Snazzy super-estate

The Mercedes-Benz AMG CLS63 S Shooting Brake 4Matic is quite a mouthful of a model designation that effectively conveys Mercedes-Benz’ extensive model lines and multitude of variable versions that covers a broad spectrum of conceivable car niches.

Translated, the featured super-estate’s name indicate it as the high performance AMG sub-brand version of the CLS-Class, which is a sportier, more stylised but less practical car based on traditional E-Class executive saloon’s platform.

The first car to be billed as ‘four-door-coupe’, it logically follows the CLS-Class estate version is a Shooting Brake — a term that traditionally describes a 3-door estate version of a 2-door coupe.

Segment-bending

A devastatingly powerful and segment-crossing super-estate unveiled as a well-received concept in 2010, the CLS-Class Shooting Brake entered service in late 2012, including the high performance 5.5-litre bi-turbo V8. No longer indicating actual engine capacity, the ‘63’ in the alphanumeric AMG CLS63’ designation is inherited and is now associated with this particular engine. Initially producing 518BHP, the CLS63’s engine was tweaked to 549BHP in 2013, along with a further ‘S’ version tuned to 577BHP was also introduced.

Offered in standard rear-wheel-drive, the four-wheel-drive version tested carries the 4Matic designation. The CLS63 S 4Matic Shooting Brake version, appeared only in mid-2013, but Mercedes have most recently unveiled a minor CLS-wide aesthetic face-lift.

A more practical and better-looking version of the CLS-Class — itself a less spacious and more stylised E-Class derived offering — the Shooting Brake offers the best of both worlds. Long, wide and hunkered down, the moody, dramatic and sophisticated Shooting Brake is among Mercedes’ best current designs.

The five-door Shooting Brake’s extended roofline better harmonise its lines, better emphasises its broad road-hugging stance and projects a more assertive presence than the four-door CLS-Class.

Best in more aggressive AMG guise to accentuate its chiselled wheel-arches, defined creases, arcing roofline, wide single-slat grille, the just unveiled face-lift doesn’t much alter the handsome CLS63 Shooting Brake, with most obvious differences being rear wheel-arch vents and a subtle fascia re-jig in-line with the new C- and S-Class saloons.

Bi-turbo brute

A thoroughly substantial vehicle in terms of technology, luxury, size and weight, the CLS63 S 4Matic Shooting Brake’s twin-turbo 5.5-litre direct injection V8 powerhouse is well up to the job.

With four-wheel-drive traction, limited-slip rear differential and electronic traction control and torque vectoring, the range-topping Shooting Brake digs its heels in with vice-like tenacity and — after a moment’s pause as its turbos spool up — rockets off-the-line with a ferocity and velocity that defy its paunchy 2,025kg heft.

Bulleting from standstill with sledge hammer like bluntness and super car-rivalling acceleration, the Shooting Brake demolishes the 0-100km/h dash in a mere 3.7-seconds, and can theoretically keep going well north of its electronically-governed 250km/h maximum.

Developing 577BHP at 5,500rpm and a gut-wrenching 590lb/ft torque throughout 1,750-5,000rpm, the Shooting Brake is devastatingly muscular and brazenly blitzed through the 200km/h mark on the Yas Marina Formula One Circuit’s long straight. 

While acceleration trailed off slightly, it nonetheless maintained a muscular charge to within a whisker of its governed top speed before one had to slam onto the brakes to accommodate a swiftly approaching slalom obstacle. 

Slightly faded after many mercilessly punishing laps at the hands of assembled auto journos and AMG drivers and under its own heft, brake pedal feel eventually became spongy, but with firmer depression and longer pedal travel, it nevertheless remained resolutely effective in quickly shedding velocity.

Pace and performance

A brutally powerful and stylised luxury super-estate, the AMG Shooting Brake isn’t a subtle car that disguises its’ weight, but rather one that manages it with electronic and mechanical solutions. While a McLaren sports car seemingly slices through a race circuit, the AMG Shooting Brake very effectively barges, batters and bludgeons its way around.

