2021 Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S and GLS 63 First Drive: The sports car grew up

The sports car had a good run, but its days are numbered. Time and trends are callous in their disregard for nostalgia: drivers are voting with their wallets, and they’re voting for super SUVs like the new 2021 Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S and GLS 63. With 603 horsepower to play with, can you really blame them?

AMG is of course no stranger to SUVs. Roughly 50-percent of its US sales are in the category, something engineers and product planners alike haven’t been slow to capitalize on.

The result is a pair of family trucks with physics-defying manners on the road, or as close as Stuttgart can get it. Let me be blunt: vehicles the size, shape, and weight of the GLE and GLS really aren’t obvious candidates for AMG’s breed of hurtling performance. To deliver that, you need a very special drivetrain.

Specifically, it’s a 4.0-liter V8 biturbo which uses Mercedes’ EQ Boost system. Assembled according to AMG’s “one man, one engine” principle, it delivers 603 hp and 627 lb-ft of torque. In the case of the three-row GLS 63 that means 0-60 mph in 4.1 seconds. The slightly lighter GLE 63 S trims that down to a faintly-ridiculous 3.7 seconds.

Let’s not risk derailing the fun by asking whether anybody really needs a luxury family SUV that can stomp on muscle 

cars in the quarter-mile. Nobody asks why a sports coupe deserves to exist, after all. Instead, focus on the clever EQ Boost system with its addition of up to 21 hp and 184 lb-ft of torque from a perpetually topped-up 48V battery and electric starter-generator.

Out on the road my biggest concern was how the twin truck terrors would get that power to the asphalt without, y’know, spinning or causing the Earth to contra-rotate underneath them. Apparently I worry too much. AMG 4MATIC+ all-wheel drive is standard, as is ride-control air suspension and active roll management. Even the V8 is attached via electronically-controlled mounts which can adjust their stiffness according to the current drive mode.

The result is an SUV that can be as soft, supple, and generally luxurious as an ermine-wrapped mattress, or as stiff as your lower back after clambering out of one of those old, passé, “traditional” 

sports cars. No risk of that in the GLE 63 S or GLS 63, which have plush sports thrones that ensure that all-important lofty view as you hurtle past lesser traffic.

Seriously, it’s uncanny. In Comfort mode, both SUVs waft generously. The air suspension leaves them compliant over all but the roughest roads, and while there’s some roll if you take a corner hotter than your rear seat passengers would probably prefer, it never graduates into that seasickness-triggering undulation big trucks can suffer from.

Snick the drive mode dial on the steering wheel around to Sport or Sport+, however, and it’s a very different vehicle.

 The permanent AWD system defaults to a 50/50 split but can push up to 100-percent of the V8’s power to the rear if the situation – and your driving style – demands it. 

Meanwhile there’s an electronic rear differential for better distributing power between the back wheels, along with the suspension dramatically tightening.

You notice it in the corners, sure, but it’s even more effective when braking hard. There is a natural apprehension about hitting the slow pedal with urgency in an SUV this size, shared by maybe everyone bar professional drivers and luge racers. Something about the nose diving, the rear end scrabbling, and the sudden gasp from everyone onboard.