Both automakers and press have created several chances to fortify the differences between two important groups of coupés. Like what sets roadster apart from cabriolets, their closed-top relatives can be divided into those with main focus on sportiness, expressed using extravagant styling and high-performance powertrain, and a more sophisticated caste. The latter have received a couple of mentions at this blog in the past few years, and now welcome once again a member which stayed away from the market for almost twenty years.
Despite offering sporty trim levels usually with truly powerful engines, what these automobiles really offer is an informal interpretation of a sedan. They have the very same levels of comfort and luxury as those, but wrapped in the sporty casuality that only two-door layouts can bring. In the early 1990s, Mercedes-Benz thought this would justify to detach the coupés from both C-Class and S-Class lineups, which ended creating respectively CLK and CL – named that way in order to complement SLK and SL roadsters. Their concept was expressed even better with their second generation because they were given exclusive silhouettes, rather than looking like two-door sedans, but the market started to change faster than ever, and resulted not responding well enough.
This must be why the Germans backtracked after around ten years. CLK was dropped in 2007 and reappeared as C-Class Coupé four years later. CL resisted for another generation and lasted until 2013, but now emerges once again as this article’s gorgeous coupé. Since the sedan premiered most of the current generation’s technology arsenal and the coupé’s design was anticipated by the ‘2013 concept, the production version was allowed to give special attention to what differentiates it from both of those. The most obvious aspect of that is its style, whose lines have better proportions than the concept’s and look sportier than the sedan’s, looking different according to the lighting, but not as to think of another car. After all, it’s still an S-Class. And it’s very proud of it.
Entering the car will reveal pretty much the very same room of the sedan, although with some exclusive coating options with less conservative colors. However, the coupé’s biggest internal feature is rewarding the owner for choosing the S-Class which it drives itself. Magic Body Control was revised, scanning the road ahead in order to adjust the suspension stiffness according to the relief. Besides, this is the world’s first automobile to use active curve tilting. This system leans the body into curves, which compensates the natural roll and brings much higher stability, specially in cases of high-speed lane changes and sharp turns. Other finesses include crystal headlights, replacing the standard LEDs for 47 Swarovski pieces working for daytime and turn signals.
Like pretty much every Mercedes, S-Class Coupé will complete its trim list over the next months, one version at a time. For now there’s only S500, which forgets downsizing technologies by using a twin-turbo 4.7L V8 engine. The gasoline-burner is controlled by an exclusive “Super Sport” steering wheel and reaches 449 hp and 516 lb-ft, and counts on pneumatically-controlled exhaust flaps to vary the engine roar. Performance numbers haven’t been showed yet, but they’re expected to be slightly better than the sedan’s at the same trim – not too much because it still weighs about the same. This car will hit the streets next November, along with S63 AMG and a few months before S600 and S65 AMG.