2008 Mercedes-Benz CLK 63 AMG Black Series: An F1 Pace Car for the Masses! - Ignition Ep. 82 - video Dailymotion

MotorTrend

On this episode of Ignition

Transcript

00:00 [ENGINE REVVING]

00:02 This is the C63 Black Series, and it's

00:18 the fourth in the line of crazy, incredible vehicles

00:22 that bear that name.

00:23 Versus the standard C63, it's faster.

00:29 It's wider, and it just drives amazingly.

00:35 When you park it, though, and you're finished driving it,

00:38 you can finally get a chance to catch your breath.

00:40 You may wonder about its lineage.

00:42 What led to this insanity?

00:45 Let's find out.

00:46 [ENGINE REVVING]

00:49 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:52 That would be the CLK63 Black Series.

01:05 Actually, that's not technically correct.

01:07 The first Black Series was the SLK55,

01:10 but we never got that in the US, so we're not counting it.

01:13 The CLK63, then, doesn't it just look

01:15 incredible with these wide fender

01:17 flares and carbon fiber bits?

01:19 It actually might remind you of a certain pace car

01:21 that would appear during Formula One races in the late 2000s,

01:25 and that's actually the point.

01:27 You see, this is how Germany does a pace car.

01:29 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:33 The CLK63 on the figure eight.

01:44 Now we get a chance to push this car beyond its limit

01:51 and really explore what it can do.

01:54 It can do beautiful things.

01:55 [TIRES SCREECHING]

01:59 What I love about this driving experience

02:01 is that it feels so blunt, but at the same time, controllable.

02:06 You have this mechanical differential

02:09 that when it locks up, it tells you exactly

02:10 when it's going to happen.

02:13 You feel it through the steering.

02:14 You feel it through the rear end.

02:16 And also, the torque on tap can fix any understeer

02:19 that presents itself.

02:20 [TIRES SCREECHING]

02:23 Again, we see the responsiveness of the front axle

02:26 and the steering, the communication back to you,

02:30 and also the handling balance between the front tires

02:32 and the power to the rear.

02:34 It's a very, very good driving car.

02:40 The braking performance is OK if I'm talking specifically

02:44 about pedal control.

02:46 But the control you get through the pedal

02:48 and how it ties into the steering

02:50 makes this thing really fun and easy to drive around.

02:53 Also, when you want to drift it, you could do a lot of that.

03:02 But also, it's easy to restrain yourself, too.

03:06 [TIRES SCREECHING]

03:09 I adore this car.

03:14 Little bit understeer, little bit understeer.

03:19 But it's OK, because we have all that power.

03:23 [TIRES SCREECHING]

03:26 [MUSIC PLAYING]

03:31 [ENGINE REVVING]

03:35 Under the hood is a 6.2 liter V8 with 500 horsepower

03:42 and 478 pound feet of torque.

03:46 The exterior wears huge carbon fiber fenders and forged wheels,

03:50 while the rear seats are missing from the interior.

03:52 [TIRES SCREECHING]

03:55 It would do 60 miles an hour in 4.2 seconds, the quarter mile

03:59 in 12.6 seconds, and was electronically

04:02 limited at 186 miles an hour.

04:04 [MUSIC PLAYING]

04:07 [ENGINE REVVING]

04:12 What's interesting when you first hop in this car,

04:20 especially after having driven the C63 Black,

04:24 is that this feels a lot older than five years old.

04:27 [TIRES SCREECHING]

04:29 It has a lot of the classical Mercedes traits.

04:32 The leather certainly smells like an old Mercedes

04:34 with a faint tinge of crayon.

04:38 But there's something through that in how this car works

04:42 and behaves, which is so unlike most Mercedes

04:46 of this generation.

04:47 [TIRES SCREECHING]

04:50 We have, of course, the sound.

04:52 [ENGINE REVVING]

04:54 It's amazing.

04:55 Wonderful.

04:57 And it definitely set the pace for future AMGs and Black

05:01 series, that deep, guttural growl under throttling

05:04 of backfires you get when you lift.

05:06 [TIRES SCREECHING]

05:08 But I'm most in love with the way this front end feels

05:12 and how responsive it is.

05:14 There's just so much accuracy in the front axle

05:17 and so much control that I feel like I can place

05:20 this car wherever I want.

05:22 [TIRES SCREECHING]

05:23 And that's interesting because, honestly, the steering

05:26 isn't that great.

05:27 [TIRES SCREECHING]

05:30 It's interesting because the C63 feels more precise.

05:38 It doesn't have a lot of hydraulic noise coming back

05:42 through the wheel itself.

