Mercedes S65 AMG Coupe (2014) - the 621bhp Mega Merc

By John Mahoney

First Official Pictures

14 July 2014 11:50

We’ve already driven the mighty 577bhp S63 AMG Coupe but now Mercedes has unveiled its flagship S65 AMG Coupe.

Powered by a 6.0-litre twin-turbo V12, the S65 AMG produces 621bhp – 44bhp more than the S63 and 38bhp more than the Mercedes SLS supercar. This makes it, along with the S65 AMG saloon that shares its engine, the most powerful Mercedes road car of all time.

It’s not just that headline power figure that stuns. Thanks to two turbos there’s also 737lb ft of torque from just 2300rpm. This means that its two-tonne kerbweight is shrugged off with ease, with the S65 sprinting to 62mph in just 4.1 seconds before the usual 155mph limiter calls time shortly after.

Speaking of which, the cheeky AMG engineers are bound to offer the option of a more liberal 186mph speed limiter in the near future, as all S65s come with a speedo that reads up to ‘360km/h’ - 224mph in old money, hinting at the huge potential performance on tap.

Like on the S63 Coupe, plenty of weight-saving aluminium has been used in the huge S-Class Coupe’s construction, but it’s still no featherweight and Mercedes is keeping schtum about how heavy the S65 Coupe is, but even with a fancy state-of-the-art lithium ion battery that carves 20kg off the equivalent lead acid cell, expect it to weigh significantly more than the S63 AMG’s 2070kg.

Despite this the S65 AMG still averages 23.7mpg while emitting 279g/km of CO2 – not bad when you consider it packs 3bhp more than the seminal McLaren F1 road car of the mid-nineties and weighs almost twice as much.

Like the S63 AMG there’s plenty of comfort-biased technology for its inevitable Swiss banker that will shuttle around Geneva in it.

There’s the firm’s Magic Body Control (we’re not making this up) that leans into bends and Surface Scan that scans the road ahead that pre-arms the suspension to cope with the worst the British roads can throw at it.

Like the previous generation car there are a few styling clues to distinguish the S65 AMG – there’s a front splitter that reduces front axle lift and feeds air to an oil cooler that lives behind it, and also side skirts and a rear bumper that has the full AMG faux diffuser treatment and two chrome exhaust.

Speaking of which, there’s plenty of high-sheen chrome all over the car to help the owner stomach the extra £55,000-ish they will have spent over the ‘regular’ S63. Most will only notice the familiar V12 Biturbo badges that live on the S65’s front wings.

More at home at the Knightsbridge than the Nurburgring we’ll have to weight a little longer to see if Mercedes make a stripped out Black Series version of the S65. Until then, the S65 has an but an interior to rival a Bentley with leather wrapping that extends from the dash, roof lining, to even a pair of perforated gearshift paddles that manually operate the seven-speed automatic.

That said, no doubt there will still be the inevitable trip to the option list, even at this price, but at least Mercedes has thrown in a raft of cameras giving a 360deg panoramic view of the car, a self-parking button, keyless go and a load of standard safety equipment, all in the £183,065 price tag. How kind.

The new 2014 Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG goes on sale towards the end of 2014.

By John Mahoney