We've heard the Spanish locals call this road the "Calle del Fuego." It's a twisty stretch of newly laid asphalt in the hills above Valencia with wide shoulders painted blood red. It looks like a river of molten lava running down each side of the pavement, and we're thinking it's the Highway to Hell.

As ominous as it looks, this smooth stretch of winding road is the perfect place to wring out the new 2008 Mercedes-Benz C350 Sport. Fully redesigned this year, this car is aimed directly at the BMW 3 Series, just like nearly every other C-Class before it.

The C350 Sport in our hands has an aggressive front fascia unique to the Sport model, newly developed adjustable suspension, and optional 18-inch wheels and tires. It also has shift paddles mounted on the steering wheel, its own iDrive-like computer control, and even a bit more interior room. If this 2008 Mercedes-Benz C-Class doesn't get the attention of BMW buyers, nothing will.

A meaner C-Class
Before we even started the engine, the C350 Sport's styling scored a few early points with us. Subjective as it might be, we're glad to see the last of the previous model's peanut-shape headlights and soft curves.

Sharp creases in the hood and quarter panels make the new car look chiseled instead of sculpted, while a wider track both front and rear plus a stretched wheelbase make the overall stance far more assertive. Rectangular headlights give it a scowl instead of a smile.

Both the C350 Sport and base C300 Sport make a statement of purpose by replacing the customary Mercedes-Benz hood ornament with a large three-pointed star planted front and center on a unique grille. The C300 Luxury model retains the traditional setup along with a chrome grille and a wood-trimmed interior.

No news isn't necessarily bad news
Even a more dramatic new look will only get the C350 so far, so we hit the road to get a feel for the new mechanical bits. There's no big story under the hood, as the C350 is powered by the same 3.5-liter V6 as last year's model. Its output remains pegged at 268 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque.

In the past, Mercedes has reluctantly offered the C-Class with a six-speed manual transmission, but now it has pared down the availability of this transmission to only the C300 Sport model. A seven-speed automatic is now the sole transmission for the top-of-the-line C350 Sport. For now, it sends power only to the rear wheels; an all-wheel-drive 4Matic model comes later.

With 268 hp and all those gears, the C350 makes good time in a straight line. Mercedes estimates a sprint to 60 mph will take just over 6 seconds, which puts this car well ahead of the Audi A4 yet well behind the 300-hp BMW 335i sedan. Along the way, the engine has the feel of a typical V6 — soft off the line, strong in the midrange and a little breathless as it approaches redline.

To get the most out of the seven-speed automatic, the new Sport Agility package quickens up shift action generally and also adds shift paddles mounted on the steering wheel. Unfortunately the Sport Agility package won't be available in the U.S. until the 2009 C-Class is introduced, and without it there's too much delay for us during downshifts.

Subtle suspension improvements
The basic suspension layout remains the same with struts up front and a five-link independent layout in back. Up front there's an additional control arm, and the use of aluminum for all the suspension links reduces unsprung weight for more precise wheel control.

Meanwhile, all four dampers feature what Mercedes calls Agility Control. You might know them as self-adjusting shock dampers, not exactly new technology.

In keeping with their aspirations, both the C300 Sport and C350 Sport get a more sporting suspension setup compared to the C300 Luxury. Firmly controlled damping settings and stiffer sway bars complement springs that lower the ride height by a half inch.

The forthcoming 2009 Sport Agility package makes this setup even more aggressive. Once you engage the "Sport" button, the dampers adopt firmer settings. In addition, throttle response is stronger and transmission shifts are quicker. Moreover, the Sport Agility package includes a quicker steering ratio of 13.5:1 (a step beyond the 14.5:1 steering ratio of the C300 Sport and C350 Sport), and speed-sensitive hydraulic assist.

A little bit of everything
Although the chassis changes seem minor in detail, they add up to exceptional ride quality on the highway, and there's even a little S-Class in the way the C350 glides over rough pavement. Move the steering wheel off center, and you get an immediate yet progressive level of resistance that gives the car a precise feel at high speed.

