The drive experience
The previous generation E63 AMG was quite a monster. The full blown sedan had more than 500 horses and a happy tail. Dab the pedal a little more than ideal on a turn, especially at slow speeds, and you would see her posterior swinging to one side. Driving this more powerful, twin turbo E-Class, on a racetrack which was wet, thanks to incessant rains, seemed like a perturbing thought in the beginning. Those apprehensions were going to evaporate soon.
At a standstill, the E63 AMG, while idling snarls in a muffled, but very assertive way. The bursts of burnt air from those angular quad exhausts come out in big, forceful chunks. Rev it and the sound gets louder, with a hoarse burbly note to it. It’s not blaringly loud yet extremely enticing, and the lightweight sports exhaust system has a characteristic eight cylinder AMG sound signature.
The cabin, however, is incredibly well insulated from outside noise, including that of the engine. Not necessarily a virtue though, for some of us like it loud in there when the sound is that of a big AMG engine. The cabin in incredibly refined and luxurious for a performance sedan. To start with, I put the car in a relatively sober S mode with dampers set to stiff.
I took the first corner with caution with the memories of the intimidating predecessor of this machine still fresh in my memory. The wet track was another reason why I wanted to observe discretion before letting this beauty stretch her legs.
By the time I took the uphill corner leading up to the long back-straight it was quite clear that I was driving a much more refined and balanced E63 this time around. Once on the long straight, I truly realized how quiet the cabin was. The tacho needle made some quick trips a little short of redline and with the speedo showing 230 km/h. 250 km/h is easily achievable here, but this one being the first lap of the drive, the driver in the lead car was very cautious with the brake lights coming on much before the turn. The sound inside was still surprisingly muffled, with the radio communications from the driver in the SLS AMG lead car clearly audible above the engine noise.
On the sharp downward curve after back-straight, I waited for the lead car to pull away, and turned in with a bit more speed and turn-in angle than ideal to see how the rear behaved. I felt just that mild hint of the boot’s proclivity to let itself out, but in a very predictable and enjoyable way. If you can control the posterior of your machine at high speeds on a racetrack, it would be one of the most enjoyable things you would ever experience in the world.
Around the next corner, which is a longish left-hand sweeper, I felt the body sway towards the right. There is a wee bit of body roll on this one, a tad more than I would have imagined, though it’s nothing worth a worry. The E63 handled the chicane that followed adeptly, changing direction in an impressively agile manner.
On the penultimate corner, which forms the crest of an elevated curve I was tempted to go sideways, especially with so much power in hand and the track conditions also favoring the trick. However, with a lead car in sight, I wasn’t supposed to, and I didn’t.
We entered the start-finish straight at a slow speed, with the lead car waiting for the rest of the cars to appear in his RVM. Once everyone appeared, the SLS AMG shot ahead. I switched into the S+ mode this time, and gunned the E63 behind the gull-winged exotic.
It’s surprising how the E63 builds speed from a standstill. Unlike other cars, it doesn’t thrust you back into the seats. Power and speeds builds up fast, but in a very deceptive, soft and beguiling manner. While we were not driving, and saw the cars speed through the start finish straight from the pit-lane the contraptions looked menacingly fast and violent.
As we braked hard entering into the first corner again, I heard the car kick-down violently, and in the process releasing the extra load of burnt gases in big bursts, making for an intoxicating aural experience. The turn in into the first corner was much faster this time, and by this time I was convinced that this E63 didn’t have even a shade of the menacing traits of its predecessor.
There was much more conviction in the rest of the drive. The 250km/h mark on the backstraight came easily, and I didn’t mind letting the tail out mildly a couple of times. We sure would have liked to drive the new E63 AMG a lot more, preferably without any leading or trailing cars in sight. But even during the short experience at the fab BIC, the E63 AMG managed to leave us amazed with its potent engine, unruffled demeanor and lithe handling.
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