Mercedes-Benz CLK

Road test

To keep the suspension working optimally, there are two whacking great braces spanning the front and rear shocks. The rear one robs a bit of luggage space, but I suspect that won't be an issue for most owners - particularly if they've specced their 63 BS with the delete rear seat option, where you get the option to ditch the rear bench and make space for all that luggage you can't fit in the boot.

Other than the missing seats, there are plenty of other signs of AMG trying hard to shed some of the CLK's weight and give the cabin a race car for the road feel.

There's a DTM-style square-bottomed wheel, miniature forged-aluminium gear stick, and carbon fibre everywhere. US-spec cars get two-piece bucket seats and standard door panels, but Euro-spec models get carbon-fibre door panels and one-piece carbon seat shells, too.

Carbon fibre can also be found growing all over the exterior. Both front and rear bumpers are made of the stuff, as are the front brake ducts, the multi-finned rear diffuser and the boot-lid spoiler. However, against expectations both the roof and the bonnet are steel.

But that doesn't stop the car giving you a black eye every time you look at it. From the mono-browed wheel arches hugging the squat wheels and the vast drilled brakes peering through the spokes, to the brace of shotgun pipes at the back and the wide, gap-toothed air dam at the front, the 63 BS is a road thug to be reckoned with.

On the twisty canyon roads that spiral northwards above Los Angeles, the 63 BS was a revelation. In any other 'Benz we can think of, the scenery would have rushed past but you might as well have been watching it on TV for all the interaction you would have had with the road. In the 63 BS it's different.

You connect with the tarmac in a satisfyingly mechanical way, allowing you to adjust the car's attitude as much on the throttle as with the steering wheel. It's still no Elise, but it's no luxury boat either.

We also got to explore the 63 BS's ability at a race circuit, but not one that suited the car.

Rather than letting us loose on the bigger, faster Willow Springs Raceway, we had to make do with five laps on the Streets of Willow circuit - only just bigger than a kart track, it was hard to learn more than how easily you can slide the front and rear even with the remapped ESP traction control/chassis stability system switched on, resulting in a lack of conclusive proof of the 63 BS's ability to beat the competition.

However, for now we've seen enough to know that you might want to wait before you pick a winner when the car stacks up against the new M3 and Audi's RS4 on its arrival in the UK. The other teams may have already qualified, but this F1-inspired Benz also deserves a place on our super-saloon grid.

Pat Devereux