Amit Saraswat 
The dream
The tyres wailed to rid them of the agony that my right foot wielded. The co-passengers – my friends – pleaded with me with the choicest vocabulary to slow down. I remember this drive vividly. The Toyota Hyryder around the canyon roads of Rishikesh felt out of depth, but this experience birthed a dream.
A dream of driving a performance sedan – pushing it to the extent of feeling a lump form in my throat — on this exact stretch of road. That would be special. I tried to force myself away from it but the more I tried, the tighter the grip of my imagination became. Sitting upright on the Alcantara bucket seat, my fingers curled tightly around the steering wheel. The iris narrowed and the breath settled. It felt like I was on a tightrope — nervous breakdown on one side, bliss on the other. My mind was playing games with me.
The longing
This profession affords me the fortune of driving cars of all types every other day, but some cars demand you to invest more time with them to truly understand their personality. The Mercedes-AMG C 43 is one such car.
My phone’s ringtone is rather unique, but because we keep our handhelds in silent mode in the office, I don’t get to hear it too much. So, on the rare occasion that I hear it ringing, I pick it up with a sense of urgency! Even more so when the call is from my Editor – which it was that morning. I was rubbing my eyes as he said “Hello,” barely managing to keep my eyelids open. But what he said next felt like a big splash of icy water on my face. Would I like to drive the C 43 AMG? Hell yes, I would! And in that excitement, I blurted out a wish — to go on a road trip; somewhere in the hilly expanse of Uttarakhand. He said yes. HE SAID YES!
The realisation
It was the excitement that got the otherwise lazy me out of the house at 4AM. The vintage glow of the incandescent lamp created a lovely contrast against the C43. Its matte-grey paint absorbed the gentle yellow. It looked like the Devil was having its moment of enlightenment.
As I unlocked the car and saw the dance of LEDs light up the driveway, I realised that it was finally happening! Thumbed the engine to life and the exhaust’s gurgle ruptured the stillness of the morning. It was time to get cracking on the road.
The C 43’s rear wheel steering came in handy as I navigated through the tight parking space and the curved exit. We settled at a steady pace on the Delhi-Meerut expressway and the Sun’s gradual spread of orange revealed the lushness of the farms that we were bisecting.
The setting befitted the chirping of birds, but instead we had for company the guttural sound of the C 43’s exhaust. Not that we complained even the slightest. It’s raspiness charged up the mood in the cabin.
A good chunk of that aural drama comes from the car’s Burmester speakers. The sound on the outside is rather meek. Call it a juvenile workaround or a modern hack, it does improve the driving experience. On days when you fancy purring around the city without any drama, one press of a button cuts off the excessive sound.
The C43 is also quite muted on the outside; it lacks the visual drama that one expects from an AMG. The only visual takeaway at the front is the Panamericana radiator grille and quad exhaust tips at the back.
Finding a suitable parking spot for the C 43 AMG in Rishikesh turned out to be a challenge. Our stay for the night was up a hill, where even crossovers struggled to reach. It was at this point that I discovered the bumper’s keenness to get intimate in a very French way with the edge of the ramp. So, we decided not to go forward, and after a couple more experiments, decided to make use of an open parking space and pleaded to the guard to take care of it.
We drove towards the New Tehri Lake from Rishikesh rather early. All the manifesting and longing boiled down to this moment. The curved roads on Google Maps got me chuckling with joy. We stopped for breakfast to share our thoughts on the C 43. My co-passenger, Surya, mentioned how comfortable the trip was — “no strain on lower back given my 6 ‘3” frame”, he said. And I agreed with that observation — the seats of the C 43 are surprisingly comfortable and accommodate even large people with ease.
That unnecessarily long breakfast chat was imperative if I had to implement my plan cleanly – in the very literal sense. With the food settled properly in our guts, I dialled the AMG aggression to Sport+ and sped off. The countless lines of code for this mode resulted in stiffening up of the dampers and dropping the leash on the safety nannies.
