Shades Of Grey

Picking from the many fast SUVs has never been harder, but this high-riding hit-out could be more a black-and-white affair

- Louis Cordony

There is good reason we find ourselves here. And I’m not talking about where I am standing, which is before a long drag strip and between two souped-up Germans with enough performance technology to dazzle your revhead uncle. I mean, how did we get to the point where $150K and the desire for a fast medium-size SUV summons a long list of choices, all capable of frightening any muscled-up rear-drive sedan? Or where the record for the fastest SUV Nurburgring lap is something you can even recall? It’s 7:42.2, by the way, for an Audi RS Q8.

Wind time back a couple of decades and the overlap between performance driving and SUVs stood separate as black and white. Buying habits have changed that. The SUV’s popularity has forced manufacturers to mix the historically exclusive concepts in chase of the status-seeking or speed-craving niche. And as this test is about to prove, the results are still fanning out in many shades of grey.

Within that spectrum are the newly updated Mercedes-AMG GLC63 S and Porsche Macan Turbo. Admittedly, we hoped a third contender would join them. BMW’s X3 M was due to weigh in after clobbering the Jaguar F-Pace SVR and Alfa Romeo Stelvio Q in a recent comparo, but we were told none were available at the time of test. So word on the segment’s true champ will have to wait.

We’re still in for fireworks. Yes, watching an SUV romp around the Nurburgring is still unnerving, a bit like watching a tamed lion put out its paw for a human to shake. However, the GLC63 S did just that after seven tense minutes and 49.3 seconds in 2018, claiming the then-record lap for an SUV.