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Written by:
Autocar staff
http://www.autocar.co.uk
04/15/2008 - 11:23 AM
London, UK
The contradiction appeals most – the hidden muscle lurking beneath the ordinary. Fast sedans are tools, instruments even – a Swiss Army knife or a sniper’s rifle. While Bond drives an Aston, Bourne would take a fast sedan. Equally deadly, but without the tux.
You travel untroubled in a fast sedan; those who register what’s filling their rear-view mirror just move aside. No supercar envy here, just respect. Make that a fast sedan carrying four guys and respect becomes fear. The message is clear: there’s a job to do, and you don’t want to get involved.
Today, though, that job won’t involve a bank, but a moorside some 250 miles away. There’ll be claret spilled, too, for there is honor to preserve. An audacious upstart from the Far East is muscling in on a patch that’s already fiercely contested.
We choose familiar surroundings for the first leg of the journey, in the shape of the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG. Although it was only launched late last year, it is the most established of our three contenders. Then 100 miles north we’ll be hooking up with the BMW M3, now available in four-door form, before the fight is taken to the Lexus IS-F, the Japanese firm’s first sports model. All three are V8-powered, with capacities ranging from 4.0 to 6.2 liters, and rear-wheel drive. The issue is kept uncomplicated by the exclusion of the four-wheel-drive Audi RS4, a car still available in small numbers but no longer produced.
For anyone needing to dispatch a three-figure distance before breakfast, the C63 is s fine place to pass hours normally spent sleeping. The big-capacity V8 cracks into life with a sharp flurry of revs, but the C63 soon remembers its cultured roots. The cabin is functional but uncluttered, upmarket without being flash, and yet AMG additions lift this particular C-class above the ordinary.
The driving position is snug, in a good way. The steering wheel – a small-diameter, flat-bottomed construction – sits low and close to the chest, and the chiseled AMG seats are not only beautiful but also sumptuously comfortable and supportive. The C63 feels precise and fitted, giving a sense of confidence and control.
The C63’s quickened steering (now 2.5 turns lock to lock) gives an alertness above and beyond that of any other C, while the V8 cruises at barely above tickover and yet still bursts with energy. The only aspect that dents the C63’s credentials is the low-speed ride; without adjustable dampers the car has a firmness needed to remain composed during 100mph-plus cornering, but it never quite settles in an urban environment.
Newcomer Lexus is taking on proven M and AMG brands with 417hp IS-F — and it’s a pretty decent first effort. (Autocar photo) » More Photos
Free of the nitty-gritty and set loose on empty roads, the Mercedes is in its element, finding a natural groove, traveling quickly enough to make efficient progress but without gathering unwanted attention. There’s still more energy, more noise and more movement than you’d get from a more relaxed Mercedes, and yet the C63 is still amazingly refined, the ride better at speed and wind noise minimal.
With seven speeds – usually enough to ensure the technological high ground, but not today – the Mercedes’ gearbox can afford a long-legged touring ratio, and yet when called upon downchanges are dealt with swiftly and deftly. Comfort mode is best; here changes are minimized, avoiding excessive revs, preserving the calm and using the effective 442lb-ft of torque instead.
Unless you keep a watchful eye, big numbers can spin around with ease; the only warning of the accelerative force unleashed is a deeper, harder edge to the engine’s voice. For all its sporting intent, then, the C63 proves a mighty mile-muncher, one of those cars in which you remain alert and yet distances ebb away, in which you actually listen to the radio or just think.
The Zen-like state is only disturbed when high-output xenons bear bright in the mirrors. Others step aside and they’re directly behind, getting ever closer. For the first time today we’re not the quickest out there; the M3 has arrived.
The sedan is similar to the coupe, with the same 3999cc V8 producing 414hp at 8300rpm and the same mandatory six-speed manual gearbox (for the time being). The differences beyond the obvious extra pair of doors stretch to elongated side gills more akin to those on the M5, and no weight-saving carbon fiber roof.
More so in the metal than in pictures, the M3 sedan looks quite different from a standard four-door 3-series. The M variant is more complete, less bland, its shape filled out with bolstered wheel arches and deeper valances. It’s a character that’s different from that of the M3 coupe, less sleek and showy, more squat and purposeful. Harder. Perversely, more special too; this is only the second M3 sedan in four generations of coupe (and convertible).
Before the moorside roads we know so well, there’s time for a brief stop to explore what happens when you keep the loud pedal pressed for longer than the six seconds needed to reach the legal limit. The Lexus IS-F is waiting there as the two Germans swing through the gates, and on first impressions it’s in a foul mood.
The standard IS shape is one of the prettiest sedans around, but “pretty” is not a word for the IS-F. The M3’s and C63’s hoods have bulges, but on the Lexus the entire front end is blistered. You can’t question the aggression, but it looks like it’s already been in a fight. The front wings – wider, more angular and complete with gills set behind the wheels – flow into broad sills. The rear is dominated by quad exhausts, stacked in two pairs. Novel or over the top? You decide.
