Its an early Thursday morning and Im on board a Jet Airways flight to New Delhi. I am quite excited to say the least. And why shouldn’t I be? I am going to be driving on a race track for the very first time. Mercedes invited me to the launch and driving experience of the 2013 Mercedes E63 AMG at the Buddh International Circuit, India’s very own Formula 1 track. I have driven many a car earlier including some exotic machinery but nothing gets you revved up than the prospect of putting a torque monster through its paces and that too on an F1 circuit. After all, a closed environment does allow you to try things which you otherwise cannot dare to do on public roads.
I reach the Buddh Circuit at noon and get myself registered. A formal launch follows by Mr. Eberhard Kern, M.D and CEO of Mercedes Benz India. Mercedes has been been on a product onslaught in recent times. After the A and the B Class hatches, Mercedes launched the facelifted E Class as well recently. The AMG avatar has come in super quick on the heels of the standard car. The E63 looks like an E Class which has just pumped some serious iron at the gym. The flared wheel arches have a prominent ‘V8 Bi Turbo’ which tells you what lies under the hood. Look closely to find carbon fibre inserts in the front and rear bumpers. They looked fantastic to match the white paint of the car. I like the new headlamp cluster with the LEDs. They look much better than the prefacelift model in my opinion. The quad exhaust pipes with AMG embossed on them tell you very clearly about the symphonies you can expect when they start playing. The E63 comes with 18” inch 10 spoke alloys. I am personally not too fond of this design. Coming to the rubber, the car gets 255/40 R18 tyres at the front and 285/35 R18 tyres at the rear.
The interiors of the E63 are a perfect blend of luxury and sportiness. I am a big fan of black interiors so I am pleased. The silver touch adds class. The three spoke steering wheel is wrapped in Alcantara and Nappa leather and is flat at the top and bottom. Superbly finished paddle shifters are located behind the steering. Carbon fibre finds its way into the interiors too. A strip runs across the dashboard and there are carbon fibre inserts in the door pads as well. The gear lever has a solid feel and is the same as that in the SLS AMG. The knob for the drive modes and switches for other settings is located next to the gear lever. More on the drive modes later. The front sport seats with integrated head rests offer fantastic support and come with active bolstering which hold you in place during hard cornering. Safety wise the E63 gets the works with 8 airbags and additional pelvic airbags to protect rear passengers.
The E63 gets a 5.5 litre Bi Turbo V8 motor putting out 557 bhp @5500 rpm and peak torque of a mega 720 Nm comes between 1750-5250 rpm. It does the dash to the ton in a claimed 4.2 seconds and top speed is electronically limited to 250 kph. The E63 comes a 7 speed dual clutch SPEEDSHIFT gearbox which can be operated in the following modes:
- C (Controlled Efficiency)
- S (Sport)
- S+ (Sport Plus)
- M (Manual)
My driving experience is based on just the couple of laps that I did on the Buddh International Circuit. We had 4 E63s at our disposal for the drive. Two SLS AMG played the role of pace cars for us with both of them driven by AMG Driving Instructors. My instructor was Norman Simon who is a British Touring Car Champion. I wore my helmet and strapped myself into the car. Norman came over and gave me a couple of useful tips before I started driving. I put the gearbox into Sport Plus mode and was ready. Our cars were equipped with walkie talkies where we would hear instructions from Norman who was in front of me in the SLS. The acceleration of the E63 is brutal and makes you forget that you are driving a 4 door saloon. The growl from that V8 just puts a grin on your face as you go through the gears. Shifts from the gear box are super quick and you don’t feel any lag at all. I went flat out on the back straight of the BIC to touch 230 kph . The E63 goes like stink on a straight and you are kept stuck into the seat as you climb speeds. The burbles you hear from the exhaust when the tranny downshifts is nothing short of orgasmic. You brake really hard when you come to the end of the straight and by that I mean you literally stand on the brakes. The brakes are phenomenal and are extremely effective. There is no sign of brake fade either. The test car came with steel discs but you can order carbon ceramic brakes as optional equipment. I cannot comment on how the car drives in urban traffic since my driving was limited to the race track only but this write up shall definitely be updated if I get a car to drive in the city in the future.
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