So, for those of you playing the home game (or who know me from my random adventures with my NSXs and other cars), it should come as no surprise that many times I do things that make little sense to most of the car world. Things like buying a very low mileage (17k miles) CLK63 AMG Black Series, and proceeding to make it my daily driver, grocery-getter, car to haul charity donations to the donation center, and other generally drive about in a hooligan nature in an effort to drain the tri-state area of its oil and gas reserves. In short, I have little regard for fuel economy, the Toyota Prius, or the general re-sale value of my cars.

Now, that being said, I am beyond picky with keeping my cars maintained in an absolutely PERFECT manner, legitimately suffer from O.C.D., and have a VERY specific 'hover over and past the seat bolster without touching it, and drop directly down' method of entering or exiting my Black Series in order to keep the bolsters looking top notch, and name each and every one of my cars and treat them as 'family members'.

But....with all of that, I am not the kind of person to just let my cars sit around while I worry about if I sneeze near the odometer for fear that I will lose money by actually having it do something beyond remain a static version of awesome. So, a few weekends ago I did one of my many, "I am going to drive 'Nero' for a while, so you might not see me until tomorrow," adventures. The thought process being that winter will be here soon, and this car gives me a HUGE smile and laugh literally every single time I drive it.

So....where to go? Well, I live in a suburb of Indianapolis, so I decided to point my car north, and head about 140 miles north in order to grab a Coney Dog from one of my favorite Coney Dog restaurants.

Immediately it became clear to me that this car is perfect yet evil.

Perfect because, on the highway, it cruises quietly like any normal Mercedes. Peaceful. Comfortable. Everything it should be.

Evil because as I looked down and wondered why traffic was going so slowly, I realized that I was driving 110 mph and covering ground at a rate that would make a light aircraft weep. DAMN!! This car is comfortable at high speeds!! Stable, and so deceptively calm.

After grabbing my required nourishment, it was off for my next stage of the adventure. But, this was easier said than done. Why? Because evidently EVERYONE is just staggered by seeing this car. Walking out the back of the restaurant a group of very nice bikers held conversation with me for no less than 40 minutes as they stood in disbelief that Mercedes Benz made something 'bad ***'.



Bidding my new friends 'goodbye', I fired up The Black, and headed out. Venturing out onto a long bit of back country roads, which resulted in me almost getting lost (almost), a few hundred more miles were put on the odometer, and a visit to the Shell station for some 93 octane V-Power had been done. So, (2) gas station visits in the same day. Not bad!

Figuring that I might as well see some friends while I was out and about, as they had never met 'Nero', I set my maps up to do my next stretch.

In short, they were quite impressed that a Mercedes product could sound like this, accelerate with such viciousness, and have seats that are so darn comfortable!! Every single person that sat in the car complimented the seats without exception.



Finally, it was time to head home. So settling in to the wonderfully supportive leather seats, that were quite obviously custom made for me to be in for the rest of my natural born life, it was a matter of switching on my V1 and attacking the roadways!!

I briefly stopped at a rest stop for literally no other reason than to stop and admire this wonderful car, and to take in how lucky I am to be able to own it. While there, a very nice man in a pick-up truck asked, with a very confused look on his face, "What the hell is that thing," not noticing the blacked out emblems of my car. I politely advised him of the details of the car, and spent the next 15 minutes enjoying how shocked he was as he walked around the car, commenting on the huge brakes, racing seats, carbon fiber, and lane hogging width, that makes up the Black Series.



At the end of the day, I covered somewhere around 600 miles (including the almost 100 miles of wandering about that I had done the previous day on some back roads), had (3) visits to the Shell stations for fuel, and had a HUGE smile on my face at the beginning, middle, and late night end of the drive. It is one of the few cars that I have ever owned or driven where I felt as refreshed and awake at the end of the day as I did at the beginning. This car has seats that are just without fault. Whenever I felt a bit of a lull in the driving, all I had to do was click down a gear or two, and lean into the 'loud pedal' so that I could bask in the barking burbling of the exhaust note being tied to one of the best engines ever put into a road car. Period.

