You get an unmistakable sense of disdain for compromise from the C 63 S Cabriolet – and you can detect it long before you’ve even reached for the door handle.
Convertibles such as this don’t generally come with 500bhp turbocharged V8 engines and the AMG’s implicit promise, having got that engine, is to give you four-seat usability combined with proper two-seat sports car levels of speed, handling and driver appeal.
A big ‘0 deg C’ displayed on the C 63 S’s exterior temperature gauge on the day allotted for measuring our performance figures made it tricky to verify some of those implicit promises.
Like its rangemates, the C 63 S does come with electronically governed launch control, but it’s deactivated when the ambient temperature is at or close to freezing. And yet even without launch control and in freezing conditions, the car not only recorded a very impressive two-way 4.6sec 0-60mph average but also matched the Jaguar F-Type V8 S Roadster we figured when sprinting from 30mph to 70mph – both through the gears and when locked in fourth gear.
Its throttle response feels near-perfect even through forced induction, and power is served up in a beautiful balancing act of torquey linearity and building dramatic climax.
