Let’s not beat about the bush. You’re here because you want to know if a four-pot can really replace the legendary V8. And well, there’s no escaping it: even with all its turbo whistles and synthesised noise, the new Mercedes-AMG C63 doesn’t sound as special as it would have done with a V8.
Mercedes-AMG knows this. “Our customers come from a V8 sound, and of course this four-cylinder isn’t going to have this V8 sound any more,” says AMG product manager Arne Wiebking. “But it’s a transition. We all know that at some point in the future, V8s will have to be gone for good, and this is our interpretation of what a performance car needs to look like in today’s world.”
Truth be told, from inside the C63 and in Race (aka full angry) mode, it does sound good. It’s synthesised, but in a believable way. AMG hasn’t made a bad pastiche of a V8: instead there are notes of V6, of Weber-carbed twin cam, overlaid with some turbo whistles and even some flat four, like a car show having a rev battle.
It stands comparison with the BMW M3’s straight six, which in its current turbocharged form is also a far cry from the snorting E46 M3 CSL.
There’s no doubt that, having lost its unique V8 calling card, the C63 needs to impress even more in other areas.
Our driver, René Szczepek, AMG’s head of vehicle dynamics, starts out in EV mode, and although the smooth roads of AMG’s proving ground aren’t the most challenging surface, it’s notable how quiet it is inside and how composed the 20in wheels remain when thumping over drainage covers.
Szczepek is particularly proud of the GT3-style dampers in the new C63, explaining: “Damping is the game we really wanted to invest in, because you gain so much character of the car by just having good dampers. How confident you are in the car, how good you feel going into a corner, you need that feedback from the axles. And that’s one thing we as a performance brand can’t lose in this new game [of electrified performance cars].”