Everything about this car is perfect. My friends have asked me if I am concerned with having put over 5,000 miles on it in just a matter of months, and how the re-sale value will be impacted. Needless to say, I am not concerned. When my time with this car is up, I want to be able to honestly say, "I extracted every possible moment of fun from my time with this immensely special car". Seriously. Nobody is guaranteed to have a 'tomorrow'. So why not make today special? Why not drive a car that SOOOO many people dream about every day. I dreamed for years before finally buying mine, and I will be damned if I am going to let that dream sit in the garage for fear of losing a few thousand dollars on some stupid thing like re-sale value.

This car is a game changer for anyone who genuinely enjoys driving for the sake of driving. If you can get one, do it! Every true car nut should have a CLK63 Black Series in their life at some point. So, stop reading this, and go fire up that beast of yours and DRIVE IT!! You only live once.

 

Great write up, Mitch. In 100% agreement, but I probably don't obsess over maintaining it in as pristine condition as you. Not beating on it mind you; just not "saving it" for the next owner. I've considered a trip from Dallas to NYC but thus far have only done day trips to Austin TX (appx. 450 mi. r/t). Have had mine 2.5 years and have put on appx. 11,000 mi. No regrets at all about devaluation attributable to usage. Regarding your observation concerning its calmness at high speed, it's probably attributable to its country of origin. I just came back from a trip to Germany and was in a new W205 C class estate with a 200 CDI engine. The car felt perfectly at home at speeds above 160 KPH and I saw plenty of garden variety Audis, BMWs and VW's (wagons as well) passing at that speed. So a performance car from AMG should be able to cruise at 110 MPH on the autobahn without scaring the sh_t out of its occupants. Which makes me think a CLK BS would have been a perfect car for a European Delivery.

 

Go mitch drive that Beeeyatch !

 

They are great cars! I wish I had driven my first one more, this time round its my semi regular daily. I've put 13k miles in 8 months.

I decided I wasn't going to sell it, so why save the miles :-)

 

Beautiful CLK! These cars are made to be driven. If you have a up-kept car 600 miles in a couple days you will be fine. I did 500 in 2 days in a Maserati(A car that many say is unreliable) So for a rock solid AMG you will be fine. Just watch for pot holes and that beautiful front bumper.

 

Great write up Mitch! I'm in complete agreement and use mine as a daily driver as well. Love every moment of the driving experience!

 

Beautiful write-up for a beautiful car. +63

 

Nice. Glad to hear you enjoyed some fun healthy miles in the Black Series.

 

I miss my Black its only been 2 days in the shop.

 

[QUOTE=Meeyatch1;6583648]

"...buying a very low mileage (17k miles) CLK63 AMG Black Series, and proceeding to make it my daily driver, grocery-getter, car to haul charity donations to the donation center, and other generally drive about..."

"...have a VERY specific 'hover over and past the seat bolster without touching it, and drop directly down' method of entering or exiting my Black..."

"... I am beyond picky with keeping my cars maintained in an absolutely PERFECT manner, legitimately suffer from O.C.D...."

*****************

"Look Honey, there are other people like me!" after showing my wife your great drive review. "Maybe you two can form a self-help group." she said, with an eye roll after pretending to read it. Women!?"

Great write-up, on a great drive, in a super car!

I'm on about an 8k/year pace, having done about 200 miles of backroad twisties on Monday, including Skyline Drive in VA.

We'll need to compare bolster, hover and twist techniques some time

 

Good times! Thanks for sharing. You're right, the car is surprisingly cruisable around town. But when I'm in it, all I can think about are the canyons

 

Great read Mitch . I agree with your philosophy on this car. Can anyone please help me understand why is it everytime I drive me bs I just feel like eating small children and terrorizing Japan . This car is absolutely insane. When I'm in it I feel confident that I can reverse the earths rotation. When I am next to other super cars at stoplight I have to use my Arnold/terminator voice . I have had other cars like the sls , 911 turbo s, Bentley gtc and only in this maniac do I feel as if I can mistreat the human race. I'm going to seek a therapist soon. Maybe because it's the cars ability to remain exclusive by way of population and ability to seem understated where as it doesn't scream super car Michael Jordan " I'm the best" but rather Clint Eastwood " go ahead make my day". Anyway my wife and I are going to look for a funeral home that will sell us a 20 by 20 so that I can be buried with it. She says she can't stand my love for it . In my defense , so what.