Palmball
New Member
- Messages
- 268
Oh my goodness, this thread is full of talk about my old cars. M3's, M6's, AMG's.....where to start!
Firstly, I am a massive AMG fan (in fact, I will assume the position of Sport Maserati's biggest AMG fan!) - they're genuinely different from the other fast German brands with their 'one man, one engine' philosophy and their ownership experience really reflects that. I went to AMG's factory last year and as an owner they gave me a one-to-one VIP tour, they put the union jack out for me when I arrived (you have to pre-arrange the visit so they know where you come from - but I've never had a flag put out for me before!) and, whilst walking me through their engine building facility (where one person really does build each engine hand), they introduced my to 'my' engine builder. Ownership experiences rarely get better than that!
In comparison, owning a BMW M was soulless and uneventful - other than benefiting from probably the finest handling car I've ever owned (that was the M3) or the best engineered car (that was the M6....the build quality on those is out of this world). But I rarely got excited by them, not in the way I did about my previous cars (Alfa's mainly), or my subsequent AMG's or now, my GTS.
I know this always causes debate but the C63 was to me a much better car than the M3 as an everyday ownership prospect - it sounded better, it was better made, it was soooo much faster and it had the best seats of any car I've ever sat in.
I also had so much fun last summer in my AMG as, when out at the Nurburging (one of 6 visits I made last year), I was introduced to one of AMG's development drivers! This guy was amazing and is now a good friend of mine - he helped me transform my car into what was probably one of the UK's best C63's. He arranged to fit and properly set up the KW coilover suspension as fitted to the CLK Black Series, the larger exhaust manifolds and race cats as also fitted to that car and some specific ECU mapping to which in the end meant that I had a C63 which could handle and, with a tad over 530bhp from it's exhaust/ECU 'tweaking' was pretty much untouchable in a straight line.
It was a great car...so why did I sell it? Well, I'd had a C63 for 18 months (two different ones) and C63's do have a very annoying characteristic...something I would deem a fundamental flaw. The steering column would, over specific bump frequencies, shimmy in your hand thus giving the sensation that it's not solidly fixed to the car! It was slight and barely noticeable but the longer I owned the car, the more it bothered me.
It's typical of all C63's that I've driven yet despite this, I still rate the car highly enough to have considered buying one of the facelift or new coupe versions when they're released in the summer. I've got it on good authority (no guesses who from!) that they've fitted a totally new steering and suspension set-up which should have rectified that one flaw ...yet before I could even look at it, I came across the Maserati.
And thats where I find myself now...I still hold the AMG is very high regard, I reckon the new facelift ones are going to show AMG at the top of their game...yet as a car to own, I find the Maserati is even more desirable and unique and the slight lack of performance in comparison is just insignificant.
For purely nostalgia purposes, here's a few pictures of my previous chariots....
M3:
M6:
The M6 after a 160mph blow-out on the way to the 'ring two years ago (it was so well engineered that I didn't even know until the dash light told me, yet the tyre was wrecked!)...
My first C63:
My 2nd and favourite C63 (in the first picture, AMG's development driver is driving a very concerned me round the 'ring!):
The trick suspension....
Standard vs. Black-Series spec manifolds...
The unique way Germans get a difficult-to-remove exhaust system off the car...
And finally, this is what happens when you let AMG's development driver out in your 530bhp AMG (to be fair, he did pay to replace them!)....
Firstly, I am a massive AMG fan (in fact, I will assume the position of Sport Maserati's biggest AMG fan!) - they're genuinely different from the other fast German brands with their 'one man, one engine' philosophy and their ownership experience really reflects that. I went to AMG's factory last year and as an owner they gave me a one-to-one VIP tour, they put the union jack out for me when I arrived (you have to pre-arrange the visit so they know where you come from - but I've never had a flag put out for me before!) and, whilst walking me through their engine building facility (where one person really does build each engine hand), they introduced my to 'my' engine builder. Ownership experiences rarely get better than that!
In comparison, owning a BMW M was soulless and uneventful - other than benefiting from probably the finest handling car I've ever owned (that was the M3) or the best engineered car (that was the M6....the build quality on those is out of this world). But I rarely got excited by them, not in the way I did about my previous cars (Alfa's mainly), or my subsequent AMG's or now, my GTS.
I know this always causes debate but the C63 was to me a much better car than the M3 as an everyday ownership prospect - it sounded better, it was better made, it was soooo much faster and it had the best seats of any car I've ever sat in.
I also had so much fun last summer in my AMG as, when out at the Nurburging (one of 6 visits I made last year), I was introduced to one of AMG's development drivers! This guy was amazing and is now a good friend of mine - he helped me transform my car into what was probably one of the UK's best C63's. He arranged to fit and properly set up the KW coilover suspension as fitted to the CLK Black Series, the larger exhaust manifolds and race cats as also fitted to that car and some specific ECU mapping to which in the end meant that I had a C63 which could handle and, with a tad over 530bhp from it's exhaust/ECU 'tweaking' was pretty much untouchable in a straight line.
It was a great car...so why did I sell it? Well, I'd had a C63 for 18 months (two different ones) and C63's do have a very annoying characteristic...something I would deem a fundamental flaw. The steering column would, over specific bump frequencies, shimmy in your hand thus giving the sensation that it's not solidly fixed to the car! It was slight and barely noticeable but the longer I owned the car, the more it bothered me.
It's typical of all C63's that I've driven yet despite this, I still rate the car highly enough to have considered buying one of the facelift or new coupe versions when they're released in the summer. I've got it on good authority (no guesses who from!) that they've fitted a totally new steering and suspension set-up which should have rectified that one flaw ...yet before I could even look at it, I came across the Maserati.
And thats where I find myself now...I still hold the AMG is very high regard, I reckon the new facelift ones are going to show AMG at the top of their game...yet as a car to own, I find the Maserati is even more desirable and unique and the slight lack of performance in comparison is just insignificant.
For purely nostalgia purposes, here's a few pictures of my previous chariots....
M3:
M6:
The M6 after a 160mph blow-out on the way to the 'ring two years ago (it was so well engineered that I didn't even know until the dash light told me, yet the tyre was wrecked!)...
My first C63:
My 2nd and favourite C63 (in the first picture, AMG's development driver is driving a very concerned me round the 'ring!):
The trick suspension....
Standard vs. Black-Series spec manifolds...
The unique way Germans get a difficult-to-remove exhaust system off the car...
And finally, this is what happens when you let AMG's development driver out in your 530bhp AMG (to be fair, he did pay to replace them!)....
