It’s the year of 40th Anniversaries for many superlative products in the Auto Arena. Ford celebrated forty years of its Shelby Cobra Mustang at the New York fest but they are not the only one celebrating this milestone as Mercedes-Benz also marked the 40th birthday of its AMG in-haus performance specialists at the same venue.
As a toast to the achievement Mercedes released an on road spec version of its F1 safety car with the dubbing, Black Edition AMG CLK63. The naming scheme does have the word black at the beginning but, the way this car was introduced in New York, it lit up the darkest of the city corners.
Gone were the light bars and the F1 stickers from the Safety car and the resultant; a street legal sedan powered by a 6.3 liter V8 engine producing 500 horses which does 0-60 mph in 4.1 seconds with an overall topping of 186 mph .
The standout part about this car is its carbon fiber flares which enclose 19-inch forged aluminum wheels that have inbuilt compound brake rotors measuring 14.2 inches in front and 13 inches in the back thus ensuring ASR traction control and ESP stability control in a thorough manner .
The ventilation part has also been nicely taken care off as there are additional vents in the front fascia alongwith fenders that help sustain airflow for cooling and downforce and the restricted slip differential at the back also has its own oil-cooler with a thermostatically controlled fan.
The chassis has an adjustable suspension allowing the driver to control the cars’ ride altitude. The driver can also control the compression and ricochet features of the shock absorbers electronically.
Looking at this car walk the beat at the F1 circuit I never thought it had so much of hidden potential, it surely has a different beast under the hood but even then the basis is the same; Good job Mercedes! that is the way to make a pick.
Image Credit : Winding Road
