Mercedes-AMG C63 S E Performance Ride Review: 670 HP, Just 4 Cylinders!

Compact car plus V-8 engine: It's been a surefire formula for performance since the original Pontiac GTO. Maybe that's why Americans have long had a soft spot for AMG's C63. With its rumbling V-8s ready to brew up a storm, the nuggety C63―in sedan or coupe flavors―has always felt right at home in the land that invented the muscle car.

There's no shortage of muscle under the skin of the 2023 Mercedes-AMG C63 S E Performance sedan. It packs a thumping 670 horsepower and 752 lb-ft of torque, making it the most powerful C63 sedan in history, capable of slingshotting from 0-60 mph in 3.2 seconds according to AMG, and hitting 174 mph on the autobahn. But it only has four cylinders under the hood.

Sacrilege? Heresy? An abrogation of all that is holy at Affalterbach?

Not at all, smiles AMG chief technical officer Jochen Hermann as he drives a camo'd C63 S E Performance prototype onto the 2.5-mile racetrack buried in the heart of the sprawling Mercedes-Benz proving ground outside Immendingen, 80 miles south of Stuttgart. It's more like moving with the times.

"We could have just done another V-8 C63," Hermann said. "But we would have been stuck in the past."

We're in Race mode and Hermann punches the gas. There's a deep baritone snarl from up front and neck-snapping acceleration as all four tires claw at the tarmac, the AMG Speedshift transmission jackhammering through a lightning-quick series of upshifts. No, this new C63 doesn't quite sound like the old ones we've come to know and love. It doesn't quite go like them, either. It's much harder, more instant, more urgent, more intense.

V-8? Who needs a V-8? That's, like, so yesterday, man…

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A Powertrain Born in Hell

Ask Hermann what the AMG One hypercar program has been like, and you'll get a succinct reply: "A nightmare!"

The AMG One, of course, started life as the Project One concept unveiled at the 2017 Frankfurt auto show by F1 ace Lewis Hamilton and then Mercedes-Benz boss Dieter Zetsche. Project One was nothing if not audacious in its ambition: a 1,000-plus-horsepower, all-wheel-drive, roadgoing hypercar that borrowed key elements of its hybrid powertrain concept―right down to the screaming 1.6-liter V-6 engine at its core―from the 2016 Mercedes-AMG F1 racer.

Trying to get the little V-6, which in F1 trim idles at 5,000 rpm and revs to 15,000 rpm, to be street-drivable and meet emissions and play nice with the car's four electric motors―one coupled to the crankshaft, one coupled to the turbocharger, and one driving each of the front wheels―has been one of the project's major headaches. But Hermann says the main reason the program has run so late (production is now finally underway, and the first of 275 buyers will take delivery of their cars in a few months) is because "we had to learn all the software stuff" to make it work.

However, the nightmare has had a happy ending. Hermann says that a lot of the learnings from trying to tame the AMG One have gone into executing the new C63's hybrid powertrain.

As we mentioned in our first look story, the C63 S E Performance is a plug-in hybrid, but it's nothing like a Toyota Prius. For a start, under the hood is a 469-hp version of AMG's M139 electrically turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four, and there's a 201-hp e-motor mounted at the rear axle. It's how these two powerplants work together that's the secret to the new C63's explosive performance.

The little four-banger drives all four wheels through the AMG Speedshift multi-clutch nine-speed automated transmission. The e-motor drives the rear wheels through its own automated two-speed transmission, which shifts to high gear at 87 mph, and an integrated electronically controlled limited-slip differential. The motor can also send drive forward via a separate propeller shaft to a clutch unit at the rear of the nine-speed transmission, from which it can be distributed to the front wheels, as well.

Having each powerplant independently supply its power and torque outputs to the drivetrain means each can play to its strengths. If the ICE and the e-motor shared the same output shaft, as is the usual practice with many hybrids, the system could not deliver maximum power because the power peaks of both occur at different revs, says AMG development engineer Peter Szalay.

It all sounds entirely logical in principle. However, making it work in practice has required the use of F1-level powertrain management techniques and technologies.

Key to the powertrain concept's operation is an AMG-developed, 400-volt electrical architecture and a high-performance 6.1-kWh battery mounted at the rear of the car. The 196-pound battery can be recharged via a plug and will drive the C63 S E Performance up to 8 miles on pure electric power at speeds of up to 80 mph.

But that's not what it's primarily designed to do. "We don't care about range," says Hermann. "The battery is there for performance."

Indeed, the battery has been engineered to deliver rapid bursts of energy when required by the e-motor and to be able to be replenished rapidly, either by the engine, or via recuperation rates of more than 120 kilowatts under heavy braking or in the highest of the four available regen settings.

To cope with the stress, the battery pack features a cooling system that circulates a high-tech coolant directly around each of its 580 cells to ensure it's always at the optimal temperature to deliver maximum performance. As a result, a kickdown function ensures the full 201 hp of the e-motor is available on demand in any of the C63's eight drive modes.

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Does the C63 S E Performance Feel Fast?

Even from the passenger seat, the new C63 S E Performance feels like a next-level AMG performance car. You can set it up to do smokey drifts if you want, but with its serious race-face on, this four-door punches more aggressively away from a standing start and harder out of corners than any C63 in history.

There's no letup in the relentless surge of thrust from the powertrain, either. Where a high-performance turbocharged internal combustion engine might feel a little doughy at the bottom end, and a pure EV slightly strangled at the top end, the C63 S E Performance's powertrain just delivers weapons-grade grunt all the way through the powerband. And you're never aware of which part of the powertrain is doing what to make it all happen. It's that seamless.

All-wheel drive with sophisticated control systems means none of the C63 S E Performance's immense power and torque is wasted. The standard rear-wheel steering, which turns the rear wheels up to 2.5 degrees in the opposite direction to the fronts at lower speeds, helps the C63 dive cleanly into tighter corners. The wider front track and the staggered tire setup―our car was rolling on 265/35 ZR20 fronts and 275/35 ZR20 rears―made it feel resolutely planted through fast sweepers.

At a manufacturer-claimed 4,654 pounds all in, the new C63 S E Performance ain't exactly a featherweight (the previous-generation car tipped the scales at 3,936 pounds). But the extra mass is located toward the rear axle, giving it a perfect 50/50 front-to-rear weight distribution compared with the previous model's 54/46 front-to-rear weight bias.

Driven in pure EV mode on the access roads around the proving ground, the C63 S oozed smoothly and quietly along, the ride feeling surprisingly supple. In its highest setting, the variable regen will allow one-pedal driving, something most hybrids can't do because they don't have the battery cooling.

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A High-Tech C63, and a Real AMG

"Everything we learned from the AMG One we put into this car," says Hermann of the C63 S E Performance. "It is so much more than just a new C63. I think we made it more grown up as a car."

Does it sound like the V-8? No. Does it matter? No. Real performance has nothing to do with noise. And this car has plenty of real performance.

We'll reserve final judgment until we get behind the wheel ourselves later this year, but on first acquaintance the C63 S E Performance is an impressive piece of work. It's brutally fast yet stunningly sophisticated―an AMG car for the modern era.