Locals' heads swivel in unison as our caravan of entry-level luxury rolls through the streets of Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands. Dozens of automotive journalists in reworked Mercedes C-Classes wind through the narrow streets like the German Secret Service on holiday. The island is filled with tiny Peugeots and Seats, so even the smallest of the Mercedes sedan family suddenly looks like a land yacht navigating among the brightly painted stucco buildings and thatch umbrellas.
Mercedes has chosen Tenerife to preview the 2012 Mercedes C-Class and SLK so that we can drive in every environment you can imagine, and probably even some you can't. Journalists get pretty jaded about exotic locations, but this one is borderline insane. Rainforest, desert, beaches, even a 12,000-foot volcano are all located on the 500,000-acre island. As a bonus, the local department of civil engineering doesn't seem to own a single straightedge.

Mercedes press releases are usually long, drawn-out affairs, delving into the minutia concerning each specification of all the individual features of a new model. While tedious, they're exactly what you expect from a company that obsesses over every automotive detail. Surprisingly, the release for the all-new 2012 Mercedes- Benz C63 AMG Coupe is short and concise, especially by Mercedes standards. Coming in at a wafer-thin five pages, it could be the preface of past releases.
A few years ago this wouldn't have needed mentioning, but in the era of "four-door coupes" such as Mercedes' own CLS, the Volkswagen CC, and Audi A7, the difference between C63 Sedan and the new coupe is the lack of rear doors. (The C-Class Coupe lineup as a whole is the first two-door for the C lineup since the departure of the unloved C-Class hatchback in 2007.) Mercedes hasn't given any specifics, but we imagine the coupe will be the stiffest of the C family. We also expect the two-door to be the lighter of the two, but digging through Mercedes technical data shows that may not be the case. We're waiting to hear back on specifics from the automaker.

Driving the length of the Canary Island of Tenerife is roughly equivalent to leaving my driveway in Huntington Beach and motoring up the California coast to Malibu. Driving up the California coast I see beaches, a bit of low-altitude forest, and miles of urban sprawl. If I'm lucky the drive culminates in a parking spot leading to pancakes and good coffee.

About a year ago, noted tuning firm, Hamann, took the task of tuning up a Mercedes SLS AMG.

Speedriven has been building some of the highest performing engines on the market for some time no and has released details on their newest project. Starting with a base CL600, this tuning team takes it from a tame luxury coupe and changes it into the most powerful CL on the market.

Since it was introduced in 2009, the Mercedes SLS AMG has become a favorite among tuning companies, so much so that we’ve seen enough unique iterations of the Mercedes supercar to last us a few lifetimes.

Back in 2008, Mercedes was looking to expand its market to include the younger population and they decided that the best way to do that was to offer a C-Class Coupe alternative.

Mercedes hasn’t even revealed the C63 AMG Coupe yet and people are already dreaming about a Black Series version for it.