Call this naivety or even ignorance, but I truly do not think there was a more exciting place in the automotive world than in the workshops and laboratories of Audi, BMW and Mercedes between 1990 to 2010. For two decades, the big three shared a monopoly on daring, engineering and panache; each striving to outdo one another but also knowing they simply could not conduct themselves without one another.
Perhaps the greatest automotive arms race of all time – an arms race that continues to this day – created some of the most remarkable machines ever to put rubber to tarmac.
There was this sense of hopefulness, and that nothing was impossible. Nowhere was this moonshot belief more present than with Mercedes. Fewer cars represented just what Mercedes could do more so than the C215 generation Mercedes CL-Class.
The origins of the CL-Class begin with the W140 generation Mercedes S-Class. Looking to a create a more stylish grand-tourer style vehicle, Mercedes created a coupe version of the W140 and dubbed it the CL. This CL was not a standalone model until 1999 and the introduction of the C215.
Upon release, the C215 CL-Class stood atop Mercedes’ model hierarchy, which itself was quite a claim. The S-Class had been the Mercedes to rule them all, the car that all descendants would simultaneously share technology from and pay fealty to. The CL was smaller than period W220 S-Class, yet the CL was deemed supreme.
Being a two-door coupe, the CL was envisioned more as a grand tourer as opposed to an executive vehicle, but let that not be a detractor that prevents this simply remarkable motor vehicle from being featured in this series.
Let’s begin with aesthetics. The C215 is probably best described as a car that you don’t forget the look of. It is both familiar and unique. The front fascia has a narrow quality to it, as if the headlights and the grille have been squeezed towards the middle of a bumper that does not seem nearly as wide as the rest of the car. The twin headlights are undeniably related to the twin headlights of the first Mercedes CLK the C208, and the influence taken from the C215’s design can be seen in the conjoined twin headlights of the later C209 CLK made in 2002.
Step to the side of the C215, and the body from the front bumper to the A-pillar is very traditional. A long bonnet and nicely sculpted wings are conventional, but one you pass the A-pillar things get a little more unique. One of the dominating visual features of the C215 is the massive greenhouse-like interior section. An absence of B-pillars creates a massive glasshouse design with an impressive wraparound rear windscreen. Whilst your eyes are initially distracted by the glasshouse design, the body from the rear edge of the drivers door to the end of the car is huge. In fact, this may well be one of the largest body panels fitted to a car. It’s enormous.
It goes and goes and goes a little more before reaching the large taillights. Rear section of the car is so large that the C-pillar almost looks stranded, as if it didn’t dare try and reach as far back as the rest of the car. The look is awkward but also intriguing especially as, unlike the A-Pillar, the C-pillar is pulled more centrally inboard, cinching the roof towards the middle of the car with the convex rear wings adding to this pulled in look. One victim of this design is the fuel-filler cap that is awkwardly curved along the rear quarter panel, making it look as it if has shrunk in the sun and changed position as if the car itself as changed shape.
Behind the rear windscreen is that massive boot lid that closer resembles the rear deck of a speedboat that is used as a launch for a superyacht. Despite using a shorter wheelbase than the W220 S-Class, the C215 appears impossibly long, almost as if it has been stretched an contorted. The C215 surely must be the most ‘convertible looking’ non-convertible car ever made.
The rear bumper features Mercedes boldest interpretation of its triangular taillight design, and this design has aged, but it is also distinctively Mercedes.
The C215’s strange design is down to its construction; the a-pillar, floorpan and chassis rails are all made from steel, whereas the roof and rear wings are made from bonded aluminium.
As with any large German car of this period, the C215 featured a whole raft of engine choices (only petrol in this application) and these were:
- 5.0 Litre naturally-aspirated V8
- 5.8 Litre naturally-aspirated V8
- 5.5 Litre twin-turbocharged V12
- 5.4 Litre naturally-aspirated V8
- 5.4 Litre supercharged V8
- 6.3 Litre naturally-aspirated V12
- 6.0 Litre twin-turbocharged V12 (with over 600 bhp)
In a world where car fans clutch their hearts when something dreary like a 3.5 Litre V6 gets sent to the scrapheap, the list of engines available for the C215 is scarcely believable. Just look at the options! Each engine a testament to German engineering and ambition, each engine powerful and characterful and each engine an integral part of what made the C215 so great.
Mercedes do tend to use the S-Class as the vanguard for introducing ambitious new technology – most of which trickles down into even the most humble Mercedes – the CL was not short of technological prowess or features itself. Now remember, this car was released in 1999, so whilst a lot of the tech on this list may seem fairly humdrum and found in a 2023 Nissan Juke, back in 1999 this was the zenith of automotive technology. The C215 was equipped with:
- Mercedes Distronic active cruise control system (a world first)
- HID high and low beam headlights
- Air ride suspension that limited body roll and automatically lowered at higher speeds
- Early V12-equipped C215s featured cylinder deactivation for increased fuel economy
- Radar-based collision avoidance system
- LED rear brake lights, as LEDs illuminate faster than traditional bulbs
- An adjustable speed limiter that could be set on a road by road basis
- Keyless entry and go
- Rain sensing automatic windscreen wipers
- Automatic headlights
- Heated exterior mirrors
- Pollen and charcoal filters in the air conditioning
- Mercedes COMAND system (Cockpit Management and Data system) that controlled the audio system, onboard TV, car phone and satellite navigation system
- A “summer” open/close system, where all the windows and sunroof would open upon entering the car which would also close when exiting the car
- Remote open/close boot lid
- Self-closing doors
- Electric seats featuring heating, cooling and massage functions
- Voice command system
Again, today in 2023 a lot of this technology seems like old hat. But in 1999, where computers were much larger and less powerful than today, this amount of technology was simply astounding. I mentioned it earlier, but this was what Mercedes did better than Audi and BMW. They dreamt about not what the limitations were of a project, but what could be achieved. Nothing less than exceptional was good enough, and genuinely thoughtful albeit slightly superfluous features, that were at best creature comforts instead of being truly revolutionary, made the C215 the technological tour de force that it was intended to be.
You want an indicator of just how special the C215 was? Look at the CL63 AMG; built for a single month by AMG themselves, only 26 were made and their intended clientele – heads of state.
Kerbside 