{"id":2144021,"date":"2026-09-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2144021"},"modified":"2026-09-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T21:00:00","slug":"mercedes-amg-cle-646-spezialanfertigung-review-should-be-called-a-black-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2144021","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes-AMG CLE 646 Spezialanfertigung review: should be called a Black Series"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Spezi-farti what now?! What the hell\u2019s with the name?<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s basically a direct German translation of \u2018custom made\u2019. AMG insists it\u2019s a name with special resonance for them, but it\u2019s also worth pointing out that the name was suggested by an engineer \u2013 which at least means AMG didn\u2019t hose millions at a branding agency before coming up with it.<\/p>\n

It should, as you might be aware, really be called a Black Series. Much better name. It was launched right before the Madrid GP<\/a>, unveiled in a bullring with Toto Wolff, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli all passing comment. What was surprising is we didn\u2019t know it was coming \u2013 there was no concept to hint at it, just an invitation to join \u2018customers and special guests\u2019. 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But enough build up. Let\u2019s not get hung up on the semantics of the name \u2013 at least not right now \u2013 it\u2019s what this car stands for, what it represents, that\u2019s most important.<\/p>\n

Because it puts a V8 back in the nose of a Mercedes coupe?<\/h3>\n

Precisely that. AMG freely admits that it has caught a lot of flak in recent years (in fact an AMG director told me \u201cwe were quite glad when the [Ferrari] Luce<\/a> came along and took the heat from us\u201d). That was almost entirely down to the C63 going hybrid<\/a> (okay, and the electric AMG GT 4dr<\/a>). Now Mercedes-AMG has proved that a twin turbo 4.0-litre V8 does fit under the bonnet.<\/p>\n

That fact was already known. The trouble was that it didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

But with a name like that, this isn\u2019t just a new C63 is it?<\/h3>\n

Very much not. AMG has a sliding scale of exclusivity. There are the cars that simply have AMG-Line bodykits, then there are the \u2018proper\u2019 AMGs like the GLE63 AMG<\/a>, AMG GT<\/a> and so on \u2013 the quick stuff anyone can buy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After that there\u2019s the legendary Black Series cars \u2013 limited edition, more specialized machines, such as the C63 AMG Black Series<\/a> and AMG GT Black Series<\/a>. They used to be the pinnacle. Then a couple of years ago AMG announced Mythos \u2013 radically modified cars built in tiny numbers. The first was the AMG PureSpeed<\/a> \u2013 basically an SL<\/a> with the windscreen removed. 250 were built. The Spezialanfertigung is the second.
Well done with getting that typed out.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to do it again, because really this should be called a Black Series. And I\u2019m sure it would be if AMG was building 1,000 of them. But it\u2019s not, it\u2019s building 30.<\/p>\n

30? But it could sell thousands of them!<\/h3>\n

Hold that thought because I\u2019m 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 \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s happened very quickly \u2013 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\u2019s exceptionally fast. And it has required compromises \u2013 the car can\u2019t be sold in the US, for instance.<\/p>\n

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\"Mercedes-AMG<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>. 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<\/a>. All the new body panels \u2013 and that\u2019s pretty much everything apart from the doors and rear wings \u2013 are carbon fibre, and loads of aero has been added.<\/p>\n

But this is still not an aero car really is it?<\/h3>\n

No. The rear wing develops 250kg, but it\u2019s offsetting a 1,895kg kerbweight. That\u2019s dropped 170kg from the 4WD CLE 53, but it\u2019s still a chunky thing. But then that\u2019s AMG for you \u2013 they\u2019re a company that adds power rather than subtracts weight.<\/p>\n

Which brings us on to the V8\u2026 how is it?<\/h3>\n

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\u2019s a flat-plane crank engine, it doesn\u2019t sound as rorty and lumpy as older V8 AMGs.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s got volume and enough AMG-ness to almost live up to the bodywork \u2013 incidentally, in pictures that great toothy grille dominates, but in reality it\u2019s balanced by the pumped arches.<\/p>\n

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The V8 pulls smoothly, revs evenly and has very linear torque delivery, but I want it to have more attitude<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Back to the engine. If anything it\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019t snappy enough.<\/p>\n

This all sounds a bit underwhelming.<\/h3>\n

The chassis saves it. For such a special car the powertrain does feel like it\u2019s been lifted from a production model \u2013 and in many ways it has, seeing as it\u2019s a mildly tweaked version of the GLE 63 motor.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ve had fun playing with it. You can tell it\u2019s 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\u2019s working slowly despite the fact you\u2019re travelling quickly, is wonderful.<\/p>\n

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\u2019re just not going to get it with tyres that wide. I\u2019d settle for heavier steering to better convey the forces involved, and actually make you work as hard as the car is.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t 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\u2019s a natural oversteer monster.<\/p>\n

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\u2026 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.<\/p>\n

What does this mean for future production models?<\/h3>\n

Right, here\u2019s my major issue with the CLE 646. It\u2019s not a hypercar, not even a supercar. It\u2019s not actually all that fast. A Nurburgring lap time will be announced shortly and I dare say it\u2019ll be faster than the BMW M4 CSL<\/a> that AMG will claim as its natural rival. But that\u2019s punching down \u2013 the CSL has 100bhp less and they built 1,000 of them. It was also \u00a3128,820.<\/p>\n

The car that I think it aligns much more naturally with is that Mustang GTD. And this won\u2019t turn in a lap time anything like the 6mins 40.835sec that achieved recently<\/a>. I\u2019d guess something more in the 7mins 5secs range. And it will be costing owners much more than the \u00a3315,000 Ford charged for that and we all thought that was a bit excessive.<\/p>\n

Really? So how much is the CLE 646?<\/h3>\n

AMG isn\u2019t saying, but the suggestion is around \u00a3600-800,000 \u2013 a price only in any way chargeable because of how few they are building. This is not a car worth anything like that. It\u2019s not a top end supercar, it\u2019s not a hypercar, it\u2019s just a burly AMG coupe, and a few years ago these were \u00a370,000 cars that any of us could buy. Right now in fact those are \u00a335,000 cars and you know what, a 2018 C63 S coupe would stand up pretty well against the CLE 646.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ve got something up their sleeves for the rest of us\u2026<\/p>\n

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We have a car that used to be accessible made inaccessible. The enthusiast in me resents this<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u2019re already pretty sure we\u2019ll see it in a new E63<\/a>, but how about the C63? I don\u2019t have a crystal ball, but that would be great \u2013 we\u2019d get back the car we want and the only ones with their noses out of joint might be CLE 646 owners wondering why they\u2019d shelled out daft money for a V8 C63 now that everyone had one. Well, you can\u2019t keep everyone happy all the time.<\/p>\n

Photography: <\/strong>John Wycherley<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spezi-farti what now?! What the hell\u2019s with the name? It\u2019s basically a direct German translation of \u2018custom made\u2019. AMG insists it\u2019s a name with special resonance for them, but it\u2019s also worth pointing out that the name was suggested by an engineer \u2013 which at least means AMG didn\u2019t hose millions at a branding agency […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-2144021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2144021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2144021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2144021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2144021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}