A 'fasa' Benz for Asafa

Men's 4x100 Olympic gold medallist Asafa Powell, the present face of Mercedes-Benz in Jamaica, was presented with a Mercedes-Benz CLK 63 AMG Black Series poster, superimposed with his image. This 36"x 25" picture was presented to him as a gift from Euro Star Motors, authorised Jamaican dealers in Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

Powell has always dreamed of owning this vehicle, and therefore a special order has been made by Euro Star Motors for this particular unit, with the date of delivery anticipated to be early next year. This vehicle is a high-performance, limited edition, specially hand-made and engineered vehicle with an amazing acceleration of 0-200 km/h in 13.8 seconds. A perfect tribute to an
outstanding athlete.

BBC's Top Gear magazine has a fulsome review of the new 'Black' done by Jeremy Clarkson, which I exceprt below:


In driving, it goes without saying that certain things are mutually exclusive. You can’t, for instance, have a low-slung sports car that works off road; you can’t have a high top speed and good fuel economy; and you can’t have your dignity if you also have a small Korean hatchback. Also, despite many claims to the contrary, you can’t have a car that performs well on the Nürburgring and on the ring road. Or, at least, you couldn’t until now…

You may imagine that the car you see in the pictures is some kind of DTM racer for the road, as hard as nails, as focused as a laser and impossibly uncomfortable should you ever be asked to drive across, say, Keith Richards’ face.

It isn’t. What you’re looking at here is the only car that seems to achieve the impossible. A car that could quite happily get you, and more luggage than you could imagine, actually to Beijing. But which, I suspect, could quite happily bite chunks out of a Porsche turbo’s arse on a twisting and deserted stretch of Welsh A road.

It comes from the skunk works deep inside the special projects division Mercedes calls AMG. And it’s badged simply, and in newsprint-sized letters, as the Black.

It’s a normal car. But it goes like a rocket. And thanks to carbon-ceramic brakes, it stops pretty tidily as well. A Ferrari is awesome in the right place, but it slips around everywhere else, and the leather squeaks and the headlights are no good. The Black is brilliant, everywhere, at absolutely everything. By miles and miles, it’s our new favorite car.

There is just one catch. Even though it comes with less stuff than a normal AMG CLK, it costs nearly $65,000 more. Yes, you read that correctly. It should cost about $135,825, so that buyers have a choice: A car that’s kind under your hands. Or one that does the dishes as well.

Even so, we tip our hats to anyone who buys this thing. A Ferrari or a Porsche may well say more about you to more people. But a Black targets what it says to just a select few. And what it says, very quietly, is this: “If you really know your cars, you know why the person behind the wheel bought this.”

God, I want one.