Stop teasing us Mercedes-AMG, just give us a CLE 63 with a big V8 already!
Jordan Katsianis believes that the teaser of AMG’s new Mythos series CLE raises more questions than it answers
So Mercedes-AMG has revealed a new and very exciting teaser of what looks like a wide-body Mercedes CLE with pumped wheel arches, a rear wing and what could only be a V8 powertrain under the bonnet. However, this isn’t the long-awaited CLE 63. It’s a limited-run Mythos car, the second of a series that started with 2024’s £700,000 SL-based PureSpeed.
AMG fans have been waiting with whetted appetites for a new V8-powered version of an accessible model (by AMG standards, anyway) since the previous C 63 kicked the bucket in 2020. And they’re not wrong to be, thanks to literally years of CLE-prototypes lapping Germany with added visual addenda and a V8 burble coming from the exhaust pipes.
So this Mythos CLE raises more questions than it answers. Have all of the V8-powered CLE prototypes been nothing but test cars for this very limited, very expensive run of V8-powered CLEs, or will this limited-run model precede a full market introduction of a series-production CLE 63?
If this does turn out to be the only marriage of a CLE and AMG’s V8 engine, there’s going to be a large number of disappointed AMG fans that have been waiting for a true successor to the former C 63 Coupe.
Because here’s the problem. AMG knows that its latest generation models with four- and six-cylinder engines have cost the brand a lot of kudos with buyers. It turns out that its customers weren’t bothered about ultimate performance, but they were charmed by the charisma drawn out from both the V8 engine and AMG’s relationship to it – something the current generation of models just don’t offer.
At very least, if this expensive special is a throwback to AMG’s illustrious past the least it could have done was bring back the Black Series moniker. Because who knows anything about ‘Mythos’? The first and so far only car from the brand was the odd-looking windscreenless PureSpeed.
It’ll boil some blood to know that AMG is willing to build a V8-powered coupe, only instead of costing £90k it could cost multiples of five or even ten of that – if the PureSpeed is a relative guide to this new one. So, before we all lose faith in you AMG, please just give us a sign that a series-production model with a V8 engine is coming.
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