Mercedes-AMG CLE 646 Spezialanfertigung review: should be called a Black Series

Spezi-farti what now?! What the hell’s with the name?

It’s basically a direct German translation of ‘custom made’. AMG insists it’s a name with special resonance for them, but it’s also worth pointing out that the name was suggested by an engineer – which at least means AMG didn’t hose millions at a branding agency before coming up with it.

It should, as you might be aware, really be called a Black Series. Much better name. It was launched right before the Madrid GP, unveiled in a bullring with Toto Wolff, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli all passing comment. What was surprising is we didn’t know it was coming – there was no concept to hint at it, just an invitation to join ‘customers and special guests’. The next day the only running car was at Jarama racetrack for us to do a handful of laps in before George and Kimi drove it to the Madring.

But enough build up. Let’s not get hung up on the semantics of the name – at least not right now – it’s what this car stands for, what it represents, that’s most important.

Because it puts a V8 back in the nose of a Mercedes coupe?

Precisely that. AMG freely admits that it has caught a lot of flak in recent years (in fact an AMG director told me “we were quite glad when the [Ferrari] Luce came along and took the heat from us”). That was almost entirely down to the C63 going hybrid (okay, and the electric AMG GT 4dr). Now Mercedes-AMG has proved that a twin turbo 4.0-litre V8 does fit under the bonnet.

That fact was already known. The trouble was that it didn’t fit if saddled with a load of hybrid gubbins. So this does without. Just the 646bhp/626lb ft engine sending all its might to the rear wheels alone.

But with a name like that, this isn’t just a new C63 is it?

Very much not. AMG has a sliding scale of exclusivity. There are the cars that simply have AMG-Line bodykits, then there are the ‘proper’ AMGs like the GLE63 AMG, AMG GT and so on – the quick stuff anyone can buy.

After that there’s the legendary Black Series cars – limited edition, more specialized machines, such as the C63 AMG Black Series and AMG GT Black Series. They used to be the pinnacle. Then a couple of years ago AMG announced Mythos – radically modified cars built in tiny numbers. The first was the AMG PureSpeed – basically an SL with the windscreen removed. 250 were built. The Spezialanfertigung is the second.
Well done with getting that typed out.

I’m not going to do it again, because really this should be called a Black Series. And I’m sure it would be if AMG was building 1,000 of them. But it’s not, it’s building 30.

30? But it could sell thousands of them!

Hold that thought because I’m going to revisit it later. This car, however, is pretty specialised. Basically the CLE 646 is what happens when the engineers have an idea and see how far they can get with it. That was where the idea came from by the way – I was told a few sneaky emails were sent round the AMG engineering department, then at some stage they copied in the CEO and crossed their fingers.

I’m sure the engineers would have been delighted to give it a proper production run, but for whatever reason the decision was made to make it in super-limited numbers. Maybe to get it out there as fast as possible to offset people ranting about the hybrid C63.

It’s happened very quickly – Bastien Baudy (ex-head of AMG design, and for the last few months the big boss of all Mercedes design) shows me sketches on his phone he did of this car whilst on holiday last summer. So maybe 18-20 months from original idea to finished car. For a European car firm that’s exceptionally fast. And it has required compromises – the car can’t be sold in the US, for instance.    

But making it very limited meant it had to be very different. Now, AMG has not pushed the boundaries as far as, say, Ford did with the Mustang GTD. That was basically a new car from the ground up. Here the frame has gained a bit of stiffness and the wheels have been pushed out 60mm further than a CLE 53. All the new body panels – and that’s pretty much everything apart from the doors and rear wings – are carbon fibre, and loads of aero has been added.

But this is still not an aero car really is it?

No. The rear wing develops 250kg, but it’s offsetting a 1,895kg kerbweight. That’s dropped 170kg from the 4WD CLE 53, but it’s still a chunky thing. But then that’s AMG for you – they’re a company that adds power rather than subtracts weight.

Which brings us on to the V8… how is it?

The M177 Evo is 90 per cent of the engine you want it to be. Two small things undermine it: it only revs to 6,800rpm (and is still pulling like a train at that point) and because it’s a flat-plane crank engine, it doesn’t sound as rorty and lumpy as older V8 AMGs.

