Old Mercedes-AMG E 63 Drag Races New C 63 and Tuned A 45, It Certainly Sounds the Best

Mat Watson and the carwow crew have recently raced the A 45 S against the electrified C 63 and the old-gen E 63, as well as a tuned A 45 S with 500 ps (493 hp) and 610 Nm (450 lb-ft) on tap. Before going any further, we should address the elephant in the room, that elephant being the ridiculous curb weight of the 206-series C 63.

Officially dubbed C 63 S E Performance, this fellow tips the scales at 2,190 kilograms (4,828 pounds) in European specification as opposed to 1,550 kilograms (3,417 pounds) for the front-biased A 45 S. The V8-powered E 63 is on the heavier side of performance sedans from that era, weighing in at 1,990 kilograms (4,387 pounds).

On paper, the compact wagon has the upper hand in both maximum power and torque, for it develops a staggering 680 ps (671 hp) and 1,020 Nm (752 lb-ft) from a hand-assembled I4 and two-speed electric motor position on the rear axle. For reference, that's more power than a Ferrari Enzo (660 ps or 651 hp) and more torque than a Ram 1500 TRX (881 Nm or 750 lb-ft).

Equipped with a similar 4MATIC+ all-wheel-drive system as the C 63, the E 63 is a winner by default in the aural pleasure department. Its twin-turbocharged V8 makes a very respectable 612 ps and 850 Nm (603 hp and 627 lb-ft), with most of those resources going to the wheels via the AMG SPEEDSHIFT MCT 9G transmission. Compared to the 9G-TRONIC, this variant of the 9G drops the torque converter in favor of a multi-plate clutch to save weight and improve response.

Said transmission is shared with the C 63, whereas the transverse-engined A 45 uses a dual-clutch transaxle with eight forward gears. Because lesser trims of the A-Class feature front-wheel drive, it should come as no surprise that the A 45's all-wheel-drive system is a little different from those of the rear-biased C 63 and E 63.

Even so, it's mighty good from a dig, posting a best of 12.1 seconds in the quarter mile. With nothing more than an ECU tune, the A 45 mentioned earlier managed to clock a best of 11.9 seconds on an unprepped surface. The E 63 crossed the finish line half a car length ahead of the stock A 45, also recording 12.1 seconds.

As Mat Watson points out in the video below, carwow managed to squeeze 11.1 seconds from the E 63 S 4MATIC+ some time ago. The stupidly heavy and aurally dull C 63 required 11.5 seconds to conquer the quarter mile, thus improving on the E 63 by a hefty margin.

carwow couldn't end this video without a half-mile rolling start race and an emergency braking test, which – as expected – were won by the C 63 S E Performance T-Modell. That is Merc's way of saying wagon, whereas the UK division calls it C 63 S E Performance Estate.