Mercedes-Benz Cars. All About Mercedes Cars

Mercedes-Benz Cars. All About Mercedes Cars

For the 1990 racing season, Mercedes-Benz teamed up with Sauber to create the C 111 Group C car. The results were spectacular: the team became world champions. Even that was not enough to satisfy our engineers however. They wanted to look for ways to test active systems for controlling vehicle dynamics before introducing them on production models - and so the high-performance C 112 sports car was born. Powered by a 6.0-litre V12 engine, it developed 300 kW (408 hp) and peak torque of 580 Nm. To ensure its huge power could be used with maximum active safety, the engineers delved deep in their box of tricks and came up with a range of electronic systems. One such system was Active Body Control (ABC), which made its debut on the C 112. ABC features a combination of springs and hydraulics at each wheel, plus sensors that monitor the vehicle's movements.

A computer then assesses the data collected via the sensors and adjusts the active suspension elements accordingly. The result is ride stability the likes of which had never been seen before. In addition, the C 112 was fitted with active rear steering. This allowed the car to compensate if the wheels were knocked off course by external influences such as surface imperfections, side winds, or road surfaces with varying levels of grip. Latest-generation anti-locking braking (ABS) and anti-skid control systems completed the picture. No less exciting was the car's styling: the spoiler and wing were infinitely adjustable and could thus be adapted to the driving situation to ensure the optimum combination of low drag and high downforce. The rear wing could also be extended instantly in high-speed cornering and under emergency braking. For optimum stopping power, the braking system automatically split the braking pressure between the front and rear wheels. It was not just in its ability to offer controllable high-performance motoring that the C 112 was a precursor to the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren however. It also had the gullwing doors first seen on the legendary 300 SL and recently revived on the SLR.

It handles well too, especially given its rather hefty 1730kg mass and the weight of the big V8 up front. Turn in is sharp enough, as is steering response, and traction from the 255s down the back is better than expected even under heavy load. There鈥檚 plenty of front-end grip even when pushed. The chassis feels solid and the body stiff, but you鈥檙e certainly aware of the additional weight compared with its closest competitor, the BMW M3. As an AMG version of the best selling C-Class, its suspension has been specially designed to accommodate the extra loads that this high-powered machine is capable of generating at any given time. Underneath is a sophisticated three-link front setup, which is 36mm wider than the standard model, as per the extra-wide front wheel guards. Even the wheel location has been stiffened by 100 per cent, providing more stability and accuracy when cornering. The multi-link rear suspension has been reinforced in the driveshaft and joints and the result is loads of stability through the bends in almost all road conditions.

It didn鈥檛 seem to matter what the quality of the road surface was like, the C 63 AMG never got out of shape or ruffled. There鈥檚 almost no body roll to speak of despite some early tip in if going into a corner hard, and the car is totally well behaved in these situations. It鈥檚 a similar story with the ride quality too. The AMG-worked suspension has absolutely no difficulty ironing out the bumps on the worst of road surfaces (the norm in Sydney) and that includes a wide variety of speed humps that litter suburbia these days. The brakes aren鈥檛 half bad either; large, slotted and perforated composite discs with six-pot calipers for front stoppers, while four-pots on solid discs make do down the back. You need exceptional brakes on any AMG car with this much power and these are that and then some. The progressive pedal feel is also a welcome characteristic of this braking system as is the brakes鈥?ability to rapidly wipe off speed.