This is my new favourite big-banger saloon. I change my mind about these more often than Chelsea changes managers \u2013 one minute I have eyes only for the BMW M5, then I\u2019m swooning over the Jaguar XFR and now it\u2019s this Mercedes. I like to think this isn\u2019t because I am feckless but instead because these manufacturers are engaged in a titanic struggle for top billing and try ever harder for ever more sensational results.<\/p>\n
There is no denying that despite its four doors and executive aspirations, this car is at heart a bare-knuckle boxer, and a beautifully judged one at that. All the essentials are there: its ride and refinement are beyond serious criticism, but once you wind up its 518bhp, 6.2-litre V8 and let it go, you\u2019ll find a car to focus your attention more than any other big saloon I can recall. It is massively fast, but also colossally good fun, which I\u2019d not expected. I drove it in the wet on road and track last week and am still giggling. To be fair it was close to useless around a soaking Silverstone but on nearby lanes \u2013 well, I didn\u2019t think we were allowed to have that much fun any more, let alone in an imposing saloon. I wish it were better looking and the price (\u00a369,850) makes my eyes water, but if I had the money I\u2019d have one. And the estate version at that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":743,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"tags":[167,229,189],"issue_decade":[121600],"issue_year":[121601],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/48339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue_content"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/743"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/48339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229618,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/48339\/revisions\/229618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48339"},{"taxonomy":"issue_decade","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_decade?post=48339"},{"taxonomy":"issue_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_year?post=48339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}