RE: New 2.0-litre Mercedes-AMG C63 officially unveiled

[OldSkoolRS]

I'm never likely to buy one, so I guess my opinion is even less relevant, but my wife bought me a track day at Mercedes Benz world quite a few years ago. I got to drive one of the V8 C63 cars and I'm so glad I did. Even if I didn't have the bottle to drive it as hard as the instructor on their very tight track, I'm still so glad I got to spend an hour in one, listening to that lovely V8 and briefly enjoying the sound as I put my foot down (a little).

Call me a dinosaur, but a recording of an engine played back inside the car just makes me laugh: I just can't get excited about a car like this, though as above I'm not the target audience. If I ever had a big Premium bond win I'd probably go looking for a C63 V8 as (for me) it's an aspirational car that sounds great, goes very well and is still practical (my wife has a very much more low powered C200). I can dream, but not about one of these.

[CABC]

TyrannosauRoss Lex said:

It has never had a 6.3.

Mr 156 disagrees
(ok, sl)

[TyrannosauRoss Lex]

CABC said:

TyrannosauRoss Lex said:

It has never had a 6.3.

Mr 156 disagrees
(ok, sl)

Which C63 has had a 6.3 then?

[GT9]

beresd said:

What is '63' about it?

It's a tribute to their first production V8 from the 60s and 70s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_M100_e...

[DonkeyApple]

TyrannosauRoss Lex said:

CABC said:

TyrannosauRoss Lex said:

It has never had a 6.3.

Mr 156 disagrees
(ok, sl)

Which C63 has had a 6.3 then?

Yup. The M156 was a measly 6.2L.

The badge is more to do with denoting a V8 engine under the hood really, referencing the 6.3L of their first V8. It should have been dropped when the V6 unit went in and certainly shouldn't be near a 4 pot.

Technically, this car should be badged C59 as Merc's first 4 pot was 5.9L.

[CABC]

I thought the old SL was just under 6.3?

[TyrannosauRoss Lex]

CABC said:

I thought the old SL was just under 6.3?

6.2

[easyhome]

I’d rather have half the power from a V8. But I suppose this is the future, whether we like it or not.

[fwaggie]

476bhp from a 2L engine?

So many of these are going to be going back to MB with grenaded engines, and those that don't after 2+ years are going to smoke like a smelting factory.


Also I so, so, SO want to hack into MB servers and replace the V8 engine noise with Shaun the Sheep bleeting at a frequency and speed that matches the engine revs, and volume that matches throttle position...

[mclwanB]

otolith said:

DMZ said:

I’m pretty sure nobody has ever driven a car with a drivetrain like the C63, though. It could be utter rubbish of course but I’m nearly certain the usual simplistic commentary doesn’t apply as it’s anything but simplistic. I see ingredients that could yield an interesting result. If not, there’s always the naturally aspired AMG V8 of yesteryear which was a masterpiece.

Mercedes have been selling a C class with a hybridised 2.0 turbo four for some time now. This is obviously turned up to 11, but it's not exactly radical.

https://www.carbuyer.co.uk/reviews/mercedes/c-clas...
https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-reviews/mercedes...

Also a C43 hybrid this year, the C63 is this with the wick turned up a bit presumably:

https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-reviews/mercedes...

Didn't sound too damning.. apart from the 20mpg on test and the lag that was similar to a tdi (or that might have been another review)...

[otolith]

mclwanB said:

Also a C43 hybrid this year, the C63 is this with the wick turned up a bit presumably:

https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-reviews/mercedes...

Didn't sound too damning.. apart from the 20mpg on test and the lag that was similar to a tdi (or that might have been another review)...

CAR said:

Instead, the new lump makes a less aggressive and more composed metallic noise which grows louder as the engine speed builds up, but does not change its laid-back tonality as the workload increases.

Like a big vacuum cleaner?

[Raptor7000r]

Has anyone enquired about getting one and had any further information than what's online?

[Raptor7000r]

Bumping this, any keen PHs putting their names down for the new car?

[ChocolateFrog]

No would seem to be the answer.

Will be interesting to see if Audi follow them with the RS6.

[Raptor7000r]

ChocolateFrog said:

No would seem to be the answer.

Will be interesting to see if Audi follow them with the RS6.

Indeed it does, I expressed interest and dealer informed me they'll be in touch when further information is released.

Don't think Audi will with their cars until Mercedes start changing the E63 which will probably end up similar to the gt73.

[D4rez]

Raptor7000r said:

ChocolateFrog said:

No would seem to be the answer.

Will be interesting to see if Audi follow them with the RS6.

Indeed it does, I expressed interest and dealer informed me they'll be in touch when further information is released.

Don't think Audi will with their cars until Mercedes start changing the E63 which will probably end up similar to the gt73.

Next E63 uses a variant of the four cylinder powertrain. Next Audi RS products will be EV

[DMZ]

To me it seems Merc is focusing more on hybrids and specifically PHEV than anyone else. There are not many successful semi affordable performance hybrids out there so they are seemingly trying to break ground there too.

[Biggy Stardust]

It's got fake broom-broom noises through the speakers; what more can the discerning owner want?

[otolith]

Biggy Stardust said:

It's got fake broom-broom noises through the speakers; what more can the discerning owner want?

I suppose at some level;



Driving back from picking up the new car (335d) OH commented (unusually for her, she’s not a car person) that it sounds good. It does, for a diesel. Suspiciously so, especially in Sport mode. Because it’s faking it. I kind of wish I didn’t know, but also kind of don’t care. But I suppose at some level of enhancement, maybe a Tesla making V12 noises or something, you have to think “hang on, this is just childish”.

[DonkeyApple]

DMZ said:

To me it seems Merc is focusing more on hybrids and specifically PHEV than anyone else. There are not many successful semi affordable performance hybrids out there so they are seemingly trying to break ground there too.

There's going to be a core demand for hybrids during the latter stages of the transition to the proposed ban on pure ICE sales and then any ICE. But the dates set are far too aggressive for most EU member states and in an economic downturn, most developed regions that have barely begun any kind of transition to date. So some kind of slippage on these dates is hardly implausible.

Germany and France are the two core EU economies and they've held on strongly to their 20th century car manufacturing industries and these massively underpin their GDP and are interwoven into their politics but they face two serious problems, the first is that EU manufacturing of simple products cannot compete against Asia. It doesn't matter how many regulations the EU pass to create complexity and difficulty or tariffs to further synthesise barriers to entry they cannot and will not stop the dominance of Chinese vehicles and the 2035 rules inadvertently work even further against them as China is the largest, cheapest and best EV manufacturer on the planet and controls many of the key resources. The second huge risk is that the EU isn't just France and Germany but around 30 much poorer nations all heavily in debt to France and Germany whose populations simply aren't likely to navigate the switch to EV without a very significant period of holding on to older cars and not buying anything new. When you just consider how far away markets like Spain are from beginning the transition to EV you can see that 2035 will be a consumer wall as opposed to a simple switch in demand from one product to another.

While this Merc doesn't really further the hybrid market in terms of eco credentials, it's certainly a really interesting hybrid product and it's good to see the tech being used to favour performance over EV range. In this regard it's a bit of a statement piece.

Is it also completely inconceivable that if EVs fail to reach free market commercial viability by 2035 or Germany's cosying up to China of the last twenty years goes the way of its sucking up to Russia and it loses access to key resources at competitive prices that the rules currently steering all new cars in Europe to be 100% battery powered come under emergency revision and the size of the battery pack in a car becomes a fraction of what is possible today and the industry falls back on super efficient, super small petrol units. Ie, this particular hybrid architecture toned down for economy.