GRANADA, Spain — On the primary day of the 2024 Mercedes-AMG GT Coupe media drives, I spurred the (real two-door) coupe via Spanish mountain roads exterior Granada. I’ve spoken earlier than of at this time’s tremendous sports activities vehicles being an excessive amount of for public roads — 100 kilos of ‘roids in a 20-pound sack. One wants a stress go well with, tower clearance and immunity from prosecution to method their potential. Nicely, right here is one other: an Affalterbach large boy with an afterburner engine, its dimension and weight uniquely unsuited to humping over spindly Iberian roads with their byzantine zig-zags, their coarse, bumpy tarmac, their quite a few, simultaneous cambers and their shock herds of goats.
Worse, it was as awkward as an NFL offensive sort out requested to flamenco. Its multiplex techniques stored me pointed the right means, however did so by interrupting energy supply and dynamics in methods I couldn’t predict.
There was no means AMG had forgotten find out how to engineer a sinuous — if portly — driver’s automotive. I drove a GT in 2016, and aside from it being stiffer than a crowbar, it was a hoot to hustle. Colleague James Riswick praised the AMG GT R. The AMG GT Black Collection nearly by no means met a coronary heart it couldn’t win.
Enter Katrin, with AMG PR. Throughout dinner that first night, she requested what I considered the drive. I did essentially the most well mannered factor I might consider, answering her query with: “Can I complain?” Then I did simply that, and in additional element than outlined above. My TEDx discuss concluded, she stated, “You want to converse to René.”
That was the start of how I discovered to thrill within the 2024 AMG GT.
However let’s begin with the breakdown. The second-generation AMG GT Coupe embodies what the corporate calls “a brand new dimension idea.” This implies clients wished again seats for familial and pecuniary causes — the potential to load children or tiny canine, and the actual boon of decrease insurance coverage charges levied on a 2+2 vs. a two-seater. Consequently, the AMG GT might be had as both, albeit with the latter possessing a parcel shelf as an alternative of the vestigial seats.
The all-new coupe combines and distills AMG and Mercedes merchandise that preceded it. The brand new multi-metal and composite platform shares nothing with the earlier AMG GT, however is identical platform supporting the brand new AMG SL. In comparison with the earlier GT, the second-gen rides on a wheelbase 2.8 inches longer, its physique 7.1 inches longer, and it is a skosh wider and taller. In comparison with the SL, the AMG GT is an inch longer and three inches wider, subtly emphasizing its rowdier objective.
The outside playbook cribs the SL’s gameplan, with the SL itself an edited remake of the earlier GT C Roadster. Cue AMG’s Panamericana grille, its Mercedes insignia beamed from a darkish solar, the lengthy hood and ascending wedge of unfussed bodywork, the flush door handles, 20-inch commonplace wheels, and quad exhaust finishers. Variations embody the three LED light-dot DRL signatures, recalled in again with the three-dot taillights. 4 AMG-embossed noisemakers poke via an ornate and aero-efficient diffuser. Bigger 21-inch wheels add grip and standoffish bearing, every tire representing the weekly output of a rubber plantation. Oh, and there’s a hard and fast hardtop.
Inside, there’s all of the Mercedes and AMG we count on — architectural class (beautiful Nappa leather-based seats), technical opulence (extravagantly complicated MBUX) and LED ostentation (Cyberpunk 2077 ambient lighting on demand). The massive inside story is that there’s extra of it: The extra wheelbase and physique size relative its predecessor make room for a low shelf behind the entrance seats within the two-seater, one that will do nicely with netting or a bar to restrain objects. Within the non-obligatory 2+2, fold-down second row seats are stated to be appropriate for anybody not more than 5 toes tall.
Within the two-seater, a hard and fast bulkhead separates cabin from cargo space and 11.3 cubic toes of load house, an enchancment on the earlier GT’s 10.1 cubic toes. One other signal of AMG’s fastidious detailing, the non-obligatory 1,170-watt Burmester audio techniques locations certainly one of its 15 audio system within the maintain in case the proprietor’s Rimowa baggage additionally likes yacht rock. Decreasing the rear seats within the 2+2 liberates 23.8 cubic toes of cargo house, apparently sufficient to suit a bicycle with out its entrance wheel.
