Warning!
We have 15 years of archives. Links older than a year may have been updated to point to similar cars available to bid on eBay.
This site contains Ebay partner affiliate links, which may earn us a commission at no additional cost to you.
Just one time I’d love to get the full story on how these crazy low-production cars actually ended up getting built. Did the board member in charge of production planning buzz off to St. Moritz for three weeks and the guys on the production line throw together some leftover parts until he got back? Then again, these are the Germans here. Nothing is done without a meeting, another meeting, a planning session, a meeting about the planning session, and then a very precise schedule about production but not before having a safety meeting. There is a method to this madness, and madness is what we got with today’s car.
This is 1998 Mercedes-Benz C55 AMG. Reportedly there were 59 of these cars produced, which were the then-W202 C-Class AMG but with the 5.4-liter M113 from the E55. Why only 59? Who knows. Although this one has something different about it that you can see through the windshield. It is in fact one of the very few right-hand-drive examples for the UK.
I have to give it to Mercedes, they milked as much as they could from the C190 AMG GT chassis. Launched for the 2015 model year, the lineup includes the GT, GT S, GT C, GT R, GT R Pro, GT and GT C Roadster, GT Black Series, and the track-only GT Track Series. Missing from that list is today’s car, the GT R Roadster. Production was limited to just 750 units – probably because they wanted people to just go buy the SL63 AMG.
It’s always fun to look at those crazy fast SUV from Mercedes-AMGs past and given they’ve been pumping them out for over 20 years now, there are quite a few. However, when you happen to see one for sale that is tuned by the madmen over at Brabus, you take an extra close look. That is what I thought was going on with this 2012 ML63 AMG with the B63S Widestar kit. Someone spent a pile of money to tack on the extra bodywork and paint it, no matter how you feel about its looks. However, I was quite surprised when I looked under the hood.
While it seems like the majority of the world has switched to SUVs in order to haul around as much empty air as possible, I’m here to cheer on the legacy of the full-size touring coupe. Especially those from Mercedes-AMG. Make no mistake, Mercedes wouldn’t produce these cars if there wasn’t a market for them, especially when the base S550 coupe started at well over $100,000. That number got even crazier when you consider the S65 AMG coupe started at $242,000 without options and regularly sold well north of $250,000.
Today, we have the younger brother S63 AMG coupe with the twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 with 603 horsepower and 664 lb-ft of torque. Starting price? $170,000. A real bargain considering these go face-to-face with the Bentley Continental GT and even the Rolls-Royce Wraith. That’s even true if they are still listed for around sticker price like this one up for sale in Texas is.
Here is another one for the “didn’t know these existed” file. What we are looking at is a supposed 2004 Mercedes-Benz C55 AMG “Tracksport.” What exactly is that? Reportedly the long-time Mercedes special projects wing HWA produced four of these cars based off the C55. This wasn’t just a random project, but rather the same specs as the DTM safety cars. A newer Black Series-style bumper was added along with a full roll cage, some fixed-back front bucket seats, and even harnesses for the rear passengers. To make sure this is a real track car, it is riding on some very slick Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires that you’d be crazy to take out on the public streets. Speaking of crazy, wait until you see the price.
