Car Modern 2011

It's not the car that's important, more what's changed under the bonnet. This is our first taste of a road car powered by AMG's new naturally aspirated 6.3-litre V8. True, there was nothing wrong with that engine's outright performance, only the manner in which it was delivered.

The big flat torque curve made it easy to go fast, but it all felt and sounded a bit linear. And it wasn't very efficient: just running the supercharger sapped 100bhp. Stop worrying anyway, the project's been in safe hands of AMG's Powertrain Director, Bernd Ramler. His last job was designing the engine for the Porsche Carrera GT.