Mercedes AMG GT: ‘Til The End Of The Road

12 January 2018 Redazione Living with a supercar, News, Tested

PERFORMANCE TOUR – EPISODE VI

MERCEDES AMG GT

‘TIL THE END OF THE ROAD

Words: Alessandro Marrone

Photography: S. Lomax

Autumn has now peeped out, greedily stealing precious hours of light from those intense driving days that was starting at dawn and culminating in the most red of summer sunsets, constantly looking for the highest peak to climb, the most engaging switchbacks and that limit between maximum grip and total loss of control of the rear, with tires that start to run furiously slipping out of the corner. That moment of extreme excitement, a sort of controlled shaking of hands on the steering wheel and sensory pleasure in losing control – for a few seconds only, until you focus your eyes to the next curve and set the car exactly where it should be. The road under the tires of the AMG GT is slimy and insidious this morning, the sun plays hide and seek behind a thick array of gray clouds and the huge bonnet of the creature born in Affalterbach points to the snowy peaks above Cuneo, to end at its best the fantastic experience lived with Gino Luxury & Motorsport for our Performance Tour, an adventure developed through six exciting episodes that saw us at the wheel of some of the best sports cars available today – cars that, moreover, do not expect anything other than you to take the driver’s seat, thanks to the exclusive programs offered by GinoScuderia.

It’s not just the temperature, which does not seem wanting to change from 8 degrees, or the little light coming from a cloudy sky above us, there are a few hours for reaching our first shooting location and pay homage to one of the most beautiful grand tourer ever produced by the three-pointed star. The road in front of us is (obviously) winding and full of bends and I do not intend to stop until I have put the wheels on a bit of snow. There is always a challenge, a goal, that something that provides fuel to the engine of our emotions, otherwise it would be a simple job and we would not like it so much. I set the navigator and found in a few seconds the ideal driving position, sitting as always very low but with a good view of what is around me. In city traffic, luckily not oppressive given the time of the day, I can slip into the streets using the wow effect of the AMG GT, thanks to which many stop admiring it and giving me way at junctions and gesticulating in extensive approval. The GT replaces the beautiful and menacing SLS, loses the gullwing doors and a few liters from its engine, but gains two turbos and still manages to keep high the bar of involvement. Look at it, especially from the front, it seems so huge and that front grille with vertical slats that characterizes the facelift contributes to give it a threatening connotation as the look of a shark attracted by some tasty blood. Low, very wide and with jaws wide open and ready to swallow the curves that lead to the mountains, the GT has only two seats and a rounded tail that emphasizes the sensuality of a completely new design that has very few rivals in its segment. Few that become even less due to the fact that one must in addition spend several thousand Euros more. The GT is the first step of the same model, but be assured that you will never miss the extra horses available with the GT S. The 4-liter V8 delivers 476hp and as soon as I press the gas I am instantly pressed to the seat thanks to a torque of 630Nm, available at just 1700 rpm. The roar of the exhaust accentuates the drama, just like the burble and crackles as I coast, but everything is perfectly in line with the speed you can gain in a few hundred meters.

When the road allows and winks at the AMG, I make a quick movement on the left paddle, climbing a pair of gears from the 7-speed automatic gearbox, jot down with ignorance and like a muscle car that has understood that it takes a frame and a serious set-up to manage certain powers, I am invested by the consequences of my pseudo-criminal behavior: the bonnet seems to flinch, the sat-nav voice disappears swallowed by the 8-cylinder roar and my hands hold the steering wheel as hard as possible, limiting sudden movements a few centimeters from the gravel strip that delimits the roadway from a dramatic epilogue. You know it’s powerful, but you’re not ready for the explosiveness of its progression, partly because of its “abundant” look: the fact is that in reality the weight does not exceed 1690kg, ‘cause there is a carbon fiber transmission shaft and the body is made of aluminum. Here is explained how it could face those hairpin bends in so much fluency, not afraid of that desire to widen the tail. The front end is precise, the steering is soft (in any driving mode) and the g’box is very fast – with traction controls active, it will be your guardian angel, without being able to rely on them, a little responsibility is required, because despite engineering spells, 500 horses on the rear axle are never easy to handle. After some photographic stop where I can admire it with more peace and serenity, especially the futuristic cockpit that offers the usual technological gadgets combined with a really valuable design, it’s time to get back to driving and not settle for a few inches of snow remained in the middle of some field in the gloom.

Bravo Sebastian Ziegler, you did a great job! Sebastian is the man who completely assembled and then signed the engine of this model and as usual for AMG has left its deserved autograph under the bonnet, the true heart of this provocative coupe. Miles are eaten as if they were a succulent last meal, without any thrift and without any intention of wasting even a minute of the little time available – despite everything I still can’t understand the supernatural power of this AMG. Just a pressure on the throttle and I can see it from the outside – watch it as it flashes – beautiful, elegant, a thunderbolt that abducts and combines the physical pleasure of a high speed drive to the emotional one that you feel following the right path, the one that does necessarily end the life of your tires, offering you the possibility to perform some bandit maneuvers with only half pedal pressed. And those crackles, which as the tachometer’s needle approaches the red line, increase in intensity and seem to rise in tone. The dance between hands and steering wheel resumes along a series of three or four bends and while the snow finally fills the landscape on the side of the road, I begin to experience that bitter taste that anticipates something that is coming to an end. The day at the wheel of the GT, the Performance Tour or more simply the road that is interrupted by a barricade and a sign prohibiting access to any type of vehicle.

I stop in the middle of the road, I open the door and go down to read the municipal directives on the sign. Meanwhile, the V8 mumbles incessantly and the exhaust starts ticking, I turn to the car and I understand that this is one of those cases in which the destination does not matter, because the real fun is the journey and that a closed road means that you have to find another way to unleash the GT horses and keep enjoying the sweet taste of satisfaction that an exceptional car can give you. Many are able to bring you from one place to another, making you have fun, but a few are those with which you would escape for the sheer pleasure of doing that thing that binds all of us car nuts – driving. The AMG GT collects an important legacy and raises it thanks to a simplicity of use that the SLS could not fully convey. It’s damn beautiful from everywhere you look at it, it thunders like the sky during judgment day and turns heads like a supercar, literally. You do not miss anything, not even the desire to accompany you anywhere, since it also has a large trunk. Another closed road, alpine passes are now off limits and the time at our disposal is coming to an end, time to return to the base and let someone else write his own great story, his personal story of a day of driving behind the wheel of a dream car.

Auto Class would like to thank Gino Luxury & Motorsport for the precious collaboration, having made the realization of the “Performance Tour” possible. We also remember that the book is now available in our shop, with all the episodes of this fantastic adventure, extra contents and much more. With our friends and the cars at Gino L&M, see you next year, while having fun with their Scuderia program and all the other available offers.

MERCEDES AMG GT (2017-)

Layout   –  front-engined, rear wheel drive

Engine  –  V8 cylinder 4.0cc – twin-turbo

Transmission  –  7-speed automatic gearbox

Power  –  476 hp @ 6.000 rpm

                     630 Nm @ 1.700 rpm

Weight  –  1.690 kg

Acceleration  –  4 sec.

Top Speed  –  304 kph

Price as new –  from € 129.700