Mercedes-AMG E63 S one sledge hammer of a sedan

Mercedes-AMG’s E63 S sledge hammer of a sedan has been given a little midlife nip and tuck in the styling department, while also receiving a few technical updates. These I will tell you about in a moment or two.

What hasn’t changed, and nor should it on a pukka AMG car, is the stonking 4.0-litre V8 running a pair of twin-scroll turbochargers. Power and torque remain unchanged at 450kW/850Nm. And what this translates into on the road I will cover in a bit more detail after the “boring” stuff is out the way.

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Sexy curves

New on the updated version is a larger AMG-specific radiator grille, flatter all-LED multibeam headlamps and flared wheel arches that hide 265/35 front and 295/30 rear Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres riding on 20-inch alloys. A rounded-fit bonnet with powerdomes completes the styling makeover on the outside.

Mercedes-AMG E63 S rear view

The truly spacious interior of the AMG E63 S offers the likes of nappa leather covered AMG sports seats followed by the MBUX infotainment system that features a touchscreen and touchpad, with intelligent voice control.

I can tell you, try as I may, I just never got the hang of the touchpad or the steering wheel controls. They were just too sensitive and difficult to use on the move. If you like talking to your car, then rather use the voice-activated “Hey Mercedes” function to get things done around the cockpit.

Hands on

Note to all though, the steering wheel does include a “hands on” detector and if you don’t have your hands on the wheel for a certain time, the car will warn you.

Mercedes-AMG E63 S steering wheel view

Ignore this warning and the car will assume you are an idiot or in the middle of having a heart attack and eventually activate the Emergency Brake Assist and stop the car. Maybe don’t test this feature on the N3 highway on a Friday afternoon. 

Brute force

Where the real excitement of owning an AMG E63 S comes to the fore is in the performance and driving department. That V8 engines blasts this full house, full size, executive sedan to 100 km/h in a supercar-like 3.5 sec, while going through the 1km mark at just short of 260 km/h on its way to an electronically limited top speed of 300 km/h.

To view the full results from our road test, click here.

I am not sure how much faster you would need to get to a board meeting, but I think these sorts of times should ensure you are there on time, all the time. Unless you get jailed for speeding. But that is a rich person’s problem for another day.

Clever tech

The cool part is that you no longer have to be a tamed racing driver to extract the best of the AMG E 63 S. This super sedan comes fitted with AMG Performance 4MATIC+ all-wheel drive as standard. And without you having to think about anything other than your BitCoin collection, this intelligent, and fully variable system automatically moves the power around from the front to the rear axles for you, thus ensuring optimum traction on any surface, and you looking good when trying to show-off.

Mercedes-AMG E63 S driving modes

Should you turn out to be a touch irresponsible or suicidal, you can activate what Mercedes-AMG call Drift Mode. Now why you would want to drift a R2.4-million sedan is beyond me.

But I think this is just their nice term for letting you burn some expensive rubber when you try and put all the power and torque through the rear wheels only without the assistance of any traction control. It’s fun in a controlled environment, and somewhat insane out on a public road. You have been warned!

One car, various personalities

I must admit, I didn’t do it often, but take an Alzam or something, and select Comfort Mode for the Adaptive Damping System, that also offers Sport and Sport+, and you could easily live with this brute of a car every day.

Mercedes-AMG E63 S badge

The transformation of your softer road car into a harder track-type weapon can be personalised to your heart’s content with up to six Dynamic Select drive programs, which range from Slippery, Comfort, Sport, Sport+, Individual and Race. And choosing one of these changes the response of the engine, transmission, suspension and steering to suit.

One could argue all day why somebody would need such a performance-based family sedan when an E200 or E220d can do the same job of getting you from A to B, but should life always be about making the rational choices? No, and this is where the E63 S fits right in.

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