Mercedes-AMG E 63 S

First Drive Powerhouse E-Class flagship gets 4WD to tame its 604bhp V8.

- Steve Sutcliffe

YOU are looking at the most powerful Mercedes E-Class there has ever been. You are also looking at one of the fastest, most technically complex saloon cars ever built. So you can imagine this makes the new Mercedes-AMG E 63 some kind of a weapon, even beside the likes of the BMW M5 or any of Audi’s various RS models.

For starters, the £75,000 E 63 boasts either 563bhp in standard form or a whopping 604bhp in £83,000 S guise, as tested here, courtesy of its tweaked 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine. It also has 750Nm or 850Nm of torque, depending which model you go for, and all versions come with AMG’s new 4MATIC+ intelligent four-wheel-drive system. There’s a new nine-speed dual-clutch gearbox and launch control set-up, too.

As a result, the 1,955kg E 63 can tear its way from 0-62mph in a claimed 3.5 seconds (the S is a tenth faster), while top speed is limited to 155mph, unless you spec the optional ‘de-limit’ package, in which case this rises to a still-restricted 186mph.