Mercedes-Benz AMG C63 S Coupe 2016 review

Road cars usually don't feel fast on a racetrack because you're not whizzing past trees and fences.

The sensation of speed can easily be lost in the wide open spaces and sweeping bends of a motor racing circuit.

But that rule went out the window this week, after a quick blast in the coming Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG coupe.

With a wider, sleeker and lower body than its sedan sibling, it could be described as anything but slow. Even when there is nothing to blur the view.

Mercedes transformed the coupe into a more finely tuned machine because it recognises some buyers want a harder edge to their performance car.

The C63 AMG sedan is one of the world's fastest four-doors for the money ($157,010) — and now the C-Class coupe ratchets everything up a notch for what is, in luxury car terms, a modest premium ($162,400).

For the record, 0-100kmh is dispatched in 3.9 seconds in the coupe versus 4.0 seconds for the sedan. Neither is a slouch.

The coupe gets the same high powered twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 and seven-speed gearbox as the sedan but the wider stance gives it a bigger footprint, which translates to better road holding.

The C63 coupe feels so stable and so planted.

On the street, the AMG V8 sounds tough. But on the track it's muted — there's so much wind rushing over its flanks.

It's hard to gauge how fast we're going (I'm too busy looking at the track and not the speedometer) but it was enough to make the tyres sticky to the touch afterwards.

Rear-drive performance cars can be a handful but the C63 AMG coupe has so many safety aids that it's almost impossible to get it out of shape — providing you don't disable any of the electronics.

In fact, the electronic intervention makes it take corners quicker, because the stability control can brake individual wheels, rather than all four at once.

The technology is so sophisticated it's been banned from Formula One and other top-tier motorsport categories.

This is why it's so easy not to register just how fast we're travelling. The C63 coupe feels so stable and so planted, able to change gears mid-corner thanks to the tap shift levers on the steering wheel, that it is almost idiot-proof.