The AMG GT R is only just hitting the streets and a new version of the AMG GT is showing itself for the first-time testing in light disguise.
At first glance the mule may look like your ‘standard’ beast of the green hell, but a closer look reveals that we are now dealing with a different car entirely. The front facia of the car remains largely unchanged in this round of trials, and it is at the rear that we see the most intrigue. Most notably the mighty central exhausts are gone, and are now housed nearer the sides of the bumper between the diffuser’s vertical fins. If this setup seems familiar, that’s because the track-only GT4 has the exact same layout. The tailgate is camouflaged thoroughly to hide what cannot be hidden: the implementation of a polycarbonate rear window. Commonplace in racing cars, but unorthodox for road legal cars, the polycarbonate window is the most prominent cue of weight savings on the car. Sticking to the theme of extreme-road-car-going-wild, the test mule also came with a racing grade roll cage. Interior shots are still absent, but with a roll cage featured in the car you can expect to see a stripped-down interior once it is revealed.
Under the hood we can expect the familiar bi-turbo 4-litre V8 engine, churning out 585 horsepower and 700Nm of torque. A massive amount in comparison to the GT4 track focused weapon which produces 510 horsepower and 600Nm. It will be interesting to see if the road legal AMG GT4 will be able to produce even more power from its V8. Though even if the engine remains unchanged, the weight savings will positively impact the performance. With performance exceeding that of the AMG GT R, we can expect the price tag to follow suit.
As exciting as the news may be, we are strapped in for a far more radical Mercedes that is set for imminent reveal: the Project One hypercar which is expected to make its premiere at the Frankfurt Motorshow in September.