Two Sides of the Mercedes Benz

>>"Don’t park it under oak or pine trees. We don’t want sap dripping onto it. And be very, very careful with this one. It’s almost $100,000," the representative said before delivering the Mercedes-Benz CLK63 AMG High Performance Cabriolet.

At $98,245, the car doesn’t shout its worth in a flashy way, yet a brief test drive confirms why it costs so much.

AMG is a division that takes production cars from Mercedes-Benz and turns them into executive hot rods. Under the hood of this CLK63 was a big 6.2-liter, 32-valve V8 that is hand-built. It produces 475 horsepower at 6,800 rpm. Its torque is a stump-pulling 465 foot-pounds at 5,200 rpm. This is a very powerful car.

On a deserted stretch of road, I pressed the accelerator to the floorboard while rolling at about 5 mph. The lightweight AMG hesitated the briefest of split seconds before turning loose its rush of power, pinning me back in the driver’s seat. I felt a gear shift from the seven-speed automatic transmission and glanced quickly at a speedometer needle rapidly sweeping clockwise. Then—in a rare instance for me—I felt the blood draining from my head. I backed off the accelerator and pulled onto a side road. Blinked. Took some deep breaths.

Whoa. How did that happen? I’ve driven Dodge Vipers and turbocharged Porsches under all-out acceleration and never had the blood drain like that. I turned the Mercedes back onto the empty stretch of road and again slammed the accelerator as my turn straightened out. The car blasted forward, and I felt that dimness start again. This car is so blazingly quick that it could get me killed, I concluded.

The CLK63 is the fastest four-passenger car I’ve ever driven, but a buyer will pay for that in several ways. If you really want a performance car that seats four in comfort and can drop the top in the time it takes a stoplight to change, this deserves consideration. For most people, though, it’s wretched excess.