GLC 63

Take the coast road from Alghero down to Bosa: some forty kilometres suspended between Mediterranean scrub and open sea, corners flowing into one another without a dull metre, barely a town to interrupt the rhythm. It is the kind of road that rewards a compact, powerful, precise car far more than any giant — and the GLC 63 is exactly that size. Not by chance does that coastline feature among the most beautiful driving roads in Sardinia in our guide.

Its format is its trump card: compact enough for the car parks of Stintino and the streets around the harbour, roomy enough for four adults with long-weekend luggage. Guests staying on the Riviera del Corallo can have it delivered straight to their hotel through Mercedes-AMG rental in Alghero: from there, Capo Caccia is half an hour of corners away and La Pelosa beach little more than an hour.

The GLC 63 E Performance upends expectations: no eight cylinders, but the most extreme series-production 2.0-litre turbo ever built, paired with an electric motor on the rear axle. The turbocharger itself is electrified — a solution lifted directly from Formula 1 — and it erases response lag altogether: brush the throttle and all 680 hp are already there, with a 0–100 km/h time of 3.5 seconds that presses you into the seat.

The sound is another story entirely: the four-cylinder has a raw, technical timbre punctuated by the whoosh of forced induction, while the 9-speed SPEEDSHIFT MCT automatic fires off shifts with almost electronic speed. Through the hairpins, the rear-axle steering virtually shortens the wheelbase: the car rotates around its driver with the agility of a hot hatch, and on the way out the all-wheel drive pulls everything straight again. In electric mode, by contrast, it glides in silence past Alghero's Catalan bastions.

What sets the GLC 63 apart is the E Performance philosophy: the battery is not designed to rack up zero-emission miles but to release and recover power as quickly as possible, exactly as on a grand prix car. Every braking point recharges; every acceleration gives it back. It is a hybrid conceived for people who love driving, not merely for people who want to consume less.

Within LSM Car Luxury's range of Mercedes-AMG cars for rent, the GLC 63 in polar white is the proposal for those who want the very peak of the technology in an everyday format: the city in the morning, the coast road at sunset, dinner in the old town with no parking anxieties. Message our WhatsApp concierge with your dates and your corner of the island to check availability.