Now comes the new, second generation CLK. It is definitely a lot better than its predecessor - looks prettier, goes faster, rides & handles better... not just because of the usual evolution of technology, but Mercedes really committed a lot of development into the car and its chassis donor.  

The first thing catching my attention is its handsome styling. Now the CLK finally does not try to hide its bloodline. You can easily see its C-class root by the similar peanut-shape headlamps. If you dislike the quad headlights of E-class like me, this must be a good news to you. The design of new CLK reaches very high standard - sleek, elegant and simple, most people will easily love it. Its smoothness, instead of aggressiveness, reminds me the traditional style of Mercedes coupes, separating itself clearly from the muscle-full BMW coupes. Both attract me, but the CLK will definitely appeal more to female customers. 

Though base on C-class platform and share the same wheelbase, it has longer nose and tail to enable the coupe styling. Not a single piece of body panels is shared, including the steeper raked windscreen and rear window.  

Compare with another C-class coupe - the hatchback C-class Sports Coupe, contrast is even bigger. The Sports Coupe’s compact shape might look more aggressive, but it lacks the elegant style of the real coupe and feels definitely cheaper. In fact, Mercedes deliberately positions it lower than the CLK, as you can see from its all-4-cylinder engine lineup. In contrast, the CLK has a couple of V8s to choose from (5.0 and AMG 5.5), not even the C-class sedan can compare with. 

Thanks to the W202 donor platform, the new CLK is benefited with rack-and-pinion steering (instead of the old car’s inert recirculating ball design), a new 3-link front suspension and an aluminum-intensive rear multi-link suspension. Also, the chassis is 40% stronger in torsion than the old CLK, even though it gets rid of B-pillars!  

Discarding B-pillars improves a lot to the airy feel of cabin, especially when you wind down all the windows. The interior is also well designed, if not trimmed with the best materials. Mercedes could have used the decent dashboard from C-class, but for sense of uniqueness it gave the CLK a new dashboard with clean details and elegant circular air vents. Front seat comfort is always a strong card for Mercedes, so is this CLK. It also provides good rear passenger space, though both head and legroom are not as generous as Peugeot 406 Coupe.  

Performance and refinement 

You can feel the CLK is so well developed. Its chassis is so strong, suspensions are so absorbent, noise insulation is so good... so refined that sometimes you wonder why we buy coupes. Excitement is probably not the answer for most buyers, but good styling and self-presentation are. In this case, the Mercedes is fully successful. The CLK has look and image. Besides, it feels as refined and comfortable as other Mercedes sedans.  

All of its engines are smooth and most of them are extremely quiet. Even the new generation M-series supercharged four-cylinders are wonderfully smooth, just the supercharger becomes a bit vocal above mid-rev.  

The four-cylinders appears in CLK200 Kompressor (163hp) and CLK200 CGI (170hp), both are equipped with variable valve timing and twin-balancer shafts. CGI runs at direct injection. They are never fast cars, because the new CLK is 110kg heavier than its predecessor, but the supercharged engines are torquey enough for decent performance - expect a little over 9 seconds for 0-60mph.  

Then come the familiar 170hp 2.6-litre and 224hp 3.2-litre V6 used in CLK240 and CLK320. We have talked about them too much (simply in every reports of other Mercedes models), so I think not necessary to introduce again. The same goes for the smoothie 5-speed automatic they mate with. 

Topping the CLK are two V8s - CLK500 is of course powered by the 306hp 5-litre V8. Pushing just 1585kg kerb weight you can see it can easily do 0-60mph in 5.7 seconds as claimed, even though this car shifts automatically.  

The performance flagship is CLK55 AMG, which runs a 367hp 5.5 V8 instead of the 354hp supercharged 3.2 V6 found in AMG version of C-class sedan and Sports Coupe. Technically, this might not be a clever decision, as the huge V8 burdens the nose of the small platform, but Mercedes believes that the all-important American market prefers a big-block V8.  

