Style: March 02, 2018

74 STYLE | motoring
CLASSY
COUPE
Mercedes-Benz’s C-Class coupe joins a
large range of luxury and performance
cars from this high-profile German
manufacturer. Motoring writer
Ross Kiddie drives the C43 AMG.
bout 10 years ago
​AMercedes-Benz made a
bold decision to re-engineer the
configuration of its six-cylinder
engine – it went from a straightsix
to a V6. It was a decision
that not only cost millions of
dollars in development work
but came with no guarantee
that it would be a successful
exercise.
Well, as time has served to
prove, Mercedes-Benz is reaping
the benefits of that decision
today; its six-cylinder line-up is
vast and successful. There’s a
3-litre option across most of
their range.
The latest to come my way
was the C-Class C43, a petrolpowered
coupe also wearing an
AMG badge – AMG being the
performance arm of Mercedes-
Benz.
Last year I drove the C63
coupe, which has the highpower
V8 engine; the C43 is
much the same car but with
the V6. But don’t be fooled
into thinking the C43 isn’t a
performance car, it certainly is.
As part of the process to
make the V6 work in many
forms, the C43 gets the fitment
of two turbochargers, which
boost power outputs up to
270kW and 520Nm. These are
good figures that will propel
the coupe to 100km/h from
a standstill in 4.7sec. If you
stack that up against the V8,
there’s only 1sec difference,
which I think is quite amazing
given it also gives away 1-litre
in displacement. The C43 will
also scamper through a highway
overtake (80km/h to 120km/h)
in 3.9sec.
Drive is directed through a
nine-speed automatic gearbox.
The ratios are a wide spread of
what is needed for acceleration
broadening for relaxed highway
motion so that fuel usage isn’t
excessive.
On that subject, Mercedes-
Benz claim an 8.2-litre per
100km (35mpg) combined cycle
average. My time with the test
car had the fuel usage constantly
showing around 10.8l/100km
(26mpg), which was much the