WATCH: Controversial new Mercedes-AMG C43 slower than before

The world’s motoring fraternity was shocked to the bone when Mercedes-AMG last year confirmed it will be doing away with V8 and V6 engines in the new C63 and C43 respectively.

Watch how AMG C43 performs

Both would now feature a four-cylinder 2.0-litre engine, numbers that do not sit pretty with enthusiasts. But Affalterbach ensured fans that these mills would be more powerful than the bigger-sized outgoing engines due to them benefitting from technology taken straight from Formula 1.

The new C43 4Matic, which features an electric turbocharger together with a 48V electric motor, produces 300 kW of power and 500 Nm of torque in comparison to the 287kW/520Nm of its predecessor.

The new AMG C63 S E Performance 4Matic implements an electric motor and electric turbocharger for a combined output of 500 kW of power and 1 020 Nm of torque. The top outgoing W205 model, the C63 S, had outputs of 375kW/700Nm.

ALSO READ: WATCH: AMG C63 S exhaust notes cause greater controversy

Testing times

The impressive new numbers did little to dispel the motoring world’s criticism which has been a theme on social media ever since the announcement last year.

Going hand in hand with the gripe over the new engines is the augmented soundtrack which is amplified through exterior speakers to compensate for the loss of the genuine AMG exhaust notes.

There was only one way Mercedes was ever going to set the record straight and that was through sheer performance. So when the W206 C43 arrived at The Citizen Motoring this week, we took it to Gerotek straight away to pit it against the clock.

The time to beat was the 4.71 and 13.01 seconds it took the W205 C43 to get from 0 to 100 km/h and the quarter mile respectively in the hands of Road Test Editor Mark Jones in November 2018.

If Affalterbach’s claim that the W206 AMG C43 can get the sprint done in 4.6 seconds was anything to go by, it was going to make for a fascinating virtual drag race between new and old.

AMG numbers battle

So come Thursday, the weather was perfect, launch control was activated, yours truly ready behind the camera and Mark was feeling chipper… only to be left disappointed.

Come what may, run after run, the lowest number the VBOX Racelogic equipment could show for sprint was 4.86 seconds, while the quarter mile also came up a thenth of a second slower.

While there is really very little between the two C43s and the W206 still performed very credible taking into consideration it weighs 150 kg more than 1 690 kg W206, it is not significantly enough to make the critics change their opinion.

All eyes will now be on the new Mercedes-AMG C63, which is expected locally later this year, to make a statement for the new technology.

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