We shall leave the CLK55 to a separate report later. Now just concentrate on the CLK500.  

Excitement? 

The fast, smooth and effortless performance coupe scores nearly full marks in comfort side. What about handling? is it a double-edge sword like the mighty SL500?  

Unfortunately, the C-class platform has its limitation here. Without the help of active body control or air suspensions, the cheaper CLK fails to match the all-round ability of its more sophisticated sisters. To deliver excellent comfort, suspensions are deliberately tuned soft. Even in the Avantgarde version which has 5% stiffer springs, thicker anti-roll bars and 15mm lower ride height, the CLK still bias towards the soft side compare with BMW 3-series coupes, let alone M3. As a result, it understeers early on twisty roads, rolls too much at high g-force while feeling nose heavy. Although understeer and body roll set in progressively and predictably, they simply persuade you to back off. A similar story is found in steering. Although the new rack provides good communication, precision and adequate weighting, its 3.0 turns lock to lock is a bit slow for attacking twisty roads.  

In short, the CLK is designed for comfort and effortless performance rather than ultimate driving excitement. Anyway, this is already much better than its predecessor, which shone in neither comfort nor excitement. 
 

CLK55 AMG

Open the bonnet and you will see a big normally-aspirated V8. Its 3-valve-per cylinder design was originally chosen for the benefit of low emission and high fuel-efficiency. Its specific output of 67hp / litre is even a joke for a modern performance engine. Its crankshaft spins nowhere like the Munich straight-six. This contest look like an American push-rod V8 versus a Williams F1 engine. However, count every of its 5439 cubic centimeters of capacity and you will find it actually produces more power than the M3. There are 367 horses under the bonnet. In terms of torque, the advantage is even bigger: 376 lbft versus 269 lbft. So, surprisingly, our beloved M3 loses to CLK55 in Round 1. 

Wait a moment, we must ask why we need so much power. The answer is of course to achieve good performance. Then you realize performance is a function of power as well as weight and the type of transmission. Now the advantage is reversed. The AMG CLK tips the scale at a ridiculous 1640kg, 140kg more than M3. Its gearbox is a 5-speed automatic while M3 runs a 6-speed manual or sequential. Although AMG added Tiptronic mode operated via buttons on steering wheel, this do nothing to speed up the gearchange. An automatic with torque converter is still an automatic with torque converter.  

So, M3 wins Round 2 - acceleration contest. It takes 4.8 seconds for 0-60mph, a couple of tenths quicker than the CLK55. 

Round 3 is handling, where the AMG loses even more. M3 loves to attack twisty roads. CLK55 is on the contrary. From the body roll, understeer and the intervention of ESP stability control, you can feel it is rather bulky in corners. You feel the weight of the car, you feel the weight at the nose, you feel the C-class-derived chassis does not have the balance to cope with the mega V8.  

Admittedly, Mercedes did not try to tune it as hard-edge as M3. Its suspensions are set stiffer than CLK500 but not by much. This guarantee superb cruising comfort. The lack of wind and tyre noise also help. Round 4 goes to the Mercedes. 

However, if CLK55 AMG bias towards comfort, why don’t we buy a CLK500 instead and save £7,000? or choose the M3 if we prefer sporty handling? I’m afraid AMG will be embarrassed by this question. Obviously, CLK55 doesn’t worth so much money. 
 

CLK63 AMG

Unquestionably, from CLK55 to CLK63 our focus is put on the new engine. This is the first application of AMG's new 6.3-litre V8. It will power most of the future AMG models, such as C63, E63, CLS63, SLK63, R63 and ML63, replacing the existing 5.5-litre naturally aspirated and supercharged V8s. Only the most expensive AMG models will be powered by another engine - 6.0-litre twin-turbo V12. So you can see the importance of the new 6.3 V8.