The IS-F’s engine owes its origins to the conventional powerplant in the LS600h, but with a series of modifications. The inlet valves are now titanium and the valve timing is controlled electronically
The result is an engine producing 417hp at 6600rpm from 5.0 liters, credentials sufficient to square up to the BMW and Mercedes in a simple drag race. On paper the Benz should be fastest, with the most power (by 34hp), the most torque and (although it’s the heaviest) the best power-to-weight ratio. Sure enough, given enough space and practice, it is.
But not every time, for with traction control disabled the Mercedes can struggle off the line; occasionally the sledgehammer engine overcomes the tires and the auto ’box blunts throttle response, giving an early lead for the M3. Eventually the Benz will claw back the advantage, though, and the longer the straight, the bigger its victory.
The Lexus is a respectable third; it’s blighted with the poorest power-to-weight ratio but it has a trick eight-speed automatic gearbox, with lock-up on second gear and above. Upshifts take 0.1sec, downchanges 0.2sec; that’s not Ferrari 430 Scuderia fast, but for a proper auto it’s still pretty quick.
If this were a test of smoothness and not outright pace, the Lexus would be victorious, because for an engine with its priorities set on performance it remains remarkably silky, with no trace of harshness or vibration. From 3600rpm, where an exhaust bypass value opens to produce a deep bellow, the V8 zips round to its redline with so little hesitation that you wonder if it couldn’t rev beyond 7000rpm. This smoothness is probably behind Lexus’s decision to fit an irritating change-up buzzer.
"These sedans are certainly fast. The slowest hits 100mph in 12.3sec, the Merc in just 9.3sec." (Autocar photo) » More Photos
So we’ve established that these fast sedans all tick the “fast” box – even the slowest marches to 100mph in 12.3sec, the Mercedes in just 9.7sec – but which is the best at being a sedan? Form suggests the Mercedes, for the C-class usually provides the most sumptuous and spacious interior. Its trunk is the largest too, at 475 liters.
Yet 30 minutes spent packing and unpacking bags and jumping from car to car reveal some interesting anomalies. While the C63 clearly has the most usefully regular-shaped trunk, we managed to squeeze as many hard cases and soft bags into the Lexus, which on paper should hold some 97 liters less. Only in the BMW would we have to leave a single bag behind.
Inside and up front the Mercedes scores a more convincing victory, providing the best driving position and the best blend of taste and sense of occasion. In the M3 the driver sits too high, grips a wheel that’s too squidgy and faces a cabin containing too much generic 3-series, while the Lexus seats lack support and its wheel is still no match for the C63’s. Ask your associates in the back, though, and the order reverses; the Mercedes’ thick front seats impinge on legroom. The Lexus offers more of this, while the BMW has the most headroom.
Heading north, the IS-F presents mixed messages. At times, with the exhaust bypass closed and the excellent stereo turned up, you’d be hard pressed to remember that this isn’t an IS250, and then, sometimes with quite dramatic brashness, the engine starts to shout, the ride becomes all “sporty” (unsettled) and its true character comes flooding back. In the M3 and C63, performance and comfort are interweaved with more delicacy.
As the moors loom, two things are clear. One, it is desperately close between the BMW and Benz, and two, the Lexus is not going to win. Even before the road has started to serve its worst – or best – the IS-F has fallen behind.
Lexus has done a credible job for a first effort, because there is a lot to like about the IS-F. The steering is good (despite being electrically assisted), the auto ’box is quick and controlled by splendidly weighty paddles, and the engine is remarkably smooth. But there is room for improvement. Where the IS-F stumbles is in failing to connect with the road. It is a fast machine, of that there is no doubt, and loud too, but a shade too synthetic in its approach.
"The C63 and M3 trade blows, the Merc with outright force, the BMW with tactile damping..." (Autocar photo) » More Photos
So with the newcomer accounted for, what of the old guard – a fight to the death or a return to a state of armed neutrality? This road looks harmless, but it will bite. There are bumps you don’t see, cambers, surface changes and flick-flaks hidden in dips. And over it, again and again, the C63 and M3 trade blows, the Mercedes with more outright force, the BMW with more tactility to its damping.
It’s extraordinarily close, so much so that you could conclude that it makes no difference. The Mercedes is the better all-’rounder – more refined, faster and with better steering – and so if this matters most then it is your winner.
But on this road, on this day, and by the thinnest of margins, the BMW is more thrilling to drive. It offers (demands, even) more involvement from its driver; the manual ’box provides a better connection between right foot and forward motion or cornering angle, and the proper limited-slip diff (an LSD is optional on the Merc) gives better drive from slower, tighter corners.
And while the M3’s engine cannot match the C63’s for brutality or low-speed burble, there is something more mechanical, more precise about the way that the BMW delivers its power. The noise it produces closing in on 8300rpm is less instantly satisfying, but goes deeper into the soul.
The M3 is cheaper too, by some $7000 if you equip the C63 with the sat-nav that comes standard on the BMW (and the Lexus, for that matter). So it takes a narrow victory, but a victory all the same.
-Jamie Corstorphine/Autocar
Every week since motoring began more than 100 years ago, Autocar has been the essential news, entertainment and reference magazine for committed car enthusiasts. Visit http://www.autocar.co.uk to learn more.
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