The UK’s Tom Stoltman won the 2024 edition of the World’s Strongest Man competition in May. He did things like throwing a series of heavily weighted kegs over a 25.5-foot-high bar faster than anyone else and carrying a pair of stones (one 249 pounds, the other 300, to keep the athlete off balance) farther than anyone else.
What does lifting a cup of coffee feel like for Tom Stoltman?
These are the thoughts that go through your head as you make a quick run to the hardware store in the 2024 Mercedes-AMG C 63 S E Performance sedan.
I assume the world’s strongest man lifts coffee cups to his lips. And this 671-horsepower sedan, equipped with what Mercedes calls the most powerful 4-cylinder engine in history, can carry you out for a box of drywall anchors.
The almost unimaginably powerful do ordinary things. If the AMG is any guide, it feels pretty much like the rest of us feel most of the time. But with the potential, always, to do something absurd.
I spent a week testing the AMG C 63 S E Performance and found it easy to live with. But with a secret twitching just under the surface. My tester carried an MSRP of $95,090, including a $1,150 delivery fee. That total covers an $83,900 MSRP and options, including acoustic glass, black accents in the AMG Night Package, and a wildly unnecessary driver assistance package. Trust me, you’ll want to drive without assistance.
Day to Day, It’s a Nice Compact Car
The AMG C 63 S E is based on the Mercedes-Benz C-Class sedan. Our reviewers like that one for its impressive suite of technologies and supple ride. But it’s compact. You wouldn’t want to ask adults to ride in the back for long stretches very often.
That’s true of the obscenely high-powered version, as well. AMG sport seats are comfortable and offer heating and ventilation, but not the massaging functions of less performance-oriented Mercedes cars.
Its best interior feature might be the latest version of the Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX) interface.
It runs through an 11.9-inch touchscreen central display with fairly intuitive icons and controls. But it’s better than many similar systems at handling voice commands. When you get in, it greets you by name (the car Mercedes loans journalists says, “Good morning, Test Driver,” but you can teach it your name).
It then listens for the “Hey, Mercedes” command and can make adjustments like temperature changes and setting navigation destinations from your voice alone. When you open the door to leave, it will even politely tell you if you’ve left your phone in the charging tray.
I’m not as in love with the look of carbon fiber as AMG’s designers are. It’s everywhere in the cabin. But it gives the C 63 a high-tech sheen and complements the touchscreens and ambient lighting well.
Keep it in Comfort mode and use the pedal gingerly, and you’d never know you weren’t commuting in a nice compact luxury car.
It Looks a Little More Aggressive
From the outside, it does a slightly less convincing Clark Kent act. A broad vent in the hood gives away that the engine underneath can suck in a lot of air. Functional vents on the front fenders lend it a shark-like look.
AMG’s unique front fascia looks wide, low, and mean. And the rear view reveals a diffuser between four trapezoidal vents.
But the Engine Is a New World Wonder
Flip the dial on the lower right side of the steering wheel to Sport+ mode, though, and the sedate commuter goes away. The engine snarls and snaps. Mr. Stoltman picks up his stones and starts charging ahead.
This engine is a technological marvel — enough to require some explanation.
Its heart is a turbocharged 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine technically similar to the ones found in other C-Class cars. But this one is equipped with an electric turbocharger designed to spool up before exhaust gases even reach it, so turbo lag is almost unnoticeable. A belt-driven starter generator adds a few horsepower, too.
It’s a Plug-in Hybrid (Sort of)
Then there are the electric motors. Oh, I didn’t mention this was a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), did I?
An electric motor on the rear axle contributes up to 201 hp. A second on the front axle contributes to a quick jump off the line.
Most PHEVs can travel a respectable distance using electric power alone. This one can’t — Mercedes hasn’t even published a number for all-electric range in American testing. However, keeping its battery charged is essential to full performance. Plugging into a regular wall outlet overnight will do it.
Uniquely, that electric turbocharger can trickle-charge the battery while driving. It’s not powerful enough to get you to a 100% charge, but it extends how long you can use all that power. You’ll sometimes hear its whine continue long after you lift off the throttle, which takes some getting used to.
That power in total? It’s 671 hp. This 4-cylinder engine has a power rating similar to a supercharged V8. We don’t know the long-term reliability implications of that. We assume anyone spending nearly $100,000 on a compact car will see to its maintenance regularly.
You’d Need a Race Track to Really Master It
Floor it and Mercedes says the C 63 S E leaps to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds. Some magazines, in instrumented testing, have found it faster. I confess that I can’t feel the difference between 2.9 and 3.3 seconds when I’m laughing out loud at the rush.
Standard AMG Ride Control suspension with adaptive damping keeps it all flat in corners. Standard rear-axle steering makes it feel as lithe as a sports coupe, even with the back seats.
It’s all, frankly, more capable than anyone needs most of the time. You’d need regular race track access to make the most of it.
The World’s Strongest Man at Rest
Of course, anyone spending more than $90,000 on a small car understands that. However, only a certain sort of buyer is interested in this, like only a handful of people train to stack 300-plus-pound stones faster than anyone else.
If you’re Tom Stoltman, I suppose you go out for dinner now and then like anyone else. You just have to be careful not to break the plate with pressure when you slice your steak.
Likewise, some people will choose to sit in traffic in a Honda-Civic-sized sedan with 41 more hp than a Lamborghini Huracán. It’s not for most of us, but I’m glad it exists and admire the dedication behind it.
