 2011 Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG. Click image to enlarge |
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2011 Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG
Malmsheim, Germany – It starts; it stops; it goes really fast. That, in a nutshell, is the 2011 Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG, which arrives in the Canadian market this fall with an all-new engine and the latest of the company’s safety features.
It uses an all-new 5.5-litre direct-injection twin-turbocharged V8 engine, which replaces the 6.2-litre V8 used in the 2010 S63. It churns out 536 horsepower and, more importantly, 590 lb-ft of torque, which peaks at 2,000 r.p.m. and continues up to the 4,500 mark on the tach. That’s quite a leap from the outgoing 6.2-litre, which produced 518 horses and 465 lb-ft; that car was fun, but this one is even better. As in 2010, the transmission is an AMG Speedshift seven-speed automatic. You can expect this turbocharged engine to make its way into other Mercedes-Benz products (alas, we tried and failed to convince them to talk to Smart), but you’ll have to wait to find out exactly which ones.
 2011 Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG. Click image to enlarge |
If that isn’t enough, you’ll also be able to order an AMG Performance Package, which boosts horsepower to 571 and torque to 663 lb.-ft. This sweet little number, which gains its power boost by increasing the charge pressure, also includes a genuine carbon fibre engine cover.
This new model also marks the first time in Canada that Mercedes has put a start-stop system on any vehicle other than a hybrid. Come to a stop, such as at a red light, and the engine stops running, then starts again once you take your foot off the brake: if you’re not actually moving the car, you’re not using any gasoline. It’s part of the company’s global goal to reduce its fleet’s CO2 emissions by 2012, but without sacrificing each vehicle’s driving characteristics. As with all start-stops, the car’s lights, climate control and stereo continue to function, and the start-up is so smooth as to be barely imperceptible. The magic is the result of numerous systems all performing together: a unique starter, an engine controller that feeds and ignites the cylinder that’s within the optimal degree of top dead centre before any of the other seven, and an oil pump that quickly builds pressure to compensate for lubrication drain. That’s a lot of work behind a system that seems so simple from the driver’s seat.
 2011 Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG. Click image to enlarge |
Pricing for Canada hasn’t been announced, but given that the 2010 model is $150,000, you should start saving your pennies now. Europe gets a choice of two lengths, but our S63 is long-wheelbase only (in the Canadian S-Class range, only the S450 is short-wheelbase). Naturally, pricing is also still under wraps for the performance package as well.
The biturbo, as the company calls it, is a wonderful powerplant. Each is hand-built by Mercedes-AMG in Affalterbach by a single employee, who signs his name on a plate affixed to the engine cover. The official zero-to-100 km/h time is 4.5 seconds, and while Canadian fuel figures have yet to be released, it achieves 10.5 L/100 km in a European test cycle. The regular 5.5-litre is electronically governed to 250 km/h, while the performance package tops out at 300 km/h.
  2011 Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG. Click image to enlarge |
Numbers are nice, but it’s all in where the rubber meets the road, and the car passes this test admirably. In the regular version, I reached 240 km/h on a stretch of autobahn before the traffic got congested; the car achieves this effortlessly, backed up by a perfectly-tuned exhaust note. There simply isn’t any lag to this engine, whether you’re taking it along a winding two-lane rural road or opening it up on the highway. The twin Garrett/Honeywell turbochargers spool up simultaneously; the decision to go with two was for optimal volume and geometry. The power is so linear that if you didn’t know, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell that the car uses puffers.
The smooth-shifting seven-gear Speedshift transmission, also an AMG unit, uses a six-plate wet clutch instead of a torque converter. Friedrich Eichler, head of engine and transmission development at AMG, said that the company went with this unit, rather than a dual-clutch, because of the engine’s considerable torque: a dual-clutch is more appropriate for lower torque and higher engine speed, he said. The Speedshift, at 80 kilograms, is also about half the weight of a dual-clutch. “We went with six plates because it works with this torque,” he said. “If you had 1,000 Nm (737 lb.-ft.) you would need eight plates, but when we designed this one (at 800 Nm), we decided on six plates, and increased the pressure. It has less weight, easier calibration, and less friction.”
