The cabriolet has also been given a raft of styling upgrades to match its AMG billing. Its flared front wheel arches accommodate a front track that’s 58mm wider than the standard CLE’s and there is an AMG-specific front grille, deeper front and rear bumpers, enlarged air intakes, quad exhausts and new alloy wheel designs – available in 19in or 20in sizes.
Elsewhere, the car gets rear-wheel steering as standard, twin-chamber dampers configured to minimise body roll and larger brakes. An optional AMG performance package adds red brake calipers, a drift mode, a ‘race start’ function that lowers the 0-62mph time to 4.2sec, and specialised engine mounts for smoother performance.
Specific to the cabriolet, the driver can configure the car with Mercedes’ Aircap system, which uses a wind deflector to direct airflow away from the heads of the driver and passenger.
The fabric roof can be raised or lowered in 20sec, and the car’s leather-trimmed seats come with a coating that’s said to keep them 12deg C cooler than its untreated equivalent when in direct sunlight. As with the SL, it receives an 11.9in touchscreen, which can be adjusted between 12deg and 32deg of inclination from the vertical.
Mercedes has remained tight-lipped on pricing, but the coupé starts from £72,990 and we expect the cabriolet to command a premium of around £5000.