Edmunds Inside Line - First Drive: 2008 Mercedes-Benz CLK63 AMG Black Series

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Meats the Road

For all the added pace of the CLK Black Series, it's the handling that really steals the show. No Mercedes-Benz model — SLR included — offers such rabid response or poise at the limit as this car. It's reflected in Moers' claim that the Black Series can lap the Nürburgring in just 7 minutes, 52 seconds. By way of comparison, the Porsche 911 GT3 is said to be capable of 7 minutes, 47 seconds in the right hands.

As the substantial wheel arches suggest, there have been some major revisions underneath the car, with the front track widened by 3.0 inches and the rear track increased by 2.6 inches, largely a function of the wide wheel rims. The C-Class-based suspension has been heavily reconfigured, and screw-type adjusters for the springs afford adjustable ride height, while the dampers have adjustable compression and rebound. The front suspension permits camber adjustment, while both front and rear track can be slightly changed as well. Sturdy strut braces front and rear also contribute a useful amount of chassis rigidity.

It's a track setup, really, adapted largely from Mercedes-Benz's F1 pace car but with some special attention given to items like the front wheel bearings, which will also be incorporated into the forthcoming C63 AMG. On the road, the ride harshness tells you immediately that the spring rates are much stiffer, yet there is sufficient wheel travel to ensure you are not banged about too badly on pockmarked bitumen. There are 265/30ZR19 Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires under the front fenders and even wider 285/30ZR19s in the rear — R-type rubber that's designed for ultimate grip.

Spearing through some tricky switchbacks in the mountains on the outskirts of Los Angeles, the new AMG coupe proves remarkably agile. The steering is massively improved — a little slow coming off the center as you turn in, but possessing a crisp feeling of detail from the road surface that makes the steering of just about every other Mercedes-Benz seem prosaic. The wider track helps, Tobias Moers says, effectively making the power-assisted rack-and-pinion steering around 8 percent quicker.

Such confidence-building dynamics and prodigious purchase on the pavement allow you to carry big speed into corners and then plant the throttle early for romping exits. Meanwhile, an array of driver aids, including a specially calibrated ESP, are nowhere near as intrusive as they are in the standard CLK63 AMG, so it's possible to provoke lurid oversteer in the right conditions.

While the appeal of the standard CLK63 AMG depends largely on its heroic engine, the Black Series has the dynamics in the corners to back up its straight-line speed. Unlike so many track-ready cars, the Black Series makes you look forward to a lot more time behind the wheel.

Time To Get in Line

The bad news is, the 2007 Mercedes-Benz CLK63 AMG Black Series will do a $135,000 dance on your checkbook, a $45,025 premium over the CLK63 AMG Cabriolet. In fact, you could buy both an Audi RS 4 and the new fourth-generation BMW M3 for the same price.

Madness, you say.

Perhaps, but Mercedes-Benz is adamant there is a market for the car, and a production run of 700 cars has been planned. Mario Spitzner, AMG's marketing manager, says he has already taken 300 orders for the car from U.S. customers, and only 350 examples of the CLK63 AMG Black Series are allotted to North America.

We're telling you, get in line right now.

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