Of course, a Camry can feel pretty good on the highway, too, so we hit the roads among the hills in back of Valencia in search of more demanding terrain.

With our car's Sport Agility package set to "Comfort" mode, the C-Class settles into tight corners easily, but it's slow to make the transition to the next turn. Dialing up the "Sport" setting gets rid of the sluggishness, but the steering remains thin on road feel. We've got plenty of grip thanks to the optional Continental ContiSportContact2 tires, 225/40ZR18s in front and wide 255/35ZR18s in the rear. And there's the ever-present electronic stability control system to rein in things when you push too hard. As with all Mercedes models, left-foot braking is deterred by a similar electronic barrier.

When the bends are longer and faster, you just lean on the stiff chassis and wait for mild understeer to creep in. When a tight turn comes up, the brake pedal needs a strong leg to get full braking effect, but the pedal feel remains consistent despite repeated hard stops.

Mercedes goes Audi
Overall, the interior is slightly larger in most dimensions, although front headroom is down slightly. A slight increase in rear leg- and hiproom makes the backseat usable for 6-foot-plus adults. Standard eight-way, power-adjustable seats up front accommodate a wide variety of body forms, although the side bolsters might make the seat bottoms feel a little narrow if you're not. An optional 60/40-split folding rear seat improves the utility of the trunk, which measures 12.4 cubic feet.

The new C-Class now has 88.2 cubic feet of interior passenger volume, a slight improvement over the previous C-Class' 85.5 cubic feet but some ways adrift of the BMW 3 Series' 93.0 cubic feet.

As you'd expect in an Audi, the C-Class' interior materials feel right. All C-Class models get a **** in the center console that acts as a driver interface for tuning the radio and working the optional navigation system. Simple menus make it easier to navigate than BMW's iDrive system.

Right direction, mixed result
The BMW 3 Series has long been the big player in this market segment, with 120,180 sales in the U.S. last year. In comparison, the C-Class sold just 50,187 examples last year, just a bit more than the 49,862 Audi A4s that found a home in America in 2006.

For the small group of hard-core Mercedes enthusiasts who were hoping for a true 3 Series fighter, this C-Class isn't it. You can't get a manual transmission with the big engine, the stability control doesn't turn off and the performance-oriented suspension package won't be available until the 2009 model year.

Of course, all this will remain largely irrelevant for the vast majority of Mercedes-Benz C-Class buyers. You're typically interested in a sport sedan with a luxury feel, and comfort, features and style are more important than quick transitions between the corners. Your Highway to Hell is the average morning commute, not a twisting back road in the hills of Spain. And for this kind of duty, the C350 Sport is every bit the equal to BMW's best.

Mercedes has gone back to basics with the new C. Keen to banish memories of the E-class quality/breakdown/recall debacle, it has scrapped some of its old techniques and relied more on a computer-generated virtual C-class (its 2130GB of data might just crash your average PC) to iron out problems at the design stage. And to make sure it doesn't break down on a wet Friday night, it then spent five years and 15 million miles testing real cars...

Has it all worked? Read our eight-page road test to find out...

So in what other ways does it break from tradition?
Well, for one, this is the first Mercedes saloon to be offered without a stick-up three-pointed star atop the grille. Ever. Traditions at Benz aren’t broken lightly, and approval for this came from the top – from Dr Zetsche himself. Merc also wants to give sporting handling as much priority as pampering comfort.

Like hot ice cubes, this is hard to achieve. Unless, they say, you develop two clever forms of suspension – using both electronic dampers and, on standard cars, ‘amplitude dependent hydromechanical’ units (similar to the A/B-Class, but four generations on). Both are adaptive, but it’s the former, standard on even the boggo C180 K SE, that are most ingenious. They cost more than regular units, but this alone is proof of Mercedes’ aspirations with the C.

It certainly looks good, in an S-Class kinda way

Some things never change. Bruno Sacco instigated the ‘horizontal affinity’ principal of a clear family look, which the new C-class continues. It’s surprising, though, what a difference that grille makes. Only offered on Sport variants, it looks fantastic with a set of AMG alloys, giving Benz a proper rival to S line/M Sport rivals. You can even get it in bling white. Very (P) Diddy.

