The Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe was launched in Cape Town last week andStuart Johnstonwas there to take it for a drive.

If ever there was a difficult balancing act to pull off in the automotive world it’s the one Mercedes-Benz is currently tackling with its new model offensive, with an emphasis on wooing younger customers with raw, at times raucous power, yet being careful not to offend the traditional Merc owner, who values ride quality and quietness above all else.

Perhaps no other car epitomises this strategic conundrum more than the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe, the car at the top of the Benz heap in terms of desirability, image-statement, and indeed, price.

Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe Pricing

For the pleasure of owning the new two-door version of what Mercedes-Benz is fond of stating is ‘the world’s best car’, you need to have close to R2-million of readily available disposable income, and that’s only for the base model S-Class Coupe.

The S500, using the new 4.6-litre bi-turbo V8, weighs in at R1193000 before emissions tax or options are added. Moving on to the mid-line model, you have the S 63 AMG Coupe, starting at R2499 000. If you want assurance that no-one outguns you in terms of spec, once the braai-grid discussion turns competitive, opt for the S 65 AMG Coupe, the V12 version with 463 kW and a sticker price of R3070700.

Design of theS-Class Coupe

The very shape of the S-Class Coupe is a blend of gracious serenity and hard-edged power-broking. Viewed from the side, it renders the classic rear-wheel-drive two-door coupe silhouette by placing the dome-shaped cabin quite far back on the five metre-long body-form. This enables a suitably elegant truncated boot and a long nose. The flanks are shaped using the now-signature Merc DNA lines that have their origin at the tip of the nose, with the lower line easing upwards and the upper line dropping towards the tail light cluster.

The agro bit comes when you view the nose, or perhaps a better term for this aspect would be a snout. While there is a nod to the classicism of traditional Mercedes design in the shape of the grille, the huge air ducts underneath are almost primal in their gaping, swallow-anything-and-suck-it-up shape, edged by sharp-surfaced vanes that speak of aero efficiency while channeling huge volumes of air. That’s necessary for the turbo intercooling, oil-cooling and brake cooling systems on a machine of this calibre which moves a huge mass of metal at amazing speeds.

Driving the S63 and S65 AMG

At the S-Class Coupe launch, the S500 was announced, but not available for driving, as, on a world-wide basis, the straight non-AMG model is not yet readily available. So us journos had to choose between the V8 bi-turbo and the V12 bi-turbo. A pretty tough choice…

As things happened we drove the V12 first and the V8 after lunch, which took place half-way up the wonderful Helshoogte pass above the town of Stellenbosch. With the V12, I acknowledged that this package is biased more towards the sophisticated end of the Merc owner profile. The V12, even when pushed hard, has a muted song rather than a brash bellow, and things happen in this car in a seamless fashion, with just one exception noted.

That was when we hit some rather long-in-the-teeth secondary roads, with a degree of tar subsidence at irregular intervals. An S 500 would have wafted over these with no reaction, and I would have expected the same from the S 65 AMG, equipped as it is, standard with Magic Body Control, which adjusts the suspension settings before you reach a set of irregularities. In other words, there was just the slightest trace of the jitters as the wheels seemed to brush off their encounter with the bumps.

I believe that this is a crucial area where, particularly in the case of the AMG versions, Mercedes-Benz needs to pay close attention. The very essence of the brand is its hall-mark waftability. I realise that the sportier AMG versions lower the base model ride-height in the interests of sheer cornering power and stiffen up the ride, but AMG is definitely not the world leader in terms of rough-ish road composure in the performance field, and now with the sporting division brand known simply as AMG-Mercedes, it needs to be.

Engines

That said, the power-plants are indeed wondrous. For instance, the rasping, bellowing 430 kW V8 S63 AMG we sampled after lunch will haul the big coupe, weighing all of 2070 kg , to a speed of 100kph from rest in just 4.2 seconds. The V12 will whisper you to that speed in one tenth of a second less! That’s thanks to a stonking power output of 463 kW, a torque level of a magical 1000 Nm, but a mass of 2185 kg before you’ve added fluids and occupants. Oh yes, and EU rated overall consumption figures are in the 10 to 11-litre/100 km bracket, quite remarkable!

An impressive new comfort feature, now integrated into the Magic Body Control package, is the curve-tilting function, which subtly induces the Coupe to lean into a corner when a bend is experienced. Merc insists it’s not a performance orientated function, but a comfort feature. Whatever, the S63 and S65 versions of the Coupe are so-equipped and on smooth roads with sweeping bends, the big car’s forte, the body stays flat despite generating considerable outward-thrusting G-forces.

The amazing body, built largely from aluminium but with high-strength steel cockpit and even some plastic composites used to provide rigidity and insulation, is one of the quietest in the world in terms of road and wind noise.

Technology and Interior

There is a dazzling array of technology in this car, as you would expect. It’s all understandable on a huge display screen mounted on the curved dash top, which houses 3D displays of just about every configuration of comfort, dynamic adjustability, navigation, entertainment and safety configurations that you might desire. It’s a nice techno tour-de-force, although it is somewhat in your face, compared to the rest of the cockpit’s elegant theme of swirls, swoops and soft edges.

The trim and equipment levels are everything you’d expect from a top-end Benz, and the car makes a huge fashion as well as financial statement. It is indeed art on wheels, and despite what I feel about the ride under certain circumstances, this is what AMG, and many Mercedes customers now want. Many of them want that brutal aspect of the grumbling V8 version, a beast-on-demand whenever the personal cobwebs need an oxygen boost!

I just wish I could have tried the basic S 500 version, as I believe this will truly embody everything that’s best about balance and a considered approach to motoring, that is indeed Mercedes’ stock-in-trade.