AMG C63: 450 HP C-Class at your service
After several other tuners have had their say, AMG finally checks in with a horsepower number for the C63: 450. By comparison, the E63 AMG gets 507 hp and takes $83K to become part of the family. The C63 AMG will cost about $20K less, so in order not to offend its bigger brother (and their owners), the AMG V8 has been detuned. That is 20 more than was originally rumored, and 57 less than the E63 AMG. Word is that it will also be differentiated slightly from other AMG's by wearing a mildly restyled bodykit, but will get the quad-pipes to match the rest of the AMG range. The car will be revealed (finally!) at Frankfurt, later this year.
[Source: Benz Insider]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
srivendel 8:02AM (5/01/2007)
It appears you've managed to post a picture of an S-Class, and not the upcoming C-Class.
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Chris G. 8:03AM (5/01/2007)
My God, they weren't kidding when they said the new C-Class looks like a baby S-Class. Oh, wait...
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Chris G. 8:04AM (5/01/2007)
Damn, srivendel, ya beat me to it.
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Mondo 8:10AM (5/01/2007)
That is the new C-class. However, I would think they would do the AMG tuning to a C-class Sport instead which has the Mercedes emblem on the grill as opposed to the hood ornament.
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Josiah 8:17AM (5/01/2007)
Is anyone else not excited about yet another AMG from Mercedes? It's a great car/engine and all but seriously, they tack AMG on every single model and it's just not special anymore. The same criticism I have for Mercedes extends to BMW and Audi who are both in the process of making a special M or S version of every model they sell. I love power and performance but you lose something *special* when all of your car models have the same performance V8 or V10 and are just tuned slightly different.
*yawn
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garlinski 8:29AM (5/01/2007)
That looks like an S65 to me... If you squint you can see a V12 on the fender.... Not that I would kick it out of the garage or anything....
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srivendel 9:03AM (5/01/2007)
Mondo, I promise you it's an S-Class.
Here's an S-Class:
http://cdn.channel.aol.com/channels/0d/03/4575a3f0-002bd-021af-400cb8e1
And here's the new C-Class:
http://www.caranddriver.com/assets/image/2007/Q1/031320071952254380.jpg
Compare the mirrors and headlights on the two cars and you can see that the one Autoblog posted is obviously an S-Class. It is funny, though, that we are even having this debate. Nice job, Mercedes! I can have S-Class style for 1/3 the price.
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Scott 9:05AM (5/01/2007)
Josiah,
Where have you seen a BMW M7, M(X5) or M(X3)? BMW doesn't M-tune it's SUVs or executive sedans (7-series) like Benz, and neither does Audi for that matter.
That said, I don't see anything wrong with what AMG does (other than it seems silly to put that kind of drive train in an old man's car with handling more in common with a boat than a track car).
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BKadalur 9:20AM (5/01/2007)
is this going to be like the e46 3-series that had the same engine, one was detuned. the 325i could have a simple injector and ecu remap to get it to the same status of the 330i. if that's the case for this, i have a feeling there might be a few voided warranties out there.
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dani 9:27AM (5/01/2007)
Audi and BMW do tune their cars, just not the full lineup:
Audi: S3, S4, RS4, S6, RS6 (soon), S8
BMW: M3, M5, M6
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MikeW 10:05AM (5/01/2007)
I bet MB-AMG took out the dual length intake runner, so the resultant runner length compromises peak torque and peak power.
Unless there are actual technical differences, like exhaust manifold or pipe sizes, air filter size, etc.
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Mondo 9:33AM (5/01/2007)
srivendel- You're right of course. And, that does support your point of styling and the lack of differentiation.
I originally thought separating the C-class into 2 slightly different body styles was a good idea until the non-sport version is laid side-by-side with the S-class.
All that being said I wouldn't pay the Merc premium (AMG or not) for a C-class. I always tell my friends "Don't buy a $30k Mercedes (35k? 40k now?) because there are similar priced cars out there that give you a lot more value (performance, styling, creature comforts) for the money.
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Josiah 9:35AM (5/01/2007)
My overall point about these special edition cars is that it used to be well...special.
The old model was ....manufacturer would make a car, and due to cost/mass production limits would settle on a certain engine/suspension/braking configuration. This new model would be released and then the car maker take that existing vehicle and modify the setup to achieve the maximum power/handling they could achieve with the platform. The idea being that they took a good car and made it great with a lot of tweaking and hard work.
Now this model worked, consumers loved it (like I do) and so car makers expanded this logic and started to release more special performance editions of more cars. The problems with this is the lack of effort and *uniqueness (not sure if that's a word) in these new performance models. I used to think that a BMW M3 was special, but now Mercedes and other manufacturers simply drop a huge engine sourced from another car in their lineup, super size the brakes, drop the suspension slap a AMG/M/SRT whatever badge on it and charge $20K more.
Frankly it bores me and as a potential customer I would be less likely to think I'm driving something special, something engineers spent thousands of hours tuning, tweaking and eeking out as much power as the platform could handle.
To make matters worse, with M and AMG versions up and down the price scale, these car makers will simply drop the HP by 60 so the model below doesn't compete with the next model up the scale. Does that seem like 'passion for performance' to you?
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garlinski 9:55AM (5/01/2007)
I agree with the "specialness" argument. But the AMG line-up is like Audi's "S" line now. Or is it the other way around... Anyway, there are MORE SPECIAL AMG's out there like the S65, SL65, CL65 and the Black Series. There isn't a watered down 65 in the line up like the 63... As for the CL65 40th Anniversary Edition... Sign me up.
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Jeremy 9:46AM (5/02/2007)
This post has been up for almost a whole day, why hasn't Autoblog changed the S-Class? Is this intentional or is AutoBlog just not reading their comments.
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