Lesser SE and Elegance models are more traditional, but both share the flowing side and SLK-hinting rear, which boast more substance than the old car. It’s physically bigger, but looks much more so. It’s clever, too. Aerodynamics are such that side and rear windows don’t get grubby in mucky weather, while the tail lights are ventilated so they stay clear in the wet. Needless to say, it has a slippery Cd of 0.27, while rear axle lift is, ahem, down, too.

Is the mainstream ‘hewn from solid’ Mercedes interior back?

It is. Simply laid out, the interior lacks character but there’s no doubting the quality. Panels fit precisely, soft-touch materials abound and even thumping an alloy into the deepest pothole elicits barely a grumble from the trim. There’s tactility too, while the floating speedo needle is just plain cool. Trad Mercedes seats are flat but firmly supportive, while the (LHD) driving position and ergonomic set-up is, save for a too-low indicator stalk, without fault.

The optional sat nav is little short of genius. Controlled via COMAND APS (think i-Drive that you can immediately decipher), this includes a 30Gb hard drive and destination input by voice recognition. It leaves 4Gb to store MP3s and, if you still buy CDs, it’ll store these on there too, in logical files laid out like an iPod. Satellite radio will also be offered in the UK. It’s just a shame the bigger exterior hasn’t yielded more space in the back, particularly for feet, though the 475-litre boot is not significantly smaller than the 540-litre E-Class's.

How does this newfound dynamism translate onto the road?

The C-class is no longer a Manx cat. Liberate the throttle and it’s clear the Mercedes has discovered its tail – ESP reins it in before opposite lock becomes necessary but such newfound dynamism remains (and the ESP is switchable, don't forget). There’s simply a greater feeling of balance, not to mention a clearer connection to the road, aided by light but immeasurably more direct steering that’s both quick and accurate. Gone is the Mercedes mush. Even the throttle response is more immediate.

Don’t worry, traditionalists. The standard car still flows along highways with a beautiful low-frequency gait. The stiff bodyshell means interferences are shrugged off and detailed compliance work means sudden intrusions are discreetly absorbed. It’s in corners where those ‘stiffening’ dampers come alive, turning the front end in with haste and, after a slight discontinuity, doing the same to the rear. It’s surprisingly agile for a car that rides so well, while such alert response and reduced roll angles is proof the clever tech works. And cars with ‘Advanced Agility’ electronic dampers? Even more 'comfortably sportive', as the man from Merc says. We'd have to agree - they work well.

But the engines are more familiar, aren’t they?

Yes; Mercedes model and engine cycles are always out of sync. They’ve all been updated, but the engines are as before – supercharged petrol and turbocharged diesel four-pots, plus V6 petrol and turbodiesel higher-end units. We drove the exceptional C320 CDI; with a cammy growl, it’s free-revving and vibration-free, happy to sing in its mid-range and provide fearsome mid-range shove. The seven-speed auto is dozy and obsessed with hitting higher ratios (three staccato downchanges are not uncommon), but take control yourself, and revel in that lag-free yet linear throttle explosion. With 39mpg too, it’s hard to make a case for the C350 petrol.

Standard cars will be fairer game. The C180 K has 13bhp more, the C200 CDI gains 14bhp, while the C220 CDI has 20 extra horses and 18 percent more torque. These gains won’t be soaked up by weight, for the new C, in base guise, weighs exactly the same as the old. But no BMW-like brake regeneration and the like. The official line is ‘only if customer demand is sufficient’. Give it about a year, then.

Verdict
If kitchen sinks designed cars, even they would have been thrown into this project. It’s been ferociously analysed but the end result isn’t overkill - this is the most complete entry-level (real) Merc since the ’83 190.

Mercedes UK isn’t revealing any UK data but European cars have an inflation-only price increases, so list price here should be from £23k. For what’s possibly the most complete Merc ever, that’s heartening.