2014 Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG 4MATIC: Nothing Exceeds Like Excess

The 2014 Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG 4MATIC comes with all of the expected luxuries.

Its plunging roofline - far more severe than one would find in a traditional sedan - limited rear headroom.

AMG provides beefed up brakes for the CLS63, as well as a sticky suspension tune and huge 19-inch rims and rubber.

90 percent of drivers will be happy that the 550 horsepower and 531 lb-ft of torque produced by the CLS63 AMG's bi-turbo 4.7-liter V8 have been given an all-wheel drive assist.

Puttering around town in the 2014 Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG is a relatively drama-free exercise.

The all-wheel system splits enough torque to the back axles to make hanging the tail out around a corner possible.

There's very little sense that your right foot controls more thrust than the rockets that first took Apollo astronauts to the lunar surface.

Power is nothing without control, as the old cliché goes.

It seems as though turbocharging has opened up a limitless horsepower frontier in the premium space.

One can order the AMG-S package for this model and jump to 577 horses and 590 lb-ft of torque.

I was pleased to discover that the driver's seat also featured dynamic bolsters, which automatically inflated and deflated in harmony with the car's steering in order to keep me firmly in place.

The vehicle is shifted via a seven-speed dual-clutch automated manual gearbox.