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" GRENADA, Spain \u2014We don&amp;#039;t usually associate Spain with speed\u2014after all, it&amp;#039;s a country where people are still eating dinner at midnight. Nevertheless, Mercedes-Benz is here in the sunny southern Andalucia to show off some screamers: the new CLS63 coupe and CLK63 coupe and convertible produced by its AMG high-performance division, as well as the ML63 SUV and the SL65 coupe with a turbocharged V12. Unveiled at the Geneva car show in February, the CLS, CLK and ML vehicles are powered by the first engine AMG has developed from scratch-a naturally aspirated 6.3-liter V8 that delivers 507 hp to the CLS63 and 475 hp to the CLK63. (By the way, whatever happened to vaunted German precision? The V8&amp;#039;s displacement is actually 6.2 liters and change, but rounding up seems to be allowed when the manufacturer is trying to make an association with its powerful and iconic 300SEL 6.3 of the 1960s.) But why quibble over deciliters when you can drive . . . really fast. We&amp;#039;re soon ripping south of the Grenada airport past mustard fields and olive groves, climbing deep into the Sierra Nevada mountains. The two-door, four-passenger CLK63 redlines at 7200 rpm but on these twisters we couldn&amp;#039;t get it past 4200 rpm without toying with a Thelma and Louise-style finale. In fact, it&amp;#039;s hard to imagine an off-track scenario that would let you nail it to 7200, but the headroom is there if you ever need it. &amp;quot;We wanted to deliver torque right to the end,&amp;quot; says Bernd Ramler, AMG&amp;#039;s powertrain meister, &amp;quot;like stretching a rubber band.&amp;quot; The seven-speed transmission with full automatic or manual-style shifting now comes with race-car type aluminum paddle shift levers on the steering wheel\u2014with all that torque avaiable, though, we hardly needed them. On some mountain stretches we just popped it in Third and let it rip. As we soon discovered snaking up the sides of deep gorges, what really enables drivers to tap into the CLK63&amp;#039;s incredible power is the new AMG sport suspension. The CLK63 runs like it&amp;#039;s on rails, even though it&amp;#039;s really on new 18-inch AMG five-spoke alloy wheels. The ESP (Electronic Stability Program) only had to kick in once\u2014straightening out a fishtail on a merge. A small quibble: The CLK&amp;#039;s steering seems fairly loose, at least compared to the SL65 coupe that we also drove. (The ML63 SUV&amp;#039;s bratwurst-thick steering wheel needs even more cranking back and forth on some of these tight esses.) But back to the CLK63. It has some nice luxe touches\u2014soft black nappa-leather upholstery, heated sports seats with seating configuration presets, a clean-looking nav system (ultra-jaded types can also use it to play DVDs if riding in a high-performance vehicle gets ho-hum). The CLK63 is scheduled for a U.S. release in June, with the sexy CLS four-door taking a bow probably in September.\u2014David Dunbar Grenada CLK63 shown here in the bullring of Grenada, Spain. Shown here at the gigantic Presa de Rules dam in the Sierra Nevada south of Grenada, in the Adalusian region, the ML63 is now powered by an AMG V8. The new SL65 AMG may be dwarfed by the huge Presa de Rules dam south of Grenada, Spain, but it goes way faster, thanks to its supercharged V12 AMG engine. The CLK63 interior. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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