The Mercedes-Benz E63S 4Matic+AMG is an utterly crazy car. But is it the best crazy car out thereIJ
We are told that Teslas have a “ludicrous” Mode, where the battery discharges electricity to the motors and gives a huge boost to power. And while it took a long time for electric cars to make such a mode possible, it is mechanically and physically easier than what the new Mercedes-Benz E63S AMG does. This, and keep in mind that this is a two-ton luxury sedan, at full-bore, can go from a standing start to 100 km per hour in 3.4 seconds. That is faster than some proper supercars out there.
Think about it, the amount of precise mechanical movement that gets done for something like this to happen. First, on the Budhh International Circuit, a car like the E63S will go through a litre of the best petrol just on the kilometre-long back straight if your right foot is planted on the floor. And that just takes a few seconds, really. Ask yourself if you can drink a litre of water in a few seconds. Most cars have thin fuel lines running from the tank to the engine, not this one.
Think of the engine, to be able to feed fuel inside a turbocharged V8 at quite a rate of knots and having that engine constantly revolve 8,000 times a minute. An engine that while supercharged produces a scarcely believable 612 horsepower. Get your head around that for a second, six hundred and twelve horsepower. Any which way you slice or dice it, that is a lot of power. And all this while you are ensconced in fairly decent luxury and listening to music through a brilliant Burmeister system.
So, in essence that is the ludicrousness of this car. It is a comfortable, expensive but comfortable car that in an instant converts itself into something brutal. If there was a automotive representation of Hannibal lecter, this is it. Of course, to tame that amount of power, the E63S has Mercedes’ 4Matic+ intelligent four-wheel drive system. like in the new BMW M5, this is slightly biased towards the rear wheels and there is a button that transfers all the power to the rear wheels. While we were not allowed to use it, the latest E63 has a “Drift Mode” to remind us of its drift friendly predecessors, particularly the last-generation E63, because the fact is that even on “Sport+” mode, with the traction control partially disabled, things that you should only ever do on a racetrack or closed road, the 4Matic+ system keeps the car within some semblance of bounds. Even if you attack a corner like a madman, you will not leave a brown stain on the seat.
Of course, some things have changed in the new car, the engine is now a four-litre dual-turbocharged (BiTurbo as Merc calls it) V8, which has the ability to switch off cylinders when you are cruising around. On the inside, the new car is certainly more luxurious and the large screens that double up as the instrument panel and infotainment display can show you a wealth of information and allow you to change a whole host of settings. This car might be the pinnacle of the internal combustion engine invented by one of this company’s founders, but this is also a full techno-geek spaceship. You can watch various statistics if you want on the display, but when you are driving full-bore down the BIC, you are more concerned about the next apex.
There are some negatives though. I actually have driven the new BMW M5 which is, if anything, more brutal even though that was partially due to the fact that I drove that on the far more technically demanding Estoril circuit in Germany. Sure, the M5 is a little teensy bit down on power compared to the E63S and while it is also four-wheel drive, the ability to change modes is up close and personal on the steering wheel of the M5. Both cars are wolves in sheep’s clothing but the M5 does look a bit more of the part. And when it comes to cornering, the M5 even on the “moderate” M mode is properly scary, let alone what happens on the “insane” M mode.
Mercedes-Benz India does try to incentivise you to buy the Rs 1.5 crore E63S, which is around six lakhs more than the BMW M5 and ten lakhs less than the Audi RS7 by providing a Rs 88,000 two-year service package for the car with unlimited mileage. Of course, that will not take care of the inevitable tires that you will wear out and the extraordinary quantities of fuel you will need to buy, but this is a fun car. However, 600+ horsepower on a sedan is bonkers and I can assure you with confidence that you will never need so much power in India. This is why Mercedes sells a more sedate AMG, the ‘43’ series. And that has become pretty popular with folks because believe it or not, of the 16,000 cars that Mercedes-Benz sold in India last year, 400 were AMGs and the average age of the buyerIJ Just 30.
It is pretty cool that Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi still make cars like these that are more than supercars, completely play around with physics and what a car can or cannot do, particularly at a time that even petrolheads are extolling the virtues of electric and hybrid cars. And for that I’m grateful.