Hands up who liked the old Mercedes-AMG GT? That’s right: some of you. Enough for Mercedes to have sold a few examples of the supremely costly Black Series, but not nearly enough for its replacement to continue in precisely the same format. At its core, the old GT was a curiously Marmite two-seater; what the manufacturer openly admits it needs - and what its customers requested - is a more practical, usable and, yes, comfortable high-end sports car that rivals the all-court ability of a Porsche 911 Turbo. So no pressure there then.
Clearly, this is a conundrum that requires more than one answer, although for now, Mercedes UK has opted to limit the available choice to just the flagship GT 63 in this country. That seems like a missed opportunity in more ways than one - especially as its platform-sharing sibling, the SL, is available in other flavours - but on the basis that new V8-powered sports cars are lamentably thin on the ground, let’s gloss over that omission for now. The new all-wheel-drive GT 63 is here and furnished with a non-hybridised 585hp version of the familiar 4.0-litre 'hot vee' engine and probably we can all be thankful for that.
Especially when you consider how it looks. The new model obviously evokes the previous GT, but there is something slipperier and better-proportioned about the result. The back end is sleeker now, and the long nose sharper. But it’s not necessarily all about prettiness: on 21-inch forged five spokes, its enormous 305-section rear tyres splayed by negative camber, there’s a meanness to it - especially in the darker Selenite Grey. Like all the best AMGs, it seems to glower at you for causing it to be stationary. Little wonder it turns heads.
The interior, already familiar from the SL, is less evocative. It’s as modern and as clean-cut as a Chinese astronaut, of course, and certainly all Mercedes hard work on the MBUX system has paid off in terms of sophistication - but a giant touchscreen and selectable ambient lighting do not a soulful cabin make. The outgoing Bentley Continental GT towers above it in terms of style and finish, and even the 992 (hardly the epitome of flamboyance itself) seems equipped with a more cohesive sense of what it ought to stand for. Additionally, while it’s admittedly a pet peeve, it’s hard to forgive a six-figure sports car for a parts bin column shifter; especially when there’s a pointless rubberised puck on the centre console where a proper gear lever should’ve been located.
Nevertheless, as its maker promised it would be, the new GT feels slightly more spacious to sit in and certainly easier to see out of. As you might expect, the new rear seats are more in-case-of-emergency than a genuine option for a long journey, yet their presence - and the 180mm of additional length needed to accommodate them - has made the coupe an airier and less cramped prospect. You still sit pleasingly low, but the sensation of being a thousand leagues from the front axle is gone. There’s a handily larger boot, too. So what the GT lacks in handsomeness, it recoups in a clearer sense of purpose. You will not begrudge spending time in it.
It’s possible you might begrudge its failure to bark into life like an Aussie V8 supercar. Alas, those days are seemingly gone. There are emissions and regulations to consider. As well as the aforementioned game plan: some of us might be happy (especially amid so much handwringing about the fate of big combustion engines) for the GT to announce itself like the opening chords of a Led Zeppelin song - but that might unsettle the notion that even the brooding combustion-only variant is a docile and as easy to use as Dyson vacuum cleaner. So you prod it into gear like it’s a GLE, and move off with precisely no fuss whatsoever.
If this makes the coupe somewhat anticlimactic, it is also fit for purpose. Certainly no previous GT rode or roved about the place quite so contentedly. In the default Comfort mode, there is a real sense of Mercedes leaning into grand tourer-style suppleness, even if it can’t deliver a commensurate hush in tyre or road noise. This greater leeway is courtesy of the cleverer, torsionally stiffer platform and the bandwidth offered by active dampers that are now hydraulically linked across the chassis - although that doesn’t mean the car has entirely lost the SL's knack for getting momentarily flustered when one of its enormous wheels falls into a divot. But those secondary collisions are an exception to the established rule. For much of the time, it’s as mellow as a Sunday morning.
