Mercedes has a habit of naming things exactly what they are, which is refreshing in an industry obsessed with alphanumeric riddles. The CLE 646 Spezialanfertigung is, quite literally, 646 horsepower and a special build. This is the second car to wear the Mythos badge, the ultra-exclusive collector tier Mercedes carved out above AMG and Maybach in 2024. The idea is simple even if the execution isn’t. Build a handful of cars so extreme and so limited that they behave less like automobiles and more like appreciating assets, the sort of thing that gets traded at Pebble Beach rather than a dealership forecourt.
The first Mythos car, the PureSpeed speedster, launched at around $1 million for 250 units. Give it a few years, and PureSpeed values should only climb, the way early Pagani and one-off Ferrari specials have. The CLE 646 follows the same script, only angrier.
Under that widened, carbon-heavy hood sits a reworked AMG M177 Evo 4.0-liter V8 biturbo, now with a flat-plane crankshaft borrowed straight from motorsport and Italian exotica. It makes 646 hp, sent purely to the rear wheels through a nine-speed gearbox with rev-matching that makes it sound like an AMG should. Zero to 200 kmph (124 mph) takes 11.4 seconds, and top speed sits at 193 mph. Mercedes shaved off roughly 375 lbs versus the standard CLE, by deleting rear seats, sound insulation and, bafflingly, the parking sensors. This is a car that is wider than most driveways, and its owners will have to judge the gap by eye.
The body is 60mm wider at both axles, which isn’t subtle, and neither is the manually adjustable front diffuser with its Street and Race settings that genuinely change the aerodynamic behaviour. Add a titanium Akrapovic exhaust, ceramic composite brakes, four-way adjustable coilovers and an actual roll-over bar, and you have something that feels more like a race car for the road than just a road car turned up to 11.
Speaking of, its Race mode raises the drag coefficient from 0.402 to 0.417, which means the car needs 36.8 seconds to hit 300 kmph (186 mph) in Track trim against 36.2 seconds in Street guise. Which just goes to show that the aero is doing its job providing downforce, making it slower in a straight line.
Mercedes hasn’t published a price yet, but expect it to sit comfortably north of the PureSpeed given the engineering involved and the inevitable Affalterbach hand-build premium. Not that the price matters anymore, as Mercedes has confirmed that all 30 examples were sold before the car’s world premiere. Mercedes itself points to the old AMG Hammer as its spiritual ancestor, an elegant coupe rebuilt by hand around an oversized V8 long before AMG became its own thing. The CLE 646 brings that tuner-shop spirit back.
