ROAD TEST: Hidden beast breaks cover - BDlive
While Audi’s B7 RS4 was a great package that took the fight directly to the then E90 BMW M3, Mercedes-Benz brought its own salvo in the form of the C63 AMG. The latter was essentially a hot-rod muscle car cloaked in an executive suit and could easily pass for anything other than the high-performance, tyre-shredding muscle car that it was. Let’s face it, 336kW and 600Nm in a compact sports saloon is nothing to be sneezed at today, let alone back in 2008 when it was launched locally. However, the current M3 is the one to beat in the segment, and having driven the new AMG C63 at its international launch in Portugal earlier this year, I deemed it to be an everyday, useable performance saloon. For starters, the new C63 is somewhat of an incognito car and unless you know how to spot the subtle differences, you will be hard-pressed to tell it apart from a more mundane C-Class with an AMG package. Slightly longer than the regular C-Class due to the increased bonnet length to be able to shoehorn in that lusty 4. 0l biturbo V8 from the AMG GT, the model has a few visual venom elements to display its pecking order. At the front is an AMG specific grille, replete with an AMG insignia, then you have the longitudinal bonnet ridges, the V8 biturbo lettering on the flanks and quad exhausts at the rear. Source: www.bdlive.co.za
