When a company has its original 6.3 V8 saloon touring car and current DTM car sitting side by side in its reception, you know it’s probably going to be fun driving its cars. I like AMG. But until recently they were rather hobbled with the image of a tuning company producing muscle-bound, straight-line rocketships, the ring-leaders of the ‘where will it all end?’ German bhp race. Think ‘Mercedes AMG’ and the image that popped into your noggin was of a silver/grey car packing a forced induction V8 or V12, dripping in torque, leaving straight, molten black lines on the road. And some things haven’t changed. However, since the inception of the Black Series a couple of years ago, we’ve come to see that AMG can do more. We now know that they can produce cars that are taut and alive in the corners, cars can that stir your soul with precision and balance, cars like the CLK Black.

Even the ‘normal’ AMG cars like the C63 subsequently seem to have adopted a different philosophy – now it’s not just a hooliganish alternative to an M3, it’s a genuine alternative to an M3. And so we come to the E63. I imagine there was a collective groan from AMG’s design studio when they saw the shape that Mercedes-Benz wanted them to work with. Sensibly they didn’t waste too much time to trying to make a Monet out of a monstrosity and just applied the usual subtly deeper front spoiler, wider arches, sill skirts and rear apron. The result looks tough, but ugly in a very rhombic way.

Inside, it’s a feast of buttons and dials. The ESP and electronically controlled dampers have three settings each: ‘On’, ‘Sport’ and ‘Off’, and ‘Comfort’, ‘Sport’ and ‘Sport plus’, respectively. The gearbox is the seven-speed unit first seen in the SL63 and has five settings – ‘Controlled efficiency’, ‘Sport’, ‘Sport plus’, ‘Manual’ and ‘Race Start’ (launch control). Finally, and fortunately, you can program your preferred combination of all the above into the ‘AMG button’, which is basically a copy of M-Sport’s M button but on the transmission tunnel rather than the steering wheel.

With all this sophistication, it’s a surprise to find you use a regular key to bring the car to life. The exhaust is nicely vocal, the aluminium paddles on the back of the wheel are cool to the touch and the weighting of the steering is instantly good. The automatic gearshifts are discerningly timed in ‘Sport plus’ and the shifts themselves take just 100milliseconds. However, although the cogs swap at the same phenomenal rate in Manual mode, the pause between flicking the paddle and the 100ms change actually happening takes much longer, which is annoying.

The suspension retains air springs at the rear to keep the car at a constant ride height irrespective of load, but AMG has used steel suspension at the front to make it more agile. The ride is no magic carpet, even in the Comfort setting, which is surprising, but it has a polished tautness. The front end is pleasingly sharp, the whole car leans a touch as you turn in (it is a sizable 1840kg saloon, after all) then seems to firm up, allowing you to push incisively against the grip front and rear. Oversteer is an easy option with the optional limited slip diff.

As standard you get 360mm steel brakes but 402mm carbon ceramic discs are offered. I tried both and the ceramics certainly have more bite and power, but the steels have more progression and feel, so I’d stick with those unless you plan on visiting Spa more often than Spar.

And finally the engine. The AMG-designed and developed, naturally aspirated 6.2-litre V8 is a fantastic engine, with a glorious deep warble and an awesome top end beyond 5000rpm. Power is up on the previous E63 by 11bhp too, and AMG is even keener to trumpet that fuel consumption has been improved by 12 per cent. And yet I can’t help feeling it suits a smaller, lighter car. A big saloon needs that lazy yet wickedly addictive low-down kick that you used to get with the old supercharged E55. That engine produced 516lb ft at only 2650rpm as opposed to this V8’s 465lb ft way up at 5200rpm. I love the new, more agile AMGs, of which the E63 is one, but I don’t want them to shun their past either. So go on AMG, give it a supercharger – you don’t really want to be that far behind an RS6 do you?!