Insanity check

Where does the CLE 53 sit in the AMG firmament? To find out, STEPHEN DOBIE brings along its rowdiest forebear of all

- STEPHEN DOBIE

The arches give it away. The Mercedes-AMG CLE 53 Coupé arrived on a wave of exciting claims - ones we knew we would have to put sternly to the test. But given that AMG had gone to the effort of extending its rear wheel arches by 75mm (accommodating a similarly widened axle and wheels wrapped in bespoke Michelin rubber), it was safe to assume it would hit harder than the 53s before it. And it promptly did.

Golly, did AMG need the shot in the arm that the CLE 53 brought too, after its reputation had been more than a little shaken by the response to a hybridised C63 with half the usual cylinder count. That car had proved a far cry from the AMG glory days - a time perhaps no better represented than by this gleaming white CLK 63 Black Series. Launched in 2007, the model became a bona fide modern classic very soon after. It's a pure distillation of the DNA scattered more sparingly beneath the CLE's skin.

The perfect barometer to see just how 'AMG' this 53 really is, it also has bruising rear arches, although it wears them like uncouthly tacked-on shoulder pads. On a biting winter's day like today, when the roads are cold and greasy, the newer car should be the more immediately inviting of the two, but the scarcity of the CLK makes its door handle impossible to resist. Just 30 were allocated to the UK at its launch, and while this left-hand-drive example suggests a few might have sneaked over since, howmanyleft.co.uk reckons just 28 remain in Britain. No wonder it's worth more now than its "frankly ridiculous" £99,517 at launch. Yes, those are the words of our ever-scrupulous testers...