122 MODERN CLASSICS
Who’d wanta bloatedland-yachtwithmonstrous
performanceand mini mpg?Notmany,it turnedout...
ordhasjustunveiledthemost
powerfulenginein its history,a
76 0bhpblownV8 that’sset to
tw angnextyear’sMustang
GT 500 intoa distantcornerof hyperspace.
OK.Let’stakethatengineandshoveit into
anS-Max.Eh?You’rehavinga giraffe!That’s
ne vergoingto happen.
Ex ceptthatit did.Not at Ford,though.
Ev enthey’renot thatbonkers.It happened
at Mercedes-Benzin 2007,whentheR63
AMG – thepinnacleof R-Classmadness–
ru mbledhorriblyintoM-Bshowrooms.
OK, so strictlyspeakingtheR63’s507bhp
- 2-litreV8 (pinchedfromtheC63/E63)
wasn’tBenz’smostpowerfulengineat the
time – the 1999 SL73AMG’s7.3-litreV12
tr umpedit by 10bhp– but an SL couldn’t
ca rrysevenpeopleandall theirluggage.
AnR63AMGcould.
But evenin thewide,openspacesof
America,wheretheR-Classwasbuilt
al ongsidetheM-ClassandGL, theR63was
a st eptoofar.Mercedes-Benzwasmadkeen
to boostits sportingcredibilityby absorbing
AMG’s‘naughtychild’bolt-onpersonainto
th e mainfabricof thecompany,but no
MERCEDES-BENZ R63 AMG
‘ANALL-WHEEL DRIVE
MINIVAN THAT COULD
DO 0-60 IN 4.6SEC’
matterhowmanytimesM-Brecategorised
th e R-Classfrom‘sportscruiser’to ‘family
to urer’to ‘grandsportstourer’,thenumber
of peoplelookingfora 17ft-long,2.4 tonne,
fu el-guzzling,all-wheeldriveminivanthat
co ulddo the0-60in 4.6secwhileoffering
on ly averagecrashtestprotectionand
be low-averagelooksturnedout to be
de pressinglysmallin theUS.
Thatbuyingparcwasvanishinglysmall
ov er here,wherean R63cost£74,000.
Ev enin themodel’s 2007 heydaythere
were nevermorethana dozenR63
AMGsrunningaroundin theUK. Well,we
sa y ‘heyday’– in fact,theR63wasbinnedin
th e sameyearit cameout,makingit oneof
mainstreammotoring’sshortest-lived
cr eations,a propermetalmayfly.Today,just
se venright-handdriveR63AMGsexist.We
NEXT
ISSUE
ON SALE
4 TH SEPT
Only seven RHD
R63 AMGs exist.
Even less people
give a monkey’s.
MODERN NOT CLASSIC
Classic or not... We explore old car no man’s land
managed to fInd one for sale – a 114,000-
miler languishing in a Mansfield
non-specialist dealer at a stiff £19,900.
In its defence, the R63 AMG was smoother
and more agile than you’d expect, as long as
you had quite low expectations. There was
no argument about the luxury of the pano-
roofed, leather-clad experience, though. It
was like a business jet on the road.
Unfortunately jets aren’t that practical on
roads. The one you were driving on had to
be nearly as big as the sky if you didn’t want
to spend much of your time sitting in rural
passing places waving on oncoming traffic.
Trends move on, of course, and thanks to
the general enbloatening of cars, what was
gross in 2007 doesn’t seem half as ridiculous
in 2019. Bearing that out is the fact that a
couple of R-Class models were still being
built in Indiana as recently as 2017 for the
Chinese chauffeur market, a full five years
after the entire R-Class range had died in the
US and Europe. It wouldn’t be that much of
a stretch to imagine a restyled, GT AMG 63
S-engined 630bhp R-Class on the 2020
Mercedes-Benz website. You might even
ch oose one over that 760bhp S-Max.
F
Word s Tony Middlehurst