AMG said the engine is the result of 4 years of research and development. The project was led by Bernd Ramler, who had previously designed the V10 engine of Porsche Carrera GT. Ramler chose an approach very different from AMG's tradition: instead of torque, the new V8 emphasizes high-revving efficiency and power. From the unique bore distance of 109mm, one can see it is almost a clean sheet design rather than based on the standard Mercedes V8. It has its own engine block, heads, crankcase, pistons, connecting rods, intake and exhaust. I suspect only the less important peripherals and dual continuous variable cam phasing actuators were carried over from the standard engine.

CLK63 AMG Black

As everybody knows, Mercedes-Benz is a luxury car maker instead of a sports car specialist. However, its AMG division gets more and more ambitious in recent years. Having produced at least one AMG model for each rear-drive Mercedes line, it started introducing an even more hardcore line called the Black Series. The Black series is much more expensive than the already expensive AMG models. It is designed to be road and track cars appealing to the most hardcore drivers, i.e., the same crowd as Porsche. The first product was last year's SLK55 Black. Now it expands to CLK63 Black.

Interestingly, CLK-class is probably the most modified line in Mercedes. As it is Stuttgart's most compact rear-drive model yet with sufficient space for a large V8, whenever AMG wants to produce a supercar beater it is always the first car to come in mind. Two years ago, AMG produced a limited edition CLK DTM with a supercharged 5.4 V8 good for 582 horsepower and 199 mph. The ultra-exclusive model showcased what AMG could do, but its pre-tax price of £140,000 was nonsense for any commercial success. This time CLK63 Black gets more realistic – "only" £100,000 will buy you one of the 500 units to be built. A 30 percent discount from the old car. Isn't it a bargain ? Of course not ! At this price it is in the league of Porsche 911 Turbo, Ferrari F430 and Lamborghini Gallardo. A Porsche 911 GT3 costs only £80,000, while the regular CLK63 AMG asks for £66,000. The Black will need to be very good to justify its price.

CLK DTM AMG

The car is powered by a retuned version of AMG’s 5.5-litre sohc 24 valves supercharged V8. In this form it delivers 582 horsepower, compare to the SLR's 626hp. But its higher torque, at 590 lbft versus the McLaren's 575 lbft implies something else. Rumour has that Mercedes might deliberately underrate it to prevent from embarrassing SLR.  

The body of CLK DTM is heavily modified, with massive fenders made of carbon-fiber to stretch the tracks. The car sits lower than the standard CLK. Suspensions employ racing-style adjustable springs and gas-filled dampers. Inside, everywhere in the cockpit is trimmed with carbon-fiber to save weight, including the racing bucket seats. Rear seats are ditched in favour of a cross brace to enhance body stiffness.  

The SpeedShift 5-speed automatic gearbox is quickened in response. It transmits power to a multi-plate-disc LSD at the rear axle. The braking system is by AMG’s ceramic composite brakes, with 6 and 4-pot callipers front and rear respectively. The front wheels wear 255/35ZR19 tires while the rears are 285/30ZR20. Overall, the whole car undercut SLR by 20kg. 

Those people who had the opportunity to test it on the track found the car extremely quick, probably really quicker than SLR. Officially, it claims 3.9 sec for 0-100kph (SLR: 3.8 sec), 0-200kph takes 10.9 sec (SLR needs 10.6 sec) and a top speed electronically limited to 199 mph as this is the maximum speed of its tires. Can't believe it is based on a CLK ! 

The testers also found its handling race-car precise, strictly follows the instruction from the driver. The traction control and ESP permits a small degree of oversteer. If you switch it off, CLK DTM can powerslide beautifully according to throttle and steering input, much the way like a real race car. And of course, body control is as steady as rock. 

However, how it handle and ride on a public road is left to be seen. Road version of race cars usually performed better on track than on road. That's why we cannot make a final verdict before reading a road test done on public road. 

One thing I am not convinced is the price - £140,000 plus tax ! for this price you can get a Lamborghini Gallardo plus a BMW M5 simultaneously, not just a CLK-looking car. You don't need to tell me which one is more desirable.