Love it or loathe it – new Mercedes-AMG C43 here to stay

Few cars have been able to create the kind of reaction that the new Mercedes-AMG C43 and C63 models have gotten since Affalterbach announced their specifications last year.

At the heart of the mostly negative reception was the 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine fitted to both these W206 performance sedans, replacing a 4.0-litre V8 bi-turbo in the case of the yet-to-be-launched C63 and a 3.0-litre V6 turbo in the C43.

The fact that well-established, hardcore AMG products will be powered by mills with similar displacement to many Toyota Corollas did not go down well with petrolheads, fanboys or performance enthusiasts.

What few cared to understand was that these controversial powertrains were introduced to keep the AMG duo on the same performance playing fields.

New Mercedes-AMG direction

And judging by the impressive performance of the AMG A45 S, which draws its power from a similar drivetrain, albeit weighing much less, the controversial system is nothing to scoff at.

The Petronas Mercedes-Benz Formula One Racing team has won eight of the last nine world constructors’ championships.

The technology seen in cars on the showroom floor these days is what has started to filter down from the Silver Arrows.

The C43’s electrically driven turbocharger is said to be fine-tuned from the F1 programme, while the four-pot mill is paired with a 48-volt mild-hybrid belt-driven starter generator.

The end result of the new powertrain is 300 kW of power, with an additional 10 kW available from the EQ Boost system, and 500 Nm of torque. That means it has 13 kW more power and 20 Nm less torque than its predecessor.

The powertrain is mated to AMG Speedshift MCT 9G transmission with wet start-off clutch that sends the twist to all four wheels through the rear-biased torque distribution AMG Performance 4Matic permanent all-wheel drive.

ALSO READ: New C43 keen to show why it’s still a proper AMG

Watch Mercedes-AMG C43 in action

Against the clock

After getting a small taste of the W206 AMG C43 at the East London Grand Prix Circuit at the end of last year and again this month at Zwartkops Raceway, we finally got one on test.

Keen to see how it measures up against its predecessor’s high-performance road test, conducted in November 2018, we headed out to Gerotek for the showdown against the clock.

The numbers to beat, achieved by the W205 C43, were a 0-100 km/h time of 4.71 seconds, a quarter mile (400 m) time of 13.01 seconds and a 20.39-seconds half mile (800 m).

With conditions seemingly perfect, the best 0-100 km/h run road test editor Mark Jones could achieve in the W206 C43 was 4.86 seconds with the quarter mile coming up in 13.07 seconds and the half mile in 20.49 seconds. Top speed is limited to 250 km/h, which is 5 km/h down from the previous C43.

There is little in the comparative numbers between the W205 and W206. Had the new C43 not been all of 150 kg heavier than its 1 690 kg predecessor, it would have probably come out on top.

New technologies

The ventilated and perforated four-piston brake callipers, which measure 370 mm at the front and 320 mm at the rear, do an excellent job coping with the additional weight.

While a resounding win for the W206 would have helped Affalterbach silence the critics to some degree, we reckon a 2.0-litre four-pot engine running a 3.0-litre V6 mill to within a few hundreds of a second justifies AMG’s radical new direction.

The new C43 comes standard with AMG Ride Control adaptive suspension, rear-axle steering and AMG Dynamic Select which allows the driver to select a drive mode from a selector knob on the steering wheel.

The rear-axle steering turns the rear up to 2.5 degrees in the opposition direction at speeds below 100 km/h to make the turning circle smaller, and up to 0.7 degrees in the same direction at speeds more than 100 km/h to provide more stability.

Turn up the volume

A hot topic for many of the debates around the new C43 and C63 was the soundtrack. As the new mill can’t rival the V6 and V8 in terms of natural sound, the cars use an amplified soundtrack played over the infotainment system inside, as well as speakers mounted on the outside.

There is no doubt the soundtrack does add to the thrill of accelerating, although the jury will be out on that for a long time to come.

On the outside, the Mercedes-AMG C43 does a good job of not trying to look like an out-and-out performance car, while the interior is sophisticated and technologically advanced.

While it might be too refined for some hardcore enthusiasts, some women were hooked straight away and could not have cared less where it got its power or sound from.

The world is changing, whether we like it or not, and so is Affalterbach’s approach to performance cars.

Mercedes-AMG C43 test data

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