| A Week at the Wheel | Herts, England | Mercedes-Benz CLK 63 AMG Black Series |

Inside & Out:

The CLK has always looked good, but AMG's visual makeover for the Black Series makes even its own CLK 63 AMG look modest. Hugely blistered wheelarches, a deep front spoiler, carbon fibre boot-mounted rear wing and vented front wings makes sure that you're left with no doubt that this isn't a regular CLK. The interior gets the same honing as the outside, so there are no rear seats (the space that used to contain them being simply carpeted) and the front seats are heavily sculpted to hold you tightly in place. The steering wheel is covered in Alcantara and features the de-rigueur cut-off and flattened bottom portion.

Huge 19-inch alloy wheels fill the Black's massively blistered arches, while around the back the four enormous tailpipes are the view most people are likely to have of this CLK. They'll hear them too, as the 6.2-litre V8 is a vocal beast, making all the right sort of noises for a performance car. Think of the high-revving metallic rasp of a Ferrari's V8 mixed with some low timbre from a big lazy American V8 and that's what the CLK Black Series sounds like. In a word? Magnificent.

Engine & Transmission:

Only three stars? Yep, sadly. The CLK's 6.2-litre V8 is one of the finest engines currently around. It's free revving and stupendously quick. In the Black Series, power rises from 474bhp to 500bhp, allowing the Black Series to sprint to 62mph in just 4.3 seconds. That's the same time a Porsche 911 GT3 manages. It also makes one of the best noises you'll ever hear, its lowly three-star rating here more to do with the fact that AMG has mated this wonderful V8 to an automatic transmission. It's not that the AMG Speedshift seven-speed unit isn't a smooth or quick enough shifter; it's just that it's an automatic and we think that, in a car this focussed, people will want to shift gears themselves with a proper stick and clutch pedal.

Numerous additional transmission and engine oil coolers have been fitted as part of the Black Series makeover, but on its launch drive outside LA the transmission often reverted to limp-home mode due to overheating. That's perhaps less likely to occur here in the cooler climes of Europe, but it's still a concern. And it doesn't even blip the throttle on downshifts, something AMG is now doing on the CLK's close C63 AMG relative. If we had a Black Series CLK we'd want some clever bod with a laptop to retro-install a throttle blip - seeing as you've no means of doing it yourself.

Ride & Handling:

Lively is the best way to describe the CLK Black Series. All that power, and the raised thresholds of the stability and traction systems makes the Black Series a more demanding drive than most missile Mercs. That's no bad thing, as at around £100,000 the CLK has to be exciting to justify its big sticker price. Like everything else on the car the suspension has been uprated (it's now adjustable) and the track increased at the front by 75mm and at the rear by 66mm. The changes make for a very stiffly suspended, but remarkably compliant car. Only the sharpest ridges send shocks through the suspension, the ride improving as the pace increases.

It's easy to coax the rear out under power, the locking differential making it feel very progressive and controllable. Feel through the steering wheel is improved over the regular AMG CLK, if still a little lacking in real clarity. The car's composite brakes bite with phenomenal force and seem utterly resistant to fade. For such a focussed car it's actually remarkably useable on the road, though in the wet it takes a skilled driver to really exploit its phenomenal pace.

Equipment, Economy & Value for Money:

Once you're in the sphere of £100k cars people aren't really bothered about things like value for money. To many it's just another hot AMG Mercedes, but to others it'll be appreciated for the unique AMG Performance Studio additions that have turned it into the Black Series. Bragging rights are secure too, as the CLK Black Series is essentially the car that you'll see on the TV shepherding Formula One cars in its role as F1 safety car. Equipment levels are pretty sparse compared to Mercedes's usual offerings in this price bracket, but the essentials are there, along with all those hardcore tweaks undertaken by AMG. It's guaranteed to be a rare car too, certainly far more exclusive than the Ferraris and Porsches its performance rivals. Economy? Best not talk about that. Officially the combined consumption is 18.5mpg. Good luck getting it...

Overall:

We love the Frankenstein nature of the Black Series CLK. It's comically fast, looks sensational and sounds fantastic too. It's also super rare and is hugely entertaining to drive. But there's a big but. We'd really love to be fully integrated into the driving experience with a proper manual transmission. Only then would the CLK Black Series get a fifth star overall.