Sometimes fates smiles. I spent Wednesday driving several Mercedes AMG models. This is the in-house tuner shop that produces ultra-performance, ultra-expensive models for the German automaker. The theme was the 40th anniversary of AMG — it became a wholely owned subsidiary of MB in 1999 — and on hand at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay were several historic models.

And we got to drive new ones, too, such as the E63 AMG sedan and wagon and the ML 63 AMG sport-utility. Well done, certainly, and good choices for buyers looking for something a bit more exclusive than the regular E-Class and ML-Class models.

Ah, but my driving partner and I waited just a bit longer at Alice’s Restaurant atop Skyline Blvd., and a silver CLK 63 Black Series pulled in. This car missed the first vehicle switch (”I did a whole photo shoot,” the driver told us), and I’m guessing he was just having too much fun.

It’s easy to see why. This car is bolted-down, tight, taut, a straining nerve ready to jangle. It’s fast and, well, not furious exactly, but it does seem to get its dander up in a hurry.

A two-seat (the back seats of the CLK have been removed in favor of carpeted pods suited for tossing stuff) V-8 coupe, the CLK 63 AMG Black Series uses its 507-hp to go from 0 to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds. We didn’t go very, very fast (after having a nice chat with a sheriff’s deputy at Alice’s), but we went fast enough.

The 7-speed automatic features a tiny shift knob, but I did all my shifting via the steering-wheel paddle shifts. Great big brakes, 19-inch tires and wheels and a sports suspension designed to reflect even the most subtle road burr or driver input make the Black Series special.

I like the carbon-fiber wing and quad, chrome exhausts best.

The collected folks from Mercedes couldn’t tell us much about the Black Series name, but they did allow that much of the design of the car comes from the Formula 1 pace car.  It’s priced about $130,000.