First Drive Review
On October 5, 1979, stuntman Kenny Powers attempted to jump the St. Lawrence River, a fiasco that was years in the making and cost in excess of a million dollars. From today’s vantage, the notion of traveling more than a mile in the air in an automobile is out-crazied only by the choice of vehicle, a Lincoln Continental Mark IV (jet powered, natch) that broke apart and crashed into the river seconds after leaving the launch ramp. We are unsure whether this serves as the zenith of the personal luxury coupe movement, or the nadir. Maybe both.
Were we planning to re-create the “Super Jump,” we might start by acquiring a 2015 Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG coupe. There are many choices in big, powerful, and indulgent today, but few that can outdo this AMG version of Mercedes’ two-door S-class on all three criteria. The S63 AMG coupe shares a mechanical package with the similarly named sedan, principally its 5.5-liter twin-turbocharged V-8. With 577 horsepower and 664 lb-ft of torque at the behest of its sharp throttle, this is about as close to a jet engine as you’ll find in a street-legal automobile, surely enough to hurtle the big Merc as far into the drink as the Super Jump Lincoln made it.
We haven’t weighed it yet, but Mercedes says the S63 AMG coupe is as much as 140 pounds lighter than the CL63 AMG model it replaces in the lineup, and the company’s own spec sheet indicates that the S63 coupe is more than 200 pounds lighter than the S63 sedan. All the weight-saving measures from the sedan are carried into the coupe, including its aluminum body and front structure and a lithium-ion battery. Curb weight of a U.S.-spec car is bound to be more than 4500 pounds, which seems light only if you’re comparing it with a 40-year-old Lincoln. Or a Bentley Continental GT Speed, which is undoubtedly Mercedes’ preference.
The seven-speed AMG Speedshift MCT transmission (with a wet starting clutch instead of a torque converter) and engine stop-start tech also carry over from the sedan, as does a performance-tuned 4MATIC four-wheel-drive system that sends 67 percent of the torque to the rear axle. No rear-drive S63 AMG will be available. The coupe rides 0.4 inch lower than the sedan, and the front wheels have more negative camber for improved cornering. Mercedes says the S63 AMG coupe has a governed top speed of 155 mph, which can be upgraded to 186, and we estimate it will do 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds. It lacks launch control, like the sedan, a strange omission given that adding the feature wouldn’t involve any extra hardware, just programming.
Beautifully Fast
The coupe drives similarly to the sedan, but better. The two-door’s 115.9-inch wheelbase is 8.7 inches shorter, and the difference in maneuverability and cornering is profound. Steering has been improved, with a bit more feedback now filtering through a heavier helm. The wheel itself has been upgraded, with a new three-spoke, flat-bottom unit that replaces the weird two-spoke piece from the standard S-class sedan. A two-stage exhaust is quiet by competitive standards, but under full throttle, more of the V-8 rumble penetrates the otherwise silent cockpit than in any previous S-class. The S63 AMG coupe handles superbly for a car of this size, its brake-based torque vectoring helping to rotate its voluptuous body around turns and the air suspension doing a formidable job of minimizing squat, dive, or roll.
Impacts come hard, however, with the firmer of the AMG’s suspension settings transmitting enough jostling to the cabin that the Comfort mode is often preferable to Sport. Driven aggressively, the transmission is quick to shift and isn’t in a fuel-economy-optimized rush to land in the highest gear prematurely, even when it’s not in manual mode. However, the MCT still isn’t as smooth at lower speeds as the standard car’s torque-converter automatic is. We noticed that the thick A-pillars block the view through some corners, but otherwise, the cabin offers the same first-class amenities as those of the S63 AMG sedan.
Big on Style
Can you call yourself a daredevil without offering at least the prospect of a good-looking corpse? The S-class coupe is indeed a gorgeous design for a full-figured four-seater. Two main lines peel back from the front fender in convex and concave opposition, breaking up the huge expanses of sheetmetal and giving the S-class coupe a familial connection to the compact CLA-class. A fantastically long hood and a sleek greenhouse accentuate the B-pillarless coupe’s truncated rear. The S63 AMG coupe is 9.5 inches shorter than the S63 AMG sedan, although it’s still an enormous car, being more than 16.5 feet long. True sports cars are mere pygmies when parked next to this Amazonian touring car.
Mercedes has yet to announce pricing for the S63 AMG coupe, although it’s likely to be more than the outgoing CL63 AMG’s $155,525 (and if you have to ask…). It’s the nature of ultra-high-end cars like this that every aspect is so completely over the top as to be irreproachable, and for the most part, this one is. However, once you reach the pointy end of performance where these cars play, it’s inevitable that the separation in dynamic capabilities between the S63 AMG coupe and regular S550 coupe is not so vast. Certainly, the jump between other Mercedes models a little farther down the food chain and their AMG counterparts is a more impressive stunt.
