The number is the power, and the power goes to the back wheels
Mercedes-AMG revealed the CLE 646 Spezialanfertigung on 10 September 2026. The name is not a trim level in the usual sense. Spezialanfertigung means custom-made, and 646 is the output: 475 kW, which is 646 PS, from the 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged M177 Evo V8 with its flat-plane crankshaft. Torque is 850 Nm, held from 2,500 to 4,500 rpm.
The headline is not the number. It is where the power goes. The CLE 646 drives the rear wheels only, and no AMG V8 has done that since the C63 S went out of production in 2022. Everything else in the modern AMG V8 catalogue sends drive to all four.
Behind the engine is a nine-speed torque-converter automatic with manual control, and a 48-volt mild-hybrid system. 0-100 km/h takes 3.9 seconds, 200 km/h arrives in 11.4 seconds, and the top speed is electronically limited to 310 km/h.
It starts as a CLE 53 and comes apart
This is the part that explains the price nobody has confirmed yet. Each car begins as a six-cylinder AMG CLE 53, goes back to Affalterbach, and is stripped and rebuilt by hand.
It leaves 60 mm wider. Carbon fibre replaces the front wheel arches, the front bumper, the side sills, the bonnet, the roof, the rear bumper, a reinforced boot lid and a manually adjustable rear wing. The rear and rear-side windows are polycarbonate. Even the 12-volt starter battery is a lighter item.
The rear seats are gone, along with sound insulation and a list of comfort features, and so are the adaptive dampers. In their place is a steel coilover set developed with KW, four-way adjustable so compression and rebound can be set independently for a given circuit. It sits 22 mm lower at the front and 16 mm lower at the rear than a CLE 53.
All of that removes 170 kg, and it is worth being honest about where that leaves the car: 1,895 kg. Lighter than the donor, but not light.
The hardware list
- Brakes: 420 mm six-piston front, 360 mm single-piston rear, carbon-ceramic
- Wheels: forged 20-inch, 11.0 inches wide at the front and 12.0 at the rear
- Tyres: 305-section front, 335-section rear, Michelin track rubber
- Exhaust: Akrapovič titanium
- Differential: electronically controlled, variable locking
- Traction control: nine-stage
- Cooling: three separate circuits, one for the engine and two low-temperature ones for the charge air, the transmission oil and the 48-volt hardware
Thirty cars, and the one that matters more is still coming
The CLE 646 is the second Mythos model, following the windscreenless AMG PureSpeed. Production is 30 cars, and they are already sold. Australia is not getting any.
Mercedes has not confirmed a price. The PureSpeed was reported at around €922,000, so the arithmetic on a seven-figure car is not difficult, but it is arithmetic rather than a published figure and we will leave it there.
New AMG boss Dr Stefan Weckbach framed it as engineers indulging themselves: the car exists, he said, because "rational engineers dreamed of a very irrational vehicle."
For almost everyone reading this, the more relevant car is the one AMG has not shown. A regular CLE 63 with a version of the same V8 has been testing in the open for months and will follow as the effective replacement for the C63 coupé that the four-cylinder C63 S E Performance never really was. AMG has not revealed it, has not published its output, and has not given a date. When it does, that is the one you will be able to order.
Sources: Mercedes-AMG via GT Spirit, 10 September 2026, and Drive, 11 September 2026. Photographs: Mercedes-AMG.