On this episode of Ignition
Category
đźš—
MotorTranscript
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)