Powertrains match SL spec, a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 in both 63 or 55 trims. The previous makes 577 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque, the latter, 469 hp and 516 lb-ft. Each shift via AMG’s nine-speed transmission, fitted right here with a moist start-off clutch for decrease weight and higher throttle response. From there, output passes via 4Matic all-wheel drive –the earlier era was rear-drive solely. The bookends of the entrance/rear torque cut up are a 0/100 pure pusher mode at one finish, and a 50/50 unfold when lack of rear traction calls for all contact patches on deck. Energy to the rear wheels runs via a torque-vectoring limited-slip differential moreover aided by brake-based torque vectoring.
There is a five-link cast aluminum suspension at every nook together with AMG’s Energetic Trip Management suspension (the system that comes commonplace on the SL 63, however is an possibility on the SL 55). The key sauce is oil, flowing via the hydraulic, semi-active roll management system. Compression and rebound are managed individually at every nook, whereas a hydraulic pump forward of the motive force’s aspect rear wheel pumps fluid via traces that join the suspension throughout the automotive, e.g., the compression stage of the entrance left damper connects to the rebound stage of entrance proper entrance damper.
The stress within the system acts on digital switches that management valving. Separating oil move from valve actuation permits extra exact valve management. All 4 corners include a 3rd “consolation” valve, too, which opens to scale back stress and ship a smoother journey. The profit right here is the widened spectrum of consolation and efficiency in comparison with what a bodily torsion component might present. AMG stated the pump operates in a spread from 18 bar (least roll resistance, most consolation) to 45 bar (most roll resistance, most efficiency) within the 2024 AMG GT Coupe. Nonetheless, the system is able to 60 bar. The trace is that an much more depraved GT variant this fashion comes. Finally.
The “Energetic” within the title is a little bit of a misnomer, although, as that is semi-active roll management. The hydraulics restrict roll inside programmed limits, they don’t reverse roll. If the coupe’s physique leans two levels via a bend, Energetic Trip Management can not restore the coupe to a zero-degree flat facet.
AMG’s energetic aerodynamics on the usual automotive embody the Airpanel louvers behind the decrease consumption that shunt air alongside the underbody to scale back raise when closed, or open to obtain cooling air. As first seen within the aforementioned GT R, a carbon component beneath the physique simply in entrance of the engine drops 1.6 inches at both 50 miles per hour or 62 mph relying on the driving program. The ensuing Venturi impact it creates reduces raise in entrance, creates downforce in again, and lowers drag. The energetic rear spoiler swings via 5 positions as much as a most cant of twenty-two levels.
An non-obligatory Aerodynamics Package deal provides small carbon addenda alongside the physique, plus a hard and fast wing on the decklid that enhances downforce whereas decreasing drag in comparison with the usual automotive.
Rear-axle steering comes on each automotive, capable of rotate the again wheels by as a lot as 2.5 levels. The usual brake system with metal and aluminum rotors places six-piston rotors up entrance clamping 15.4-inch discs, single-piston rotors in again clamping 14.2-inch discs. These are grand for Spanish routes the place one is as more likely to spherical a blind hairpin into a large, historic view as right into a white, historic Renault cargo van or that herd of goats — presumably all three.
There’s already a ton at work right here, and we haven’t cracked open the customizing options accessible within the AMG driving modes. Pulling the levers doesn’t all the time lead to what an fanatic would think about successful numbers, although. Due to 4Matic, the brand new coupe’s 54/46 weight stability reverses the previous base GT’s 47/53 weight distribution. (The AMG GT Black Collection hit the jackpot with a 50/50 stability.)
There’s a lot extra weight to be moved round, although: The 2024 AMG GT beneficial properties 595 kilos over its predecessor, slapping a scale with 4,353 kilos. On the intense aspect, that’s merely 58 kilos above a BMW M8 Competitors. On the opposite aspect, that’s 700 kilos greater than a Porsche 911 Turbo S.
