Back To AMG-Black
August 04, 2008
Excuse me for quoting myself, but when I wrote about the wet weekend I spent in Mercedes-Benz's super-CLK coupe, the 378kW, rear-drive race-ready 63 AMG Black Series, I ended by saying: "I need some more. And a nice day".
Through circumstances, good luck and sheer cheek (I won't elaborate), I actually got one of those things last week: another go in the CLK Black. What I didn't get what the good weather. In fact, I had the mad Merc over two days of 120km/h storms whipping through Auckland.
The Black shared garage space with the Audi RS6. Bit of a novelty having half a million dollars worth of car out front of the house, but only one was any good in those kind of conditions. The V10 RS6 simply shrugged off the holocaust conditions; the C 63 Black spent most of its time on about a quarter turn of opposite lock, struggling to maintain traction on slippery roads.
Which did I clock the most kays in? Need you ask? No substitute for 48 hours of oversteer. Black it was.
But something interesting happened during my Black encore. Mercedes-Benz AMG announced the third in the Black Series: a monster race-inspired version of the SL roadster, with a 6.0-litre V12 twin-turbo engine making 493kW/1000Nm. As with the other Black models (there's also been an SLK Black, although it was never seen here), it's been stripped-out to save weight and tweaked for the ultimate in driver involvement.
Compared with the powerplant in the standard SL 65 AMG, new turbochargers were developed for the Black Series engine and there's a new exhaust.
The regular SL has a folding hard-top. The Black doesn't - instead, it has a lightweight carbon-fibre fixed roof that has a unique profile. And looks way-cool.
The carbon rear spoiler, concealed in the boot lid, automatically extends 120mm at 120km/h, reducing the lift force on the rear axle at high speeds.
Apparently, Mercedes-Benz New Zealand has put its hand up for the SL 65 Black already, despite a likely price in excess of $600,000.
Which kind of highlights the problem with these super-exclusive "best of the best" supercars. They all do amazing things on road and track, but a big part of the appeal must be knowing that you have the ultimate car in a model line.
The CLK 63 AMG Black was launched as the ultimate CLK and the flagship for the Black Series. As of last week, it's only one of those things.
And scary as it might seem, there will eventually be a Black even more extreme than the SL 65 AMG version.
What this means to you: The old gunslingers' adage still holds true: doesn't matter how fast you are, there will always be someone faster around the corner.
Through circumstances, good luck and sheer cheek (I won't elaborate), I actually got one of those things last week: another go in the CLK Black. What I didn't get what the good weather. In fact, I had the mad Merc over two days of 120km/h storms whipping through Auckland.
The Black shared garage space with the Audi RS6. Bit of a novelty having half a million dollars worth of car out front of the house, but only one was any good in those kind of conditions. The V10 RS6 simply shrugged off the holocaust conditions; the C 63 Black spent most of its time on about a quarter turn of opposite lock, struggling to maintain traction on slippery roads.
Which did I clock the most kays in? Need you ask? No substitute for 48 hours of oversteer. Black it was.
But something interesting happened during my Black encore. Mercedes-Benz AMG announced the third in the Black Series: a monster race-inspired version of the SL roadster, with a 6.0-litre V12 twin-turbo engine making 493kW/1000Nm. As with the other Black models (there's also been an SLK Black, although it was never seen here), it's been stripped-out to save weight and tweaked for the ultimate in driver involvement.
Compared with the powerplant in the standard SL 65 AMG, new turbochargers were developed for the Black Series engine and there's a new exhaust.
The regular SL has a folding hard-top. The Black doesn't - instead, it has a lightweight carbon-fibre fixed roof that has a unique profile. And looks way-cool.
The carbon rear spoiler, concealed in the boot lid, automatically extends 120mm at 120km/h, reducing the lift force on the rear axle at high speeds.
Apparently, Mercedes-Benz New Zealand has put its hand up for the SL 65 Black already, despite a likely price in excess of $600,000.
Which kind of highlights the problem with these super-exclusive "best of the best" supercars. They all do amazing things on road and track, but a big part of the appeal must be knowing that you have the ultimate car in a model line.
The CLK 63 AMG Black was launched as the ultimate CLK and the flagship for the Black Series. As of last week, it's only one of those things.
And scary as it might seem, there will eventually be a Black even more extreme than the SL 65 AMG version.
What this means to you: The old gunslingers' adage still holds true: doesn't matter how fast you are, there will always be someone faster around the corner.
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