Loaded with confidence, I also dialled up the stability control to its Sport setting for some extra dose of fun. Attacking the first long sweeping corner, I found the empty road as an opportunity to pin the throttle. The tyres protested and the tail went loose ever so slightly — this, with ESC turned on! I didn’t feel ready to control the madness and the next few corners were covered at mediocre speeds and mellowed down spirits.
I realised that bumpy roads do not gel with the short-travel suspension of the C 43 in the Sport+ mode. Dialling down to comfort mode improves the ride considerably, but that comes at the expense of excessive oscillation over undulations. That was a fair trade off since the agility was still impressive for public roads. As it leaned on its inside wheels, the dampers suffered a spasm and the shuddering sporadically translated into the cabin.
But we thoroughly enjoyed the drive. The stability, the urgency in its power delivery, the pops and bangs from the exhaust on hard downshifts — it was a joyous experience. The steering, while not being the most communicative, felt great due to its aggressive rack ratio. The rear wheel steering pays dividends at both low and high speeds, cutting down turning radius and improving stability while turning, respectively. The handling impressed with its planted feel and minimal understeer, courtesy of a rear-biased all-wheel-drive system that transmits 69% of power to the rear wheels.
Its 2.0L four-cylinder engine, for which Mercedes-AMG has received enough flak, is quite a potent unit. The electric gas turbocharger with its motorised turbine ensures that you are never off-the-boost. The turbocharger incorporates a 40mm wide electric motor fed by the 48V hybrid system. What also helps its case is the 9-speed automatic transmission with the closely spaced ratios. In the engine-transmission combo, the latter feels the weaker link.
On the crowded roads of Rishikesh, the transmission felt rough in the initial two gears. Once on the move, it works smoothly in the background. However, its incongruous side can be seen when you demand urgency as it fumbles to find the right ratio and takes about a second before rowing through the cogs.
If you feel that I have been extolling all along, here comes a handful of things that deteriorated the otherwise impressive driving experience. The biggest caveat with the C 43 AMG, and nearly every other new Mercedes, is the active brake assist. While it’s designed to steer you away from scary road incidents, it turns out to be the prime source of such instances.
The Indian road conditions are unlike anywhere else in the world. Pedestrians and cyclists can emerge from anywhere and the only source of protection they boast is a confident hand gesture, bound to be obeyed, thrown at you. The Mercedes’ system anticipates such pedestrians early and alerts with an alarming sound. Worse, it drops the anchor if you fail to respond at the right time.
It would have been a good system to use if it was less sensitive or accustomed to Indian driving conditions, but it isn’t. And that is not even the worst part. The system comes back on every time you start the engine after a brief stop. Aggravating the experience further is the fact that you cannot turn off the system while on the move — it requires you to come to a halt. And once you do come to a halt, the start/stop system kills the engine. By now, if you haven’t guessed it already, it too could not be turned off permanently.
Stopping multiple times also made me realise that the brake pedal on the C 43 AMG is not progressive. I am not sure if that was an issue with our test car or an inherent problem, but the braking force felt inconsistent. The initial pedal travel translates to an equivalent braking force but somewhere in the middle, the braking force doesn’t align with your input and comes back at you with an unnerving response as you press the pedal further. Apart from that, the braking on the C 43 feels sure footed, and capable of dropping the anchor for those heart-in-the-mouth moments.
Amidst experiencing the joy of driving the C 43 AMG, I didn’t realise that we were about to reach our destination. The roads to the New Tehri Lake are well laid out and incorporate wide and long winding sections. However, to reach the lake, you must traverse through an unpaved road, and to our surprise, the C 43 AMG didn’t scrape its belly even once. Upon parking the car at the edge of the lake, setting it up for some shots, I had the other realisation — that I had made it till here. I achieved what I’d set out to do on this drive.
This road trip with the C 43 AMG put all my inhibitions to rest. I would be lying if I said, I wasn’t scared of taking a one-crore sports sedan to the hills. But the C 43 AMG didn’t break a sweat. No hiccups, no melodrama – it was a solid, enjoyable car that dealt with everything that was thrown at it with ease. All while keeping us cocooned and smiling.
