They changed their mind.
Mercedes-AMG. The folks who spent the last few years trying to convince luxury buyers that a tiny four-cylinder paired with a battery could somehow equal the soul of a V8? Yeah, that party’s over.
The new CLE 63 Mythos is here to announce the return of the big block. And it’s not the straight-six we’ve been tolerating in the regular CLE lineup.
Flat-Plane Madness
Under the hood sits the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 from the updated S-Class. But there’s a twist. This engine uses a flat-plane crankshaft. That’s supercar hardware. Rare stuff. In the heavy S-Class limo, it makes 530 bhp and 00553 lb ft of torque, moving the ton-plus saloon to 62 mph in 4.4 seconds.
Fast. But this is AMG.
Expect the numbers to be dialed up. Significantly. The Mythos range is exclusive. Expensive. The first car, the SL Purespeed, cost £664k with only 250 units built. Nobody complained about the price. They just couldn’t keep up.
Rumors suggest the CLE 63 version might punch past 600 bhp.
If that holds true?
Sub-four-second sprint to 62 mph. Maybe less. It doesn’t matter much anyway, because you won’t be watching the clock.
Lower. Wider. Angrier.
Cameras caught the prototype at the Nürburgring.
It sat lower. It wore wider tires. It looked meaner.
The bodywork has changed completely compared to the earlier test mules. It’s shedding the awkward camouflage for a sharper, more motorsport-derived look. Some say it resembles the old Black Series models.
Others say it’s even more extreme.
The chassis had to be rewritten to handle the extra muscle. You can’t just slap a bigger engine on the same suspension and hope for the best. Especially not in a coupe meant to twist through corners.
The Hybrid Experiment Failed
Why now?
Remember when AMG went full electric-assist on the C63? The four-cylinder plug-in setup? Critics tore it apart. Fans were confused. It felt… hollow.
An insider told Autocar it plain and simple: the hybrid powertrain “failed to resonate with traditional customers.”
People paid for AMG. They didn’t pay for eco-logic.
Plus.
Euro 7 is coming. Making that little four-cylinder comply would’ve been insanely expensive. “Very high” cost, the source said. So they flipped the switch.
Back to gas. Back to V8. Back to noise.
“Failed to resonate with traditional customers.”
Fair point.
Will you buy one? Probably not. The Mythos list prices tend to break kneecaps. But the signal is clear. The soul isn’t in the software update. It’s in the exhaust note.
Guess we have four more seconds to enjoy it.
