The powerful 5.5-litre motor propels you forward with ferocious intensity and takes split-seconds to reach three-digit speeds. After my first taste of the E63’s dynamic ability and ceaseless flow of torque, I thank god and the Stuttgart engineers for the stabilising system which keep all that torque being transmitted to the rear wheels in check. On occasions when I got carried away and accelerated harder than I should have, the humongous torque makes the car twitch for traction. Instantly, much to my relief, the ESP brings it back in control and the SPEEDSHIFT sensing lack of traction shifts a little earlier than the 6,500-RPM red-line. With the pedal to the metal, the firm suspension and electronically controlled damping iron out body-roll and offer great composure, though sometimes it tends to ski over road undulations. The handling is really impressive as I didn’t feel the size or weight of this luxury saloon, as it darted around corners with surgical precision. The three-stage, speed-sensitive rack and pinion steering is direct and fairly precise. It remains light at slower speeds and weighs up as I increase the speed. Though it communicates much better than the usual steering found on other E-Class models, it still isn’t on par with competition.
The AMG RIDE CONTROL offers five modes: Comfort, Sport, Sport Plus, Manual and the track-ready ‘RS’. ‘Comfort’ makes the gear shifts relaxed, while ‘Sport’ and ‘Sport Plus’ stiffen the suspension further for a more level ride during cornering and keep the motor on the ball, rearing to leap at your order with lighting fast gear shifts to back it up. Then you can switch the ESP into ‘Sports Handling’ mode if you enjoy a bit more of twitching (read: drifting), as the E63 is a perfect tool if you like sticking the tail out of the car if the road permits.
As the name suggests, in ‘Manual’ you get to shift the gears using the steering-mounted, all-aluminium paddle shifters. RS or ‘Race Start’ is essentially launch control. There is also a dedicated ‘AMG’ button, which preps the car to its ultimate sporty setup as it engages the Sport Plus and ESP at the press of a button. Keeping the AMG promise the E63 blitzes from 0-100 km/h in a shattering 4.89 seconds! To give you a perspective, the E200 achieves it in over 10 seconds. The AMG dashes to 200 km/h in 14.53 seconds and takes just 25 seconds to reach its electronically limited top speed of 245 km/h. This is really exciting to drive. Imagining this big four-door saloon weighing a good 1,845 kg cover a kilometre in just 19.18 seconds with a true speed of 242.52 km/h simply feels astonishing.
The brakes are terrific with proper pedal feel and fantastic stopping power. During the test, which included pulling the reins from the very high, there were no signs of fade. In fact, the E63 did a splendid job of bringing the car from 100 to 0 km/h in just 3.14 seconds and travelling just 37.34 metres. And once I had my fill, I simply switched to ‘Comfort’ and started to cruise ‘comfortably’ back to office and the gearbox eased out and the RPM needle hovering around the 1,500-RPM mark. Just wish the suspension wasn’t as stiff now. The best fuel efficiency figure we could coax out of the E63 AMG was 6.5 km/l on the highway, but in the city it returned a meagre 3.5 km/l. With the 66-litre fuel tank it gets a poor range of just 429 km.
Since the E63 AMG is imported as a completely built-up unit (CBU), it attracts huge duties and taxes in India, taking the ex-showroom price to an astronomical Rs 1.29 crore. Though it costs twice the amount of regular E-Class, it also is double the fun to drive. A ratio that makes perfect sense for AMG devotees.
What raises the E63 to the top rung of the E-Class pecking order is AMG’s 5.5-litre, twin-turbo V8 motor under the hood, which churns out rear-wheel shredding 557 PS and 720 Nm of torque
Story: Sarmad Kadiri
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
