| First Drive | Stuttgart, Germany | Mercedes-Benz E 63 AMG saloon |

Only four months has passed between the launch of the new E-Class and this, the flagship AMG version; it usually takes a year. The reason for that is, like the C-Class before it, the E was developed with AMG actively involved in the process from the offset. Usually, AMG is handed a finished model and told to get on with it.

The result in the C-Class was tangible. In fact, we liked the C 63 AMG so much at its launch that we called the estate version "one of the most rounded and enjoyable performance cars available today." So, it bodes well for big brother, which takes the same hand built 6.2-litre V8 and guides it into the space where there's usually a turbodiesel chattering away. Mercedes claims that this AMG is better than the C 63.

In the Metal

The visual result of the E-Class's AMG overhaul is more discrete than the C-Class's; there's little to distinguish the E 63 from a sport-pack equipped E 250 CDI. However, park the two side-by-side and you'll see that the real-deal gets slightly flared wheel arches (by 17mm if you must know), a pair of brake cooling vents on the front wings, redesigned LED daytime running lights, the full skirt treatment all round and - our particular highlight - quad AMG-branded tailpipe finishers that sit flush with the rear valance. Misleading '6.3 AMG' badges (it's a 6.2-litre engine, which Mercedes insists on calling a 6.3) on the flanks are the other obvious performance giveaways.

The cabin is a similarly appointed feast of executive substance and discretion over boy-racer style. In a world in which diesel hatchbacks can leave the factory with a set of track-spec bucket seats, the E 63's chairs are flatter than an X-Factor reject. They are, however, sumptuously comfortable - a massive giveaway as to the car's setup bias, as it happens. The test cars available at the launch were all equipped with optional nappa leather dash tops, which significantly improves the cabin ambience, but it's not as though the E-Class is lacking in that sense in any event. The quality of Merc's executive, as we've already attested to, is an absolute return to form for the maker.

The big difference between this and mere mortal Mercs is nestled in the centre console. The new AMG Drive Unit sits beside the stubby gear selector and comprises three buttons and a rotary dial, laid out in a neat line. The dial is mated to the AMG Speedshift MCT seven-speed gearbox and can alter its shift pattern between three automatic modes and one manual one. It also accesses launch control - known as 'race start' in this application. Two of the buttons are linked to the electronic stability programme and active damping, and the remaining one - marked 'AMG' - is essentially a 'favourite' button used to store your preferred combination of damping and gearbox settings and access them with one prod. Bizarrely, but probably for good safety reasons, the ESP must always be switched on, off or halfway (sport mode) manually.

What you get for your Money

AMG Drive Unit, for a start, but mostly your circa-£70k buys you one of the best engines money can buy. The hand built 6.2-litre, naturally aspirated V8 engine is an absolute screamer, delivering big diesel-like levels of torque in the low range but snapping properly into life from about 4,000rpm, when it all starts getting a bit silly.

And owning a hallowed AMG car, with an engine developed from scratch by Merc's specialist tuning arm and meticulously put together by a man with a hand cart (true), may make the almighty premium worthwhile. But there is another way of looking at it: an E 350 CDI BlueEfficiency Sport has 398lb.ft of torque - a mere 58lb.ft less, and it comes earlier - but costs around half as much and will return almost twice as many miles per gallon (the AMG musters just 22.4mpg, though that's not too bad all things considered). The diesel will look similar, too. Hmm.

You're paying for AMG's full scope of engineering prowess, though, because the E 63 isn't just a big engine shoehorned into an executive saloon... it is that, actually, but it also has a unique steering setup, a clever sort of hybrid suspension arrangement, bigger brakes, aerodynamic tweaks and, as mentioned, the seven-speed auto, which dispenses with a standard torque convertor and uses a wet clutch, minimising power loss and allowing for gearchanges in one tenth of a second. It double-declutches automatically too, as is the proper way. Tally ho, old chap.

Driving it

First impressions of the E 63 are, frankly, unremarkable, and it becomes quickly clear that AMG has developed the car first and foremost as a gentleman's express. The steering, although 22 percent sharper than the standard E's rack, is light, and the cabin is as hushed as a big dose of "shut up, fool" from Mr T. But it's not unremarkable in the 'average' sense of the word; rather it's not as hair-raisingly bananas as you hope it might be at first.

The E 63's unusual setup of conventional springs at the front and air suspension at the back complement each other nicely. The idea is that the front springs imbue the car with come good old, authentic steering feel, but the air setup at the rear - which constantly monitors the angle of the car and keeps it level - is an aid to both comfort and body control.

But whichever of the damper settings between 'comfort', 'sport' and 'sport+' are chosen, the ride remains resolutely compliant, and any other adjective you care to think of that can be used to describe that wafting character so synonymous with old Mercs. What that means is that while the car lacks the aggressive edge you expect of it, it also has a huge breadth of talent - by no means is this a dynamic underachiever. Set the gearbox and suspension to their softest settings, leave the ESP on, and there's much relaxation to be had; the 'box changes early and settles on the highest cog possible, and you already know about the ride. However, with the ESP off and everything reversed (firm and aggressive), the chassis and gearbox are equipped to make more of the phenomenal reserves of power and torque. The steering and throttle response - quite often alterable in similar 'active chassis' setups - remain constant.

And there are few engines as ferocious as AMG's 518bhp and 456lb.ft powerplant above 4,000rpm. Pull any cliché you want out of your memory box, but from that point onwards the V8 screams - figuratively and actually - up to the redline like the car's been kicked in the backside by God himself. Every gearchange bangs in like a zeppelin exploding, too. Obviously it's no Murcielago in the aural fireworks department, but for a car so capable of docility, it's a stark contrast. That said, with 'ESP off', rear tyre shredding is always a distinct possibility, and while it steers with too much lightness for our tastes, there's very little slack to the speed-sensitive, AMG-specific rack. The chassis easily copes with all the power too, making it pliant and very nearly nimble, but ultimately there's little doubt it's been designed for the autobahn.

Worth Noting

The Sindelfingen factory where AMG puts its engines together is astonishing - and definitely a recommended detour (if it's possible) for anyone who happens to be around the Stuttgart area with a bit of time on their hands. We were lucky enough to get the guided tour from a couple of engineers there and were taken around the centre where the engines are built under AMG's famed 'one man, one engine' philosophy.

The place churns out 20,000 engines a year between 60 or so highly skilled engineers, each of whom has his own trolley with a little cup holder on it in which he keeps his bottle of Mobil One. He then walks up and down the surprisingly brightly lit engine construction room - like a surgery full of engine bits - putting the engine together on the trolley as he goes. According to AMG, this method means that each engine is built extremely precisely, with the actual power difference between each no greater than 3bhp either way; normally, up to 30bhp can be gained or lost compared to an engine's official output, when built fully mechanically.

Summary

The Mercedes E 63 AMG is a fitting flagship for the new E-Class range, following the lead set by the regular versions in being supremely well built, comfortable and dynamically adroit. It's evidently been conceived and made as the ultimate executive mile dispatcher, and in that respect it's absolutely superlative. However, at this stage we'd say it doesn't have the dynamic edge of the BMW M5 or the Jaguar XFR. Still, a discrete beast of a car. And that engine...