Remember that girl in college? You know the one. 50 shades of hot; extremely flirtatious; draws you in, then traps you in the friend zone? Well I met the automotive equivalent last week.
It all started with a text from CATS.
CATS: “James, I need your help. I need you to break in a C63.”
Me: “Is this a trick question?”
CATS: “No. You will be the first ever to get an AMG demo. You get to keep it for a week. Just don’t go over 3,500 RPM.
I’d like to say it was mixed emotions, but a friend summed it up better when she said “Blue balls”
Then it hit me. 3,500 RPM in 7th gear is...?
But all that aside, once you come to grips with the fact that you’ll only be allowed to get to second base, you soon realize that you can have more fun in a C63 at 3500 RPM than you can at 7,000 RPM in most vehicles. You still get the deep baritone of the V8 grumbling underneath that bulging hood; 580nm of the maximum 600nm of torque; and the extra snappy gearshifts which you call up through magnesium alloy paddle shifters.
Sure you crave the red zone of the tach, but it is not as if I haven’t enjoyed the 6.3 Liter before, so I just nursed it along and enjoyed the stunning red leather interior and all the exclusivity that goes along with driving an AMG around Manila.
Walking up to it alone in a car park was already an experience. Sort of like how you feel when you’re in a party and the most beautiful woman in the room is your date. And that taught me a lot about the car.
It’s funny, but when you’re given a long leash you tend to overlook the subtleties that Mercedes Benz engineers spend a great deal of time and effort on. Like how each and every piece of switch gear is so carefully put together to give you the same feeling of quality throughout the cabin, or how the feedback from the knobs and dials all remain consistent throughout, letting you know that with every touch that you’re in a Mercedes.
It’s like the difference between driving through a beautiful village or town and then one day cycling through. You see and appreciate it on a different level. But now that I can say that I’ve cycled and seen it, please let me drive it next time.
