Mercedes-AMG just delivered the best kind of apology for messing us around these last couple of years. The Benz performance division has dropped the Spezialanfertigung CLE 646, a musclebound limited edition coupe that costs silly money, has an even sillier name and a brand new V8 engine that makes up for the disappointment of the recent C63’s four-cylinder PHEV experiment.

You can read our initial story on the CLE 646 here, but it strikes us that there’s another angle worth exploring. Because conceptually, and even visually, to an extent, this hot new AMG coupe seems rather similar to another steroidal two-door. One made in the USA. We’re talking about the Ford Mustang GTD, and if you stick with us we’ll dig into the specs of each to help you work out which one deserves a spot in your fantasy garage.

Coupes For Supercar Cash

The CLE 646 and GTD are exotic cars with relatively humble bones. The AMG is based on the CLE coupe that starts at $60,900, and you can trace the Ford’s DNA to a $33,490 rental-spec Ecoboost Mustang. Not that you’d know it from this pair’s prices. Both brands are coy about the cars’ true stickers, and you won’t find he prices on the regular trial sites, but a stock GTD costs around $327,000 before options and AMG could be asking $1 million dollars for the 646, reports say.

Read: Mercedes-AMG Appears To Be Chasing The Autonomous Nurburgring Record

In return you get a heap of performance and exclusivity guaranteed. Ford is capping Mustang GTD production at 1,700 and AMG is only making 30 646s. That’s how the CLE earns its awkward (to non-Germans) Spezialanfertigung “custom-made” name. Every one of those 30 has already been snapped up, but you’re not too late to bag a GTD.

One’s Angry, The Other’s Furious

Those “humble bones” we mentioned? Both cars do a great job of hiding them under flared panels, scoops and wings, and an F1 workshop’s worth of composite. The AMG gains wider, carbon front fenders with 911 GT3-style sawtooth vents and a gaping black mouth that’ll make approaching bugs abut to meet their demise feel like they’re landing in the Death Star. The also-carbon hood has a hungry intake, the stick-on rear fenders (carbon again) and colossal wing provide a home for fatter, grippier tires and the downforce to get the most of them on track. You can even adjust the front diffuser and rear wing to tweak that squish. In maximum downforce mode it generates up to 250 kg (551 lb).

Yup, the AMG looks so angry it’s hard to imagine a coupe with more attitude… until you catch sight of a Mustang GTD in full warpaint. To be fair to the AMG, a base GTD is relatively restrained, with only a small fixed rear spoiler. But splash for the Mustang’s optional Performance Pack that pushes the price beyond $400,000 and you get a giant rear wing with an F1-stye Drag Reduction System, front dive planes, a bigger splitter and underbody aero flaps. Pull that option trigger and your GTD generates 1,951 lbs (885 kg) of downforce at 180 mph (290 kmh).

The GTD’s 32 mm front and 345 mm rear tire combo also out-stats the AMG’s 305/335 pairing, and that’s not the Mustang’s only girth-related win. Despite riding on a 6-inch (155 mm) shorter wheelbase, the GTD is around 3.5 inches (90 mm) broader. This thing is SUV wide and, at 4,343 lbs (1,970 kg), getting on for SUV-heavy. Mind you, the 4,780 lbs (1,895 kg) CLE is no Lotus Elise, according to Mercedes-AMG’s official figures, although it claims to have cut 375 lbs (170 kg) from a stock CLE’s weight.

V8s, But Very Different V8s

AMG’s big news isn’t so much the CLE 646 itself as what’s under the hood. This is our first taste of the new M177 Evo, a 4.0-liter flat-plane crank V8 that could potentially find its way into merely expensive AMG sedans and SUVs once the dust has settled on the Spezialanfertigung. Here it makes 637 hp (646 PS, hence the name) and 627 lb-ft (850 Nm), which AMG claims is good for a 3.9-second zero to 62 mph (100 kmh) time and 193 mph (310 kmh) top whack.

Not bad, but once again the GTD comes out swinging and lands every blow. Nuzzled up to the Mustang’s firewall is a 5.2-liter supercharged V8 that can’t brag about a fancy flatplane crank but crushes the AMG for output. Ford quotes 815 hp (826 PS) and 664 lb-t (900 Nm), and while it won’t talk 60 mph (96 kmh) times – but does acknowledge a 202 mph (325 kmh) top speed – independent tests say the GTD will run the stoplight test in less than 3 seconds.

The GTD also lapped the Nürburgring in 6:40.835 in its most extreme Competition trim that brings a hotter tune for the V8 and even more aero. AMG hasn’t revealed a Ring time yet, but given that power deficit we don’t fancy its chances of out-hustling the GTD.

More Than A Mustang

But it’s not only the GTD’s extra horses and big aero package that make that lap time possible. It might look like a Mustang Dark Horse with a ton of bolt-ons, but the GTD is so much more than that. It has an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission mounted at the rear axles instead of up front, to give 50:50 weight distribution. The AMG places 56 percent of its mass over the nose. And the Mustang’s rear end features pushrod Multimatic spool-valve adaptive dampers that look so trick Ford couldn’t resist putting a little window in the rear firewall where the back seat usually lives.

Read: Ford Just Revived The V10 Mustang It Never Let You Buy

The AMG is nothing like as exotic under the skin despite junking the 4MATIC all-wheel drive for a lighter, purer rear-wheel drive setup. It’s eight-speed auto still cosies up to the engine at the front, and it’s equipped with more conventional KW coilovers and four-way adjustable dampers.

Are these Really $300k+ Interiors?

Interior shots of the AMG confirm the CLE’s been on a pretty serious diet. The rear seats are gone, along with much of the sound insulation. Even the Parktronic parking aids have been left on the shop floor. Added in are lightweight racing bucket seats, carbon door panels and a rear roll cage. Six-point harnesses too, if you go for the optional Performance Package.

The GTD’s approach is similar, Ford’s engineers junking the rear chairs but slotting in a pair of Recaros up front. You still get the same basic dashboard architecture and combined digital gauge cluster and multimedia screen arrangement Ford supplies to Mustangs costing a tenth as much. But if that’s disappointing, the details aren’t. Those details include a pair of exquisite 3D-printed titanium shift paddles.

Make Mine A GTD

The CLE 646 might not wear the AMG’s old Black Series badge, but sounds like it’s got the old cars’ spirit, and having driven every one of those old timers from the SLS Black to the AMG GT Black, we don’t doubt the Spezialanfertigung will be a great track, and twisty-road weapon too. But judged purely on this on-paper battle it’s hard not to conclude that the GTD is the more special car, even if Ford is building more of them. Should save you a bunch of cash too, though it is outrageously expensive by Mustang standards.

And if you can’t afford either one, there’s still hope. You’ll find the GTD’s flat-bottomed steering wheel and engine (in detuned 795 hp / 806 PS form) in the $106,090 Mustang Dark Horse SC, and keep an eye out for the AMG’s V8 appearing in future AMGs that you only need to be a millionaire, not billionaire to afford.

Ford, Mercedes