The Trio of Mercedes Benz's AMG Black Series

Somewhere in Affalterbach, Germany. A performance studio as they call it, run by AMG and is specialized in taking it further and creating what is called The Black Series. A division that reworks current AMG cars to be powerful enough to establish top performance around top tracks in the world, but legal for the streets.

We were lucky enough to have one of the finest 3 models of the Black Series lineup in Amman, and also be able to have a kickass photoshoot at Al-Abdali project.
The Black Series has introduced special cars to the market, and in this case we had The CLK63 Black Series, the SL65 Black Series, and the most recent C63 Black Series.
All 2 door coupes, as Black Series only reworks coupe AMG cars.



When the car is considered an AMG car, it should have a high performance engine, suspension system, and a fully reworked engineering of the basic Mercedes model, which makes you think it's the top of the line and that there's nothing next. Wrong. There is still a Black Series right after that.

So if AMG cars have handbuilt engines by top quality engineers, that even have their names written on a badge right on top of your engine. Can you imagine how much work is put in a Black Series?

Black Series has done their work on being even more advanced, and be able to create something that is more sporty/track-like car, and make it even more unique to own.

The main differences in the Black Series are basically focused on weight reduction, wider bodies, lower ground clearances, firmer suspensions, and all around performance tweaks.

Lined up in year model order, we first have the CLK63 AMG Black Series
Production years were only set from 2008 to 2009, with only around 700 of them sold.

The CLK63 is the second Black Series ever after the SLK55 Black. Although the rear seats were removed, and it wasn't available with a sunroof, but it was slightly heavier than the original base model, but in return it gained higher performance by a tuned engine, updated differential, an upgraded and adjustable suspension system, and many other tweaks that weren't available before.

Performance numbers:
6.2L V8 with 507 horsepower, 465 lb/ft of torque
0-60 mph in 4.0 seconds, and a top speed of 299 km/h
7-speed automatic transmission
Weighs 1,770 KGs

The next black was the SL65 AMG Black Series, Limited to only 350 cars made in 2009 and 2010. It has the most horsepower with its V12 engine where only 40 out of 60 AMG engineers at the time were able to build its V12 engine.

Hood, fenders, trunk, and diffuser are made of Carbon Fiber to reduce weight along with the roof which is enforced by an integrated roll cage. And that made it 250 kgs lighter than the stock SL65 AMG.

We like its rear the most, where it is 6 inches wider than the regular SL AMG, and the rear rims are 11.5 inches wide. In addition, a retractable spoiler to make the rear look even better!

Some interesting numbers:
6.0L V12 Bi-Turbo Engine that produces a whooping 661 horsepower and an incredible 738 lb/ft of torque.
0-60 in 3.8 seconds, and the top speed of 322 km/h
Weighs 1,864 KGs

It uses a 5-speed automatic transmission, instead of the newer gears because it's the last tranny that is able to contain that much Torque.

And now to the most recent devil in red, the brand new Mercedes C63 AMG Black Series. Which again only comes in coupe due to the Black Series standards. It got into production on 2012 and 2013 with the initial plan of building only 650 units, but after the crazy demand it was upped to 800 units and that was final.

It continued using the 6.2L V8 NA engine but with changed internals, that decreased the weight of the engine by 4 kgs, and also has the rear seat deleted (You can order it if you wanted), aluminum hood, and many other weight reduction parts.

Performance numbers:
6.2L V8 with 510 horsepower, and 457 lb/ft of torque.
0-60 in 3.7 seconds, and a top speed of 300 km/h
Weighs 1,834 KGs

The styling on all Black Series models have always been an eye catcher, where they do what Porsche does to the GT3, or what Lamborghini does for the SV, and give them the full track look and be fully aggressive on the road.

What we've learned with our cruise around town that these cars were made to be the ultimate result of what AMG can do to their cars. The number of people turning their heads to see these 3 beasts driving around town was countless.

The characteristics and impressions made by Black Series were: Aggressiveness, luxury, high performance, uniqueness due to limited production, and a true driver's machine.

We were sad to leave at that day as we could never have enough of such engineering and beauty on the road.

And speaking of uniqueness, Mercedes have released the new SLS Black Series a while ago, and guess what? it's already sold out.

Special thanks to the owners of the 3 cars who were up for that ride, and to the Abdali Project for giving us the support we needed and allowing us to have the photoshoot over at their location.