ROAD TEST: Mercedes-AMG E 63 S smashes all the records

Mercedes-AMG calls it the most powerful E-Class, and without a doubt that is what it is.

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The E 63 S 4MATIC+, runs a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine and produces 450kW of power and 850Nm of torque. So the technical argument ends right there. No standard factory production E-Class is stronger than this model.

But talk is cheap, and talk doesn’t always translate into performance numbers.

There are other manufacturers who are forever claiming that they have the fastest coupe, the hatch, the fastest four-door sedan, but how often are these claims actually put to the test? But our job is to test these performance claims in an as real world way as we can.

We test up here at the 1 500m plus altitude of the Reef, we use good old 95 octane pump fuel from the garage on the corner and we test at the same place each time, and that is a recognised test facility called Gerotek.

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Yes we are well aware that should we take the car down to the oxygen rich coast, we might gain a bit of performance We know that most of the cars are screaming for 98 octane fuel and we could start adding octane boosters to the fuel in the quest for more performance.

We could even do silly things like drop the tyre pressures to increase off the line grip, run the car on almost empty etc.

But this is not what we do. We take a standard car, with standard tyre pressures, a full take of normal 95 octane pump fuel and we go and see what it can do.

This gives us a good stock base to work off and allows us to compare various cars to each other.

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Now just a few weeks ago, the BMW M760Li xDrive shocked us by becoming the fastest fourdoor sedan we have ever tested, it just beat the recently tested Porsche Panamera Turbo. It went 0-100km/h in 3.75 seconds, hit the quarter mile in 11.85 seconds, and charged through the 1km mark at 251km/h on the speed limiter.

Well, I can tell you that the Mercedes-AMG E 63 S 4MATIC+ took one look at that and said: “I will show you just how quick an everyday full house luxury sedan weighing in at just short of two tonnes will make short work of that little feat”.

And smashed all our sedan records by hitting 100km/h in 3.38 seconds, the quarter in 11.48 seconds, and flying through the 1km at a supercar fast 263km/h.

To understand how far we have come in the past few years, Merc’s 2009 SL 65 AMG, the most fearsome 450kW/1 000Nm machine, broke the records back then when it did 0-100km/h in a sort of fast 4.51 seconds, the quarter mile in 12.66 seconds and trundled through the 1km mark at 243km/h only.

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The big plus of the E 63 AMG S is that the nine-speed sports transmission is combined with a wet start-off clutch and a completely new AMG Performance 4MATIC+ all-wheel drive system.

It gives you all the grip you want when you need it most, like off the line and at the limit in the corners, and then, if you feel like being silly and burning some expensive rubber, you can engage the ‘drift mode’ and go crazy with it just like you would with the current rear wheel driven AMG models.

At a starting price of R1 868 400, the Mercedes-AMG E 63 S 4MATIC+ offers everyday practicality and performance that can’t be beaten by anything in its class, and it has to be right at the top of your executive shopping list if you are tired of doing boring sedans.

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