The 503bhp Mercedes-AMG C63 coupe is here. Nearly…

Like a particularly mean parent in the weeks before Christmas, Mercedes is being quite the tease with its new C63 AMG coupe.

We’ve already had some very cropped-in glimpses of a camouflaged C63, and now the camera has panned out to allow us a look at the whole thing, as it undergoes final development at Hockenheim.

And, well, it looks like a two-door C63, particularly at the front, where the coupe closely resembles its more sensible saloon sibling.

It’s at the rear where things get more interesting. As well as binning the back doors, Merc looks to have kicked up the rear window line, while the thin taillight/dropped-number-plate look apes the rather svelte S-Class coupe.

The camouflage does a decent job of disguising the C63's proportions, though, so we’ll only know how good it really looks when a deswirled car makes its first public appearance at September’s Frankfurt motor show.

That’s when we’ll also know more about pricing and performance, as Merc is still tight-lipped on both. Our hunch is that the coupe will use the same twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine as the saloon – with 470 and 503bhp 'S' tunes – and possess the usual, electronically limited 155mph top speed.

You can also expect to pay a modest premium over the saloon, so a starting price of around £65,000 seems likely. That’s a reasonably hefty chunk over the £57k BMW M4 it will rival, but it also has a heap more power.

Should make for quite the twin test. We’re ordering a lorryload of tyres now…