Hyderabad: 557bhp and 760 torques. That’s probably how much go-juice God had when he created the world. You’ve got to wonder what in the Holy AMG’s boffins had in mind when they installed such gravity-defying oomph in the 60-something-lakh ML-Class. I mean, ze Germans aren’t particularly known for their humour. Beer, yes. Stand-up comedy? ‘Fraid not.
But (this requires hindsight) think back to every single AMG-tuned car you’ve ever come across. Can you remember even one that threatened to compete with anything from BMW’s M division or even Porsche? Of course not. While those two went down the poise and precision route, AMG did the decent thing and made cars with massive loud thrustiness and to hell with how quickly it can go round a racing track.
No, AMGs, like Aston Martins, have always been unique. They’d worked out that driving was supposed to be pleasurable — a dramatic and euphoric occasion. The skunkworks inside AMG, those crazy crazies responsible for the Black Series cars know this as well. Not one of their limited edition specials was designed to go around a corner fast. They were designed to make corners fun and dramatic and memorable.
I loved that about them. I still do, in fact. AMG-tuned Mercs are, on the face of it, simple beings. Like muscle cars, they make huge performance accessible to you and me. And so it goes with the ML63 AMG.
Keen readers will remember that the ML350 CDI was the first ever car on Honk to get a perfect score. It blew us away completely. Pace, panache, predictability and poise — it had the lot.
The loony ML has all of that. It also has figures that will make many a sportscar squeal. Try 0-100kph in 4.9 seconds. Or a limited top speed of 250kph in sixth gear with another one to go. One thing’s for sure; if there is a faster SUV out there, it has a roll cage and a rally driver in it.
Like the AMG-fettled GL, it has a distinctly non-AMG cabin. The only visual clue to its brutality is in the flat-bottomed steering wheel. The rest is regular classy Merc — no surprises and no complaints.
The first time you put your foot down in Sport mode, you’ll smile the smile of a child who’s just had too much chocolate.
This car has the ability to transport you back to your childhood. It makes you giggle like you did when you got away stealing mangoes. If you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself on a mountain road, giggling like an idiot and going “whee!” as you hurl it from bend to bend.
And when you drive back into the city after your mountain road thrash, you will never realise that under your right foot, you have the power to make Superman blush. There’s plenty of delay on the throttle response and even the 7 speed AMG SPEEDSHIFT gearbox shifts quietly and unobtrusively in the background. And all the hundreds of traction controls keep everything nicely controlled.
The primary difference between it and its competitors is this. The Porsche Cayenne is a serious car for serious people. The Range Rover Sport is like an amazing workout buddy; it makes you push harder and works with you to make you cover ground faster. The ML63 AMG is like Elvis Presley — a full-on entertainer. And that’s why we love it.