However, AMG has worked with Akrapovic on the titanium exhaust, and while many flat-plane V8s can sound a bit reedy, this one makes more of a chest-thumping noise. Plus plenty of crackles on the overrun. It’s got volume and enough AMG-ness to almost live up to the bodywork – incidentally, in pictures that great toothy grille dominates, but in reality it’s balanced by the pumped arches.

The V8 pulls smoothly, revs evenly and has very linear torque delivery, but I want it to have more attitude

Back to the engine. If anything it’s a bit too well mannered. The V8 pulls smoothly, revs evenly and has very linear torque delivery, but I want it to have more attitude, maybe some lag, or a sense of crescendo. The issue might actually be down to the gearbox, Merc’s nine-speed multi-clutch transmission, which has so many ratios you spend almost as much time between gears as in them. And with that relatively low rev limit I found myself clattering the limiter all the time. And the gearbox isn’t snappy enough.

This all sounds a bit underwhelming.

The chassis saves it. For such a special car the powertrain does feel like it’s been lifted from a production model – and in many ways it has, seeing as it’s a mildly tweaked version of the GLE 63 motor.

But the chassis is interesting and gives the car a unique feel. AMG worked with KW to equip the CLE 646 with manually adjustable coilover suspension. I think they’ve had fun playing with it. You can tell it’s different instantly. It permits some roll, behaves more naturally, feels more connected. The way it compresses so smoothly under braking, moves into roll progressively, feels like it’s working slowly despite the fact you’re travelling quickly, is wonderful.

Whacking great 305-width front tyres and 420mm ceramic brakes ensure massive slowing power and turn-in bite. Would be nice to have more steering feel, but you’re just not going to get it with tyres that wide. I’d settle for heavier steering to better convey the forces involved, and actually make you work as hard as the car is.

It doesn’t understeer, full stop. Yet it feels well balanced. Coming out of corners you feel the weight transfer rearwards, the rear tyres start to smear as it slips into oversteer. Loads of feel through that sharp throttle. It’s a natural oversteer monster.

Apologies for letting the side down and not having those massive smoky drift shots, but seeing as this is the only one in the world, I had to sign some scary paperwork… and it was going straight from the track for George and Kimi to drive to the Madrid GP the next day, I got unusually risk averse.

What does this mean for future production models?

Right, here’s my major issue with the CLE 646. It’s not a hypercar, not even a supercar. It’s not actually all that fast. A Nurburgring lap time will be announced shortly and I dare say it’ll be faster than the BMW M4 CSL that AMG will claim as its natural rival. But that’s punching down – the CSL has 100bhp less and they built 1,000 of them. It was also £128,820.

The car that I think it aligns much more naturally with is that Mustang GTD. And this won’t turn in a lap time anything like the 6mins 40.835sec that achieved recently. I’d guess something more in the 7mins 5secs range. And it will be costing owners much more than the £315,000 Ford charged for that and we all thought that was a bit excessive.

Really? So how much is the CLE 646?

AMG isn’t saying, but the suggestion is around £600-800,000 – a price only in any way chargeable because of how few they are building. This is not a car worth anything like that. It’s not a top end supercar, it’s not a hypercar, it’s just a burly AMG coupe, and a few years ago these were £70,000 cars that any of us could buy. Right now in fact those are £35,000 cars and you know what, a 2018 C63 S coupe would stand up pretty well against the CLE 646.

So we have a car that used to be accessible made inaccessible. The enthusiast in me resents this, resents AMG for showing us what we could have had. I suspect AMG saw that risk too. Which implies they’ve got something up their sleeves for the rest of us…

We have a car that used to be accessible made inaccessible. The enthusiast in me resents this

Oddly I thought, no-one at AMG moaned when I brought up the subject of fleet CO2 limits killing off V8s. It sounds an awful lot like AMG can make the M177 Evo do what they need it to do. Yeah, we’re already pretty sure we’ll see it in a new E63, but how about the C63? I don’t have a crystal ball, but that would be great – we’d get back the car we want and the only ones with their noses out of joint might be CLE 646 owners wondering why they’d shelled out daft money for a V8 C63 now that everyone had one. Well, you can’t keep everyone happy all the time.