Mercedes-AMG C63 Coupe Review: The little kitten that loves to play

After being stuck indoors for days on end thanks to the novel coronavirus, small salvation came when we were allowed outside - some freedom, provided it was alone and away from people.

And just in time, Mercedes-Benz sent us the C63 AMG for the weekend. So I sat in and I drove off. I started off in comfort mode because I was at first within city limits, secondly, I wanted to see what most of us would be driving on a daily basis.

Before all that though, I had to start up the engine. And suffice to say the dog passing by almost jumped out of its skin - and that was on the normal sound, but I’ll get to that later.

Driving in comfort mode, the C63 feels tame. There are no unnecessary jerks and the engine, even with all of that power underneath feels like a mellow kitten just purring under the hood. The gear shifts are nice and smooth and everything is calm. At least until you really step on it. Because even in comfort mode the suspension is a little stiff and the bumps are thick on your bottom, this however helps when turning at a higher speed than expected. Then there is the kick-down acceleration. It takes a minute and that’s just a second too late for me, so I avoided overtaking unnecessarily.

While I was doing this, I took my time playing with the buttons on the steering wheel as well. The left side controls the infotainment system, while the right side controls the digital dash which has a lot of options to choose from. But my main focus was on the two little controls just below the spokes.

The one on the right is a knob that changes the driving mode and you can push it to go directly into ‘Individual’ or custom mode. The one on the left are a set of four buttons – two normal and two with built-in screens. Press the screen to change the function and press the button to switch on or off. This is where I decided to change the sound of the exhaust. Click that and there’s a rumble that puts a smile to your face no matter how pissed off you are at the guy who cut the line in front of you. And that’s how I drove till I was out of the city.

For anyone worried about the virus, I think I may need to mention here that the only time I stepped out of the car was when I found a secluded spot to click pictures. I did my duty and got back in.

By now, I was out of the city, obviously, so I decided to have some fun. I switched to Sport+ mode, turned off traction control, put the car in manual and left the side of the road like a bat out of hell. From that soft purring kitten a moment ago, this little coupe changes into a playful tiger waiting to get the jump on you. The steering wheel and suspension stiffens up, the gears shift faster and since you’re already in manual, you don’t have to bother about kick-down acceleration.

But what I really loved about the C63 is in the way it handles. The 4-litre twin-turbocharged V8 brings out all 476 horses and 650 Newtons to play. The car is capable of doing speeds of 250 km/h (290 km/h with the AMG Drivers’s package) and achieves a 100 in just 4 seconds. Cornering is more of a slide than a turn. The C63 just loves to throw its weight around and if you hit the accelerator too hard, too fast in the corner, you’ll find yourself counter steering like Sung Kang in Tokyo Drift. But on a public road, it reminded me of the character’s final moments in the film so it’s best left to a closed off road or, better yet, a track. But the car is grippy and if driven sensibly, it will stick to the tarmac and won’t scare your pants off.

Getting down to what will matter otherwise, now. The new Mercedes-AMG C63 gets a refreshed look for the new year and with that quite a few other changes. The front of the car has been redesigned to make it look wider while the rear axle itself is wider. It also gets the new panamericana grille giving it a face that matches the growl of the exhaust. This gives the C63 a low centre of gravity allowing you to do those slides we spoke about earlier. The rear gets a new quad exhaust, but the tips are fake. The real tips are a round and a square that sits behind the chrome on both sides. That probably had to be done to achieve the sound that we loved so much.

Going over the inside. You get a set of bucket seats for the front. It gets all kinds of adjustments too including adjustable lumbar support. The steering wheel is a nice flat bottomed unit and the infotainment system is nice and detailed. The interior colour on our test car too was a pretty black with yellow accents with a lot of carbon fibre elements littered throughout. The centre console though I wish was not that carbon fibre because it just seemed too glossy and left finger prints if I had to touch any of them.

Now the coupe, is a two-door car so getting in is obviously a little tight. But once there, I was surprised by how much space there actually was. The roof is sloped, so headroom is a slight problem, and if you are on the taller side you just have to sit lower in the seat because there is plenty of knee room in the back. But you can’t hold this position for long, so it’s probably best if you’re only planning to take one passenger.

In the end, the Mercedes-AMG C63 Coupe is an enthusiast’s car. It does offer an amount of luxury, but the C63 shines when it is being pushed and just feels a bit too expensive to be cruising around in. With someone who is just going to cruise around in the car, the C63 can be something flashy, but it will never be happy. The C63 needs to be driven hard and driven fast and despite the docile nature of the car, there is always an underlying rumble to hint at a lower gear and a higher speed.