What is it?

With a price of around £75,000 (near as dammit the same as the current E63) this is the update of Mercedes’ über-saloon with the new AMG twin turbo 5.5-litre V8.

Technical highlights?

The new V8 engine (as previously seen in the CLS 63 AMG) puts out 518bhp at 5250rpm and 516lb ft from 1750rpm all the way to 5000rpm. However if you specify the 'Performance Pack' (a £8500 option that also adds a limited-slip differential) then those figures rise to 550bhp and a staggering 590lb ft. 

What’s it like to drive?

The engine is everything that you want from an AMG powerplant – effortlessly powerful with a lovely forced induction thump from low revs. It sounds great too. The steering is precise (particularly with the dampers in their firmest setting) and really quite feelsome. The chassis has a lovely neutral balance to it, meaning you can work both front and rear tyres as much or as little as you want through a corner. Despite weighing 1840kg it really does feel surprisingly nimble.

The gearbox is still a disappointment in manual mode as it’s just not as responsive as you expect a paddle shift to be. However, if you leave the ‘box in SportPlus mode and let the electronics do all the shifting for you then it works incredibly well and even on a give-and-take road you never seemed to be in the wrong gear – helped no doubt by the incredibly flexible engine.

How does it compare?

The car that it really warrants comparison with, hasn’t actually been launched yet – the new BMW M5. All we do know is that the BMW just wins the power war (by 2bhp over an AMG Performance Pack car) but the AMG just beats the BMW’s claimed 4.4sec to 62mph. BMW hasn’t announced a torque figure yet, but we’d be amazed if it trumped the AMG’s 590lb ft. Both cars are likely to cost about the same so it should be a fascinating comparison once we can get them both together.

Anything else I should know?

Thanks partly to the addition of Stop/Start and also AMG’s seven-speed Speedshift transmission, fuel consumption has been improved over the last model by a whopping 22 per cent to 29mpg. You can also buy the E63 as an Estate, which is quite cool (and makes it look a little less like a taxi…)