts

233 months

Sunday 22nd November 2009
quotequote all
Badjwa said:
IMI A said:
Badjwa said:
Worst interiors ever on C63 not befitting a car of that price.
yep but u can't have everything for £50k and the 997 interior is hardly a masterpiece. On the AMG all one would have to do is to send it to a specialist trimmer to cover up huge swathes of airfix plastic with leather (basically this is what Porsche do)
You can get leather on the dash but from memory is a £5k option.
The leather dash has just been introduced as an option for MY10 cars for about £1300, you also get extended leather on the doors and centre console. They have also introduced the now obligatory daytime running lights!

I had one last weekend and did about 300 miles in it, as a mixture of m/way and A-road driving and I have to say that my Cayman S is a much nicer car to drive; yes it feels a fair bit slower, but on any A-Road the Cayman is a much more involving and fun drive.

The sound of that C63 though.....just awesome!

ETA: also the performance pack on the MY10 cars increases the BHP, but not to the figure quoted above, but about 480ish.

Edited by matc on Sunday 22 November 23:18

Callughan

6,313 posts

218 months

Sunday 22nd November 2009
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Think you had to get the dash leather through the designio program before.

ZeroH

2,917 posts

215 months

Monday 23rd November 2009
quotequote all
vinnie83 said:
I found it to be slow (after how much it was bigged up in the media) and soft and wallowy (sp?) in the corners.

I think it's a great car for fast straight line driving, but handling wasn't up to much - it never inspired any confidence in the corners, I'd dare say that my old E55 felt more planted in the turns.

The noise however... WOW!
You must have been in a different C63 than I was in... on track it could be thrown around & beaten mercilessly and still respond as you'd want.

vinnie83

3,367 posts

219 months

Monday 23rd November 2009
quotequote all
ZeroH said:
vinnie83 said:
I found it to be slow (after how much it was bigged up in the media) and soft and wallowy (sp?) in the corners.

I think it's a great car for fast straight line driving, but handling wasn't up to much - it never inspired any confidence in the corners, I'd dare say that my old E55 felt more planted in the turns.

The noise however... WOW!
You must have been in a different C63 than I was in... on track it could be thrown around & beaten mercilessly and still respond as you'd want.
Due to the active suspension in the E55, it always felt planted, but the C63 felt soft and didn't inspire much confidence... maybe because I drove there in my 997, so it exaggerated the difference and made me imagine it more.. either way it never felt as tight as it should have.

Again, maybe you drove the one with the performance pack on it?

jackwood

2,951 posts

234 months

Monday 23rd November 2009
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New Performance Pack Plus is £4995 - 489bhp
LED lights in Intelligent Lighting system
Extended Designo pack with dash is £2255

What and when is the Gen2 out? Not seen or heard anything about that.

Would really like to know because I just placed an order for the current car on Saturday eek

-Z-

8,081 posts

232 months

Monday 23rd November 2009
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But a C63 still has stability control that you cannot ever fully turn off doesn't it?

Which leads to high brake wear on track as it'll always be applying the brakes here and there?

Until Merc drop the ridiculous policy of non-switchable ESP (even on a £250k SL65 Black FFS) then I would have great difficulty buying one.

jackwood

2,951 posts

234 months

Monday 23rd November 2009
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Don't really ever plan on putting it on the track to be perfectly honest. And I'm sure most owners never would either.

The AMG system goes as far "off" as the Porsche system does, so don't really see it as that much of an issue either way.

-Z-

8,081 posts

232 months

Monday 23rd November 2009
quotequote all
jackwood said:
Don't really ever plan on putting it on the track to be perfectly honest. And I'm sure most owners never would either.

The AMG system goes as far "off" as the Porsche system does, so don't really see it as that much of an issue either way.
What?! A GT3 has ESP that's always on?

But congrats on the buy, fantastic car for sure, it was mostly the fact that this time last year there were none for sale with a rear diff and Merc seemed to be living in dream land with 2nd hand pricing compared to BMW that put me off.

smile

jackwood

2,951 posts

234 months

Monday 23rd November 2009
quotequote all
smile Obviously a GT3 is slightly different. But as far as my Cayman goes it's the same (as I understand it). And I can't get the wife and kid in a GT3.

I did order the diff though wink You know, because that's an essential option...for those icy days, I told the wife wink

I would have gone used too, but there is only one Estate C63 in the entire network at the moment.