With the automotive’s particulars detailed, let’s get again to Katrin and dinner and complaints about stilted dealing with, lifeless steering and a wood brake pedal. She launched me to René Szczepek, the person accountable for dealing with dynamics for each AMG product. I’m going to remodel roughly half-hour of his detailed engineering solutions into one paraphrased sentence: AMG basically stuffed 10 tons of computer systems right into a 2-ton automotive, and one must know find out how to set the automotive as much as obtain the most effective outcomes. What I might discover out the following day is that one should additionally not be shy about wringing the snot out of it.
The next morning, René and I took an AMG GT Coupe 2+2 from central Granada to a few of the similar mountain roads I’d pushed. Throughout the 40-minute drive, he delivered a 200-level introductory school course on the AMG Dynamics system the motive force makes use of to inform the automotive how a lot rear-end slip he needs — from the none of Fundamental to the let-it-all-hang-out of Drift — and the way the Digital Stability Programming applies 4Matic, traction management, Energetic Trip Management, LSD- and brake-based torque vectoring, rear-wheel steer, throttle response, energetic aero and myriad different mechanical and digital troopers to assist the driving mission. By the point we reached the purpose the place I’d hop within the passenger’s seat for an illustration, it started to really feel like he was explaining how an F-16 Viper stays within the air. He stated there have been moments when the car improvement staff wanted to backtrack and re-sleuth its personal work to determine which system was performing which intervention. This automotive is that complicated.
Every time I journey shotgun with a correct pilot, I all the time inform them to do their finest and overlook about scaring me. I need the VIP, adults-only present. René — whose car-handling prowess is, as one would count on, excellent — didn’t wait to offer it to me. Inside a 3rd of a mile, I used to be at “Yikes!” A mile down the highway, “Holy … Whoa.” Three miles of stupendous dealing with later: “Wow.” I obtained one other lecture through the drive again to the lodge, the place I dropped off Rene. Then I rotated to spend two hours tearing via the Spanish mountains testing setups.
Factor is, the AMG GT Coupe, just like the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 W14 or the F14 Tomcat, will get staggeringly higher the quicker you drive it. Round city, it’s nonetheless agency, however way more comfy than the earlier GT. Wring its neck, and it plucks a device or 4 out of its huge dynamic device chest to get round each nook at velocity. The hydraulic roll management injects simply sufficient pitch and roll to really feel pure, whereas checking the sway and oscillations that slowly fatigue one’s neck and shoulders. Pushed as if on a qualifying lap, the GT feels half a ton lighter — or, no less than, it responds like a automotive weighing a thousand kilos much less. Steering and braking nonetheless lack communication however abound in precision — a good compromise on the speeds the GT Coupe will do via a nook. Michelin Pilot Sport S 5 tires sized 295/30 in entrance and 305/30 in again, on 21-inch wheels, refused to be dislodged past their software-defined limits. And AMG engineers even lowered the frequency and depth of ABS pulsing in order to not jolt drivers at essential moments.
It would not reply nicely to tentative driving, as if the computer systems simply do not know find out how to assist a reticent drive. So, in between extremes, similar to when driving such as you’re making an attempt to take its measure on mysterious international roads on the similar time you’re making an attempt not danger the lives of your journalist passenger or a goatherd round one other blind nook, the GT Coupe loses a lot of its grace — probably whereas certainly one of its computer systems curses you in German and one other makes a notation within the Mercedes Me cloud that the motive force is a chump.
This is not a Porsche 911, neither is it a BMW M8. It’s, in each means, from the diamond-quilted seats and Burmester audio to its a number of PhD-level laptop science levels and V8 bell and howl, an AMG. And it’s the most effective on a regular basis non-Black Collection AMG GT Coupe there’s ever been.
We hope the following one is launched with one-on-one instruction in setup, although. And at a monitor, too. As a result of prosecution. And goats.
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