Gallery: the glorious history of AMG’s fast C-Class coupes

Mercedes’ proud history of putting a stupid amount of V8 power in the nose of a two-door C-Class has welcomed a new hall-of-famer today, with the reveal of the 503bhp C63 AMG Coupe.

Complete with two more cylinders than a BMW M4, and two more turbos than a Lexus RC F, it’s a return to AMG’s mad old days of horsepower oozing from every bulge and crevice.

In fact, Mercedes has got rather good at turning a humble C-Class-based coupe into a muscle car over the years…

Always fond of a spot of badging alphabet soup, Mercedes originally called its two-door C-Classes CLK. This disguised the fact that, while priced and specced close to an E-Class, the CLK was largely based on the underpinnings of the smaller C-Class.

Dull economics sorted, Mercedes got on with tuning its new two-door. In went a 5.4-litre V8, developing 342bhp and 380lb ft. For the time, the CLK 55’s 0-62mph time of 5.4 seconds wasn’t merely respectable, as it is now. It was downright ballistic.

Mercedes had to borrow the five-speed automatic gearbox from the V12 S-Class of the time, as the regular CLK transmission would’ve been shredded by the torque output. Good old AMG.

Interestingly, potential buyers spent two years being teased by the car before they could actually buy one. While not officially on sale until 1999, the CLK 55 AMG was employed – with lowered ride height, upgraded brakes and a fleet of stickers – as the official Formula One safety car from 1997.

Continuing the CLK’s unlikely motorsport prowess, Mercedes threw its stately two-door into the bear-pit of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft: DTM.

Jolly successful it was too, winning the championship in 2000, 2001 and 2003 with German Bernd Schneider. Then again, the CLK was a rather sorted racecar with little relation to the street version. Under the bonnet, but pushed deep down and back in the chassis, was a 4.0-litre V8, good for 444bhp at a toppy 7500rpm. Good enough to drag that bookcase rear wing through the air at 170mph, and blow its BMW and Audi challengers into last week.

Back to road cars, and in 2003, the second-gen CLK’s range was crowned by the AMG-ified CLK 55.

Remember the days when what Mercedes wrote on the bootlid actually corresponded to the size of engine under the bonnet? Believe it or not, the ‘55’ actually did have a 5.4-litre engine (Merc always round up capacity), which churned out 367bhp and 380lb ft.

No, you’re quite right, that’s not a great deal of poke. Fortunately, AMG thought much the same, and set to work...

Yes, Mercedes finally got around to shouting about the fact the CLK had been a pretty handy DTM racer, and created 100 examples of the track-ready CLK DTM AMG. Besides the bespoke widebody panels and tasty aero, a mighty 582bhp was squeezed from the venerable supercharged 5.4-litre V8, in addition to 590lb ft. Speed was back on AMG’s menu, with 0-62mph done and dusted in 3.8 seconds.

Clearly a bit dizzy after all that podium champers, AMG didn’t stop there. Next came an even more exclusive convertible CLK DTM, limited to just 80 examples. In 2004, it was the fastest four-seater soft-top on Earth. Well, you’d want to hear that V8 sing, wouldn’t you?

Once Mercedes had stood back and admired the magnificence of its now-legendary ‘M156’ 6.2-litre V8 engine, it went hunting for cars into which to plumb this wonderful new powerplant.

Inevitably, the CLK benefitted. Power was rated at 474bhp and 465lb ft, in a time when a BMW M3 could barely muster 340bhp. Okay, so the Beemer was lighter, but the next M3 went for a socking great V8 too, so AMG must’ve been onto something...

The second Mercedes to wear a Black Series badge (following the oddball SLK BS) was one of the greatest road cars Benz has dreamt up to date. We fell in love with it immediately on account of its gorgeously pumped-up body – that ground-hugging splitter, those buxom wheelarches.

Thing is, beneath the Hulk suit, the £100k Black Series had been treated to one hell of an engineering masterclass.

Despite the lightweight bucket seats, ever lighter ‘no seats at all’ in the back, and many carbon panels adding up to trim 150kg from the regular CLK 63, the Black was a tad heavier overall. That was due to beefier axles and wider tracks, for better handling, while that wonderful 6.2-litre V8 was stroked up to 503bhp.

Here are Mercedes' Black Series AMG cars

After a few years’ hiatus while Mercedes binned the CLK and dawdled around the idea of a C-Class coupe, the formula returned with the C63 AMG Coupe.

Still powered by the 6.2-litre V8, in 480bhp form, the seven-speed coupe ripped to 62mph in 4.4 seconds, and at last gave Mercedes a true rival to the BMW M3 and Audi RS5. And this was just the start of its masterplan…

Black was back, complete with less torque than the old version (457lb ft plays 465lb ft) and some dubious – though admittedly optional – aero bits. And yet, the second-gen Black is one of those few cars that has the entire TG office nodding sagely and making mournful, longing noises.

A lightweight crankshaft from the SLS AMG, plus the Gullwing’s conrods and pistons liberated 510bhp from the 6.2-litre V8, meaning 4.2 seconds to 62mph, and 186mph flat out.

In an era of M3 GTSs and Porsche GT3 RSs, the Black Benz was no razor-sharp lightweight, but made up for that with bags of character and a hooligan attitude that bewitched anyone who drove it.

A cynic would say that the 507 (for 507 horsepowers – not all special editions get a name as cool as ‘Black Series’) was a parts-bin special, made to distract punters from BMW’s shiny new M4.

However, cynics are idiots. The parts that added 50bhp to the C63 for its last-hurrah came from the SLS AMG, while the nostril-perforated bonnet was nicked from the Black Series itself.

Think of a 507 as a Black Series but with all the extra luxuries and toys denied to the ‘lightweight’ car, and some silly stickers to boot. As the car that marked the final curtain call for AMG’s 6.2-litre V8 in road-legal form, the 507 will live long in TG’s hearts as a cracking everyday muscle car – and a sincerely hard act for the new C63 Coupe to follow.