05:44 And because of that, you can place it

05:46 on the road really nicely.

05:47 Whereas this, the steering wheel is doing all kinds of things.

05:51 There's all kinds of feedback coming through.

05:55 And it's not bad.

05:56 It's just different.

05:57 This is what old steering racks feel like in old sports cars.

06:01 [TIRES SCREECHING]

06:04 Let's talk about the interior because there's some details

06:06 in here that I just adore.

06:08 The steering wheel, for starters, it's kind of oblong.

06:11 It's not circular.

06:13 It's flattened on the top and the bottom.

06:15 The bottom actually is flat.

06:17 [TIRES SCREECHING]

06:19 [TIRES SCREECHING]

06:21 And when you're really powering this car,

06:24 you feel like you might be in a modern race car,

06:27 seeing how some of the DTM cars and F1 cars are set up.

06:30 [TIRES SCREECHING]

06:33 The paddle shifters fall right in your hand.

06:36 Although, to be honest, this seven-speed automatic

06:39 is really showing its age.

06:42 It doesn't give you the fast shift response

06:45 that you'd like.

06:46 [TIRES SCREECHING]

06:49 But I can live with that.

06:51 It's OK because it tells me that this car wasn't purpose-built

06:55 from the ground up.

06:56 It was put together to work a specific way.

06:58 I kind of like having the traits from the standard CLK.

07:02 [TIRES SCREECHING]

07:04 But anyway, back to the interior.

07:07 The shifter is just hilarious.

07:09 You have these little vacuum bristles in the gate.

07:11 And this really dinky little shift knob that works.

07:16 It works really well.

07:17 And it makes you wonder why modern shift knobs have

07:19 to be so big when this little guy

07:21 does the job just perfectly.

07:25 And it's also kind of funny in contrast

07:27 to the big power and big displacement out

07:29 of this 6.2 liter and this little tiny shift knob.

07:32 It's kind of cute.

07:33 [TIRES SCREECHING]

07:36 [MUSIC PLAYING]

07:39 There's the power band, of course.

07:48 We have so much horsepower and so much torque.

07:52 You actually don't need to go searching for a red line

07:54 too often.

07:55 It sounds nice when you do it, but you don't need to do it.

07:57 This thing pulls very nicely from 3,000 RPM.

08:03 Now, the C63 and the CLK both have the 6.2 liter V8.

08:07 Different generations, though.

08:08 And the C63 makes more power.

08:13 They feel pretty similar, though, honestly,

08:15 in terms of power delivery.

08:17 Although the transmissions certainly affect that.

08:19 The gear changes here are a little bit sloppier

08:24 and happen a lot more slowly, whereas the C63

08:27 feels sharper and more precise.

08:30 Still, it's the handling in this car that is so enjoyable.

08:35 It ties the whole thing together.

08:38 I have a confidence in this car that few cars can give you.

08:42 And it's weird when you consider how heavy it is

08:44 and how much power it has.

08:48 But for some reason, the things that hurt it,

08:51 the things that sort of make it slower, less desirable

08:54 individually, as a whole, when they come together,

08:57 they make the car really desirable, really fun.

09:01 It's a strange phenomenon, but it's absolutely true.

09:05 [MUSIC PLAYING]

09:08 The CLK Black Series is a very special car,

09:26 one that leaves a lasting impression for multiple reasons.

09:29 There's the thrilling experience it gives to the driver,

09:32 the level of confidence from the communication and the grip,

09:35 and the deep, booming engine note.

09:36 All these combine to make a very rewarding car.

09:39 [ENGINE REVVING]

09:42 Then there's the reason why it exists.

09:46 It's an F1 pace car for the road.

09:48 And as far as origin stories go, that's

09:50 got to be one of the best.

09:51 [TIRES SCREECHING]

09:55 What's more, the line of cars that have followed the CLK

09:57 have been just as impressive.

09:59 From the hugely enjoyable C63 to the mighty SLS,

10:04 all we want to know is, what's next?

10:06 [ENGINE REVVING]

10:09 I love driving this car.

10:21 If anybody on YouTube has a CLK 63 Black Series

10:25 that they just want to get rid of, let me know.

10:27 This is one of my favorite cars.

10:32 It's really cool.

10:34 This just has character.

10:35 It has a persona on top of driving really well.

10:38 It has history.

10:39 And it's really fun.

10:41 It checks all the boxes, so to speak.

10:43 [ENGINE REVVING]

10:46 (electronic music)

2008 Mercedes-Benz CLK 63 AMG Black Series: An F1 Pace Car for the Masses! - Ignition Ep. 82

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