Even allowing for its direct steering and muscular physical presence, the GT is undemanding to the extent that should you fail to leave the confines of the local one-way system (or delve into the many other drive modes), you might conceivably start to wonder where the beef is at. No car with 590lb ft of V8-supplied torque to call upon from 2,500rpm could be called leisurely, but the throttle response and nine-speed shift map are laidback by design. Accordingly, the moment a town (or motorway, where the GT is also predictably agreeable) fades in the background you’ll do best to summon up Sport on AMG’s steering wheel-mounted dial. This subtracts some of the comfort, yet immediately locates a more consistent and better-controlled sense of fluidity. It also rouses the V8.
Mercedes-AMG hasn’t breathed very hard on the M177 motor for its latest showing - and we’ve experienced it before in the SL - but it’s still a lovely engine to get reacquainted with above 3,000rpm. At slightly more than two tonnes with yours truly sitting in it, the coupe is not light and nor is 585hp exactly extravagant (the much svelter 911 Turbo S gets 650hp, after all) but thanks to the variable 4Matic+ system and the electronic rear diff, the GT no longer squanders any of it. This is handy because the V8 still does its best work at higher engine speeds and when you’re selecting which ratio to be in manually. You’ll still yearn for a bigger, broader soundtrack - and certainly less of it coming from the speakers - but you don’t have to search too hard for a very senior grade of pace, or (even better) the inimitable feel of it under the wheels.
The uptick in energy suits the more attack-orientated chassis; there’s an appreciable scruff-of-the-neck keenness to the GT now, partly because Sport allows a smidgen of telegraphic roll on turn-in and partly because the car, while still biased toward the back end, seems better and more benignly balance than it did before, even with a relocated transmission moving weight forward. The very brisk and appropriately brawny steering plays its part, although much of the confidence comes from the sheer level of grip that’s being generated. On dry tarmac, its limits seem unsurprisingly distant given Michelin Pilot Sport S 5 rubber and the prodigious level of tech underwriting them, although Sport+ (and Race beyond) reveal what’s possible with even more hydraulic restraint applied to abrupt changes of direction. While the result is a bit too unremittingly for choppy B roads and short on nuance, it is worth noting that even at Defcon 5 the GT doesn’t sacrifice its hard-won poise or its easy-to-like charm.
That nothing about this newly engaging temperament threatens to completely overhaul the 992 Turbo S probably says more about what Mercedes-AMG has willingly retained rather than what it has failed to achieve. The GT is still a big, front-engined and conspicuously hefty thing - more so now with its improved practicality - and while it is emphatically better at going faster, the width and breadth of its do-it-all remit (as well as its actual proportions) have for now negated the kind of imperturbable, brain-defying performance that best characterises Porsche’s flagship.
This is fine for three reasons. Firstly, because in its attempts to straddle the space between its predecessor and the definitive AWD 911, Mercedes-AMG has not undermined a GT that now feels like it’s more on your side. It is neither a paragon of refinement, nor the absolute last word in handling finesse, yet it remains the sum of its expensively assembled parts, and that emphatically includes the V8. Secondly, at £164,905 on the road, the Premium Plus version we tested seems priced to compete. A Turbo S is £180,600. The standard 911 Turbo is fractionally cheaper, yet with virtually the same output the GT’s rakish look and likely greater exclusivity offer plenty of food for thought. Thirdly, Mercedes-AMG is just getting started. The previous GT required umpteen variants before it approached greatness; its replacement is much more likeable and better sorted on day one. If Porsche is minded to consider where its rival will go from here, it might finally have found something to worry about.
Specification | 2024 Mercedes-AMG GT 63 4Matic+
Engine: 3,982cc, V8, twin-turbo
Transmission: nine-speed auto, four-wheel drive
Power (hp): 585 @ 5,500-6,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 590 @ 2,500-5,000rpm
0-62mph: 3.2 seconds
Top speed: 196mph (limited)
Weight: 1,970kg (EU)
MPG: 20.0 (WLTP)
CO2: 319g/km (WLTP)
Price: £164,905
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