POWER PACT

Two cars beat the same heart, but different blood

IF THE C63 S COUPE and Aston Martin Vantage were friends, it might be in the C63’s best interest to not go out on the town together. “The Aston is like the pictures she puts on her dating profile,” observed one field-playing, perpetually single MOTOR staffer, “and the C63 is what she looks like in real life.” Ouch.

Indeed, it’s a curious thing to see these two cars parked beside each other, as they are today at the top of a foggy Mount Donna Buang, one of the best driving roads near-ish to Melbourne (and a place loved by quacks filling up enormous water cans from a fresh water spring there, but that’s a story for another time). In very similar shades of electric navy blue, from the rear the C63 S Coupe looks a bit tall, hunched like it has a sore back and awkwardly bulgy when parked directly beside the evocatively styled, pure-bred British sportscar.

That might say more about the Aston’s seductive styling than it does the AMG’s, itself a car oozing enormous look-back-after-locking appeal. But for all the styling talk, the reason we have these two cars together today is actually what’s under the bonnet.

Engines are notoriously expensive, difficult and time-consuming things to develop, and so Daimler – which owns Mercedes – cut a deal to own five per cent of Aston Martin in exchange for providing AMG powerplants, as well as electronics and Mercedes infotainment.