From the November 2014 issue of Car and Driver.
Toasting the Porsche 911’s 50th birthday a year ago, we decreed its life and times to be exceptional. This is the two-door that defined what a modern, fast, and comfortable sports car should be. Porsche’s half-century of earnest development turned a flawed blueprint into a machine with grace and soul. If you don’t long for a 911 of some stripe, your head is in the wrong magazine.
Which is why any manufacturer serious about building a worthy sports car hangs its bull’s-eye on the 911’s shoulders. Mercedes—or, more accurately, the newly coined Mercedes-AMG—is the latest to fix aim with its GT/GT S. The Benz boys are no strangers to sporty two-doors. There’s the SLK for mistresses and the SL for their sugar daddies. But those roadsters bow down to the preproduction GT S coupe we recently drove near AMG’s Affalterbach engineering lair northeast of Stuttgart.
A mile into our mountain-road sprint, with AMG chairman Tobias Moers chaperoning, it’s clear why SL is not part of this car’s name. While the GT S is the lineal descendant of the SLR McLaren and the SLS AMG, this newborn is a different kind of predator. From the SLR, two nose jobs, wheelbase trims, door schemes, and price cuts finally have yielded a sports car armed to maim Porsche 911 GT3s and Turbos (not to mention the Aston Martin Vantage, Audi R8, Chevy Corvette Z06, Jaguar F-type, and Maserati GranTurismo). Prices are nowhere near final, but we’re guessing the base GT will start at $115,000, while the more powerful, fully outfitted GT S will run $150,000.
Beneath the long hood, AMG’s new 4.0-liter V-8 is loud and potent. Its deep startup growl becomes a quaking rumble when the two turbos roll in. Thrust is instantaneous and intoxicating. Paddling the seven-speed automatic sends a repertoire of barks and snorts rattling through the mufflers. Thanks to its two-cylinder edge over the 911, the GT S is audibly assertive when provoked, yet subdued in the upper gears under gentle throttle.
READ MORE: In-Depth with the AMG GT’s Stonking M178 Twin-Turbo V-8
The audio is all-natural, Moers says, because he despises the synthetic soundtracks used by others. What’s missing is a soprano aria at the 7000-rpm redline. The turbos mute the high notes so effectively that this pipe organ stops short of the upper octaves.
Corroborating evidence that the GT S is a worthy 911 foe: its exceptional agility. AMG trimmed 175 pounds off the SLS’s 3750-pound curb weight and cut the wheelbase by two inches. The lighter engine and shorter nose help shift the GT S’s weight balance to 45/55 percent, front/rear, what AMG development boss Jochen Hermann considers the perfect distribution. (At this point we know little about the GT except that it costs less, makes less power, and has less equipment than the GT S.)
Uncannily quick steering response means that you turn the GT S’s wheel a few degrees and the nose sniffs for the apex with bloodhound keenness. The effort builds quickly and linearly, but the steering never feels too heavy. Pushed to their limits, the Michelin Pilot Super Sports (265/35R-19s in front, 295/30R-20s in back) ultimately show hints of understeer. Hearing the u-word, “understeer,” Moers says that adding or subtracting a touch of throttle at the fringes of grip reestablishes the neutral behavior that his chassis engineers diligently baked into the car.
The strategic weapon in that campaign is a set of four electronically controlled hydraulic mounts sup-porting the far corners of the powertrain. Two in front attach to the engine, while two in back carry the