Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Black Series review

Ah, the unflinching enigma that is a Black Series AMG Mercedes. Good car, duff car, outstanding car: Black Series AMGs have been them all. Which will the latest C63 AMG be?
AMG introduced the Black Series in 2006 as a way of making its existing models one step more extreme. They’ve all been two-door models and only one has been on sale at a time. The SLK55 AMG was the first, limited to 120 units, and it was followed by the CLK63, one of our favourite cars of 2007. Some 700 were sold. Then came the SL65 AMG (with, like the SLK55 Black, a fixed roof) of 2008. There was a pause during the SLS’s release, but now Black Series cars are back on the agenda.

We already know that this, the C63 AMG Black Series, is one of the best. We’ve already driven the hardcore £100k coupé extensively on road and track, and it has entertained us greatly. We should have expected as much: lineage suggests it.
The C63 Black’s most obvious predecessor from all Black Series models is the CLK63 – so far, the best of the breed, and the most similar in ethos to the C63. Both are stiff, medium-sized coupés to begin with.
But regardless of the fact that this model has already amused us, there are sound reasons for conducting a full road test on the C63 Black Series. We wanted to know how it holds up to extended circuit use. We’d like to know, objectively, how well it performs in a straight line, around corners and under braking. Most of all, though, we just wanted to do it. And, in the end, we needed no more justification than that.