Not one to finesse its way on track, the bi-turbo CLS63’ engine fluency through revs has been improved, but it is characterised by its tremendously muscular and surging mid-range, bookended by slight low-end turbo lag and relatively low rev-limiter.

On track, the Shooting Brake drives best using its 7-speed gearbox’s most aggressive Sport+ automatic mode. 

In Sport+ gear shifts snapped off aggressively and intuitively. Using manual sequential paddle-shift mode, one struggled to up-shift before the rev limiter.

Firmly but smoothly planted at speed straights and through fast sweeping corners, the Shooting Brake’s suspension heroically suppressing weight transfer and keeps it flat. With 67 per cent rear-wheel power bias, the CLS63 4Matic’s all-paw traction and power allocation allows it to better claw through corners with later at-the-limit electronic stability safety interference, and provides similar feel but greater fluency through corners than the rear-drive version.

Designed and tuned for high speed confidence rather than steering and chassis feel and intimacy, the Shooting Brake nonetheless tackles corners well, with four-wheel-drive, limited-slip differential, greater negative wheel camber and electronics effectively guiding putting power down through corners.

Cabin and kit

Classy, quiet and refined, the Shooting Brake is well-insulated from noise, harshness and vibrations. With low roofline and small glasshouse, the Shooting Brake’s luxurious cabin has a hunkered-down business-like ambiance, and finished with carbon fibre and piano black trim, matt metallic fixtures and soft textured stitched leathers.

Busy but symmetric, the CLS63’s cabin features flat-bottom contoured multi-function sports steering wheel and comfortably supportive seats. Front visibility and space are decent, while the extended roofline improves rear headroom, but rear accessibility is unaltered.

An E-Class estate may be more spacious, but the Shooting Brake is generous next to the CLS-Class four-door, with 590-litre luggage space expanding to 1,550-litres. Optional nautical-style cherry wood cargo floor is particularly elegant.

Thoroughly appointed and well-kitted with high tech luxury, convenience, safety and semi-autonomous driver aids, the CLS63’s extensive standard and optional equipment list features Bang & Olufsen sound system and front seat bolsters that automatically firm-up for cornering support. For those intending to push the CLS63 to its limits, the best option to invest in are the highly effective and fade-resistant carbon ceramic brakes to deal with the immense power, weight and stresses of circuit driving.

Extensive safety equipment includes multi-stage stability controls, NECK-PRO headrests, three three-point rear seatbelts and two Isofix child-seat latches. Advanced driver aid features optionally include Lane Keeping, Blind Spot and Night View assists, and adaptive cruise control among many other features.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 5.5-litre, twin turbo V8-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 98 x 90.5mm

Compression ratio: 10:1

Valve-train: 32-valve, direct injection, variable timing

Gearbox: 7-speed wet-clutch automatic

Drive-train: four-wheel-drive, limited-slip rear differential

0-100 km/h: 3.7-seconds

Maximum speed: 250km/h (electronically governed)

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 577 (585) [430] @5,500rpm

Specific power: 105.7BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 285BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 590 (800) @1,750-5,000rpm

Specific torque: 146.5Nm/litre

Fuel consumption, combined: 10.6-litres/100km

CO₂ emissions, combined: 248g/km

Fuel tank capacity: 66-litres

Length: 4,999mm

Width: 1,881mm

Height: 1,436mm

Wheelbase: 2,874mm

Track width, F/R: 1,625 / 1,607mm

Cargo, min / max: 590- / 1,550-litres

Kerb weight: 2,025kg

Steering: Variable assistance, rack and pinion

Suspension, F/R: Three-link, coil springs / multi-link, air springs

Brakes: Ventilated discs

Tyres, F/R: 255/35ZR19 / 285/30ZR19