NEW YORK, Dec 5, 2002 / -- Though its initial sales in North America have not exactly quickened the pulse of Daimler Chrysler shareholders, an "intellectual" test drive in the conglomerate's Mercedes-Benz C230K Coupe certainly raised our blood pressure agreeably during a recent weekend.

Given the C Coupe's brainy reputation and advanced technology, FWD decided to give it an intellectual test, beginning with a Friday gallery opening in Manhattan and two days in and around the think tanks of Boston.

Arriving at Gagosian Gallery for Anselm Kiefer's opening, the neat little stallion parked comfortably in between a rat pack of autos, then beat every one of them across town to the after-party dinner at Tabla. There, it elicited a "Que bella machina!" from a deep-pocketed Italian industrialist enjoying a cigarette outside the hip restaurant as one of Gagosian's young salesmen tried to ooze through a sale.

At this point, it's only fair to reveal that I'm one of those folks who got out of the NASDAQ while it was still over 4,000, and used part of my returns to invest in the old economy, buying a few hundred shares in Daimler Chrysler at over $80. Today they languish below $40. Sour grapes confessed, the C Coupe is not only a punchy, state-of-the-art, high performance auto that is fun to drive; it's also so sophisticated, it's comforting.

At dawn, the car came into its own on the rutted thoroughfare known as the FDR Drive, when I headed off to Boston to visit my very smart niece Barbary, enjoying her first term at the Kennedy School of Government. Without really pushing it, the journey from the East Village to Harvard Square took just three hours and 25 minutes, including a 15-minute stop in a Rhode Island forest to shrug off the aftermath of too much Chianti the night before. Not bad for an I-95 novice.

Starting at $26,000, the C Coupe is attainable for folks who always wanted a Benz but were afraid to ask the price tag. Though boasting only two-doors, the wide auto has generous legroom, headroom, and elbowroom. Five traveled comfortably to pre-dinner cocktails at a great Boston bar, Anchovies on Columbus Avenue.

Mercedes Benz C230
Photo courtesy of Mercedes Benz

The C Coupe's best asset, however, is its unique ultraviolet-ray-reducing Panorama roof, which is 30 percent larger than conventional sunroofs and slides back, armadillo-style. A Sunday drive north to New England's antiques capital Essex for shopping and a lunch of grilled New England lobster was memorable, as orange leaves drifted through the open roof during our drive. In summer, occupants can darken the interior with a two-section roller blind, much like a conventional home pull shade, but in this case it is power-operated. It's no wonder, given its light-handed elegance, that Mercedes has specifically targeted women with this car.

The car clung to the slippery route through Connecticut's port cities and the ever-changing Boston highways like a cat, occasionally panther like, zapping off more than one Lexus with a burst of acceleration.

Since John Quincy Adams, the Commonwealth has prided itself on being the intellectual brain trust of the Union, but out there on the Massachusetts turnpike, it's a dog-eat-dog world. Beantown youths driving around the city and sporting backwards baseball caps insisted on racing the C Coupe.

But God bless the supercharged wee C Coupe's 190-horsepower, 2.3-liter engine, dropping from sixth to fourth, as we soon saw off a pouting youth who was the doppelganger of Eminem. It came as no surprise that I was able to enjoy sunset near the "Perfect Storm" port of Gloucester and still make it home in time to see Joey Pantoliano breathe his last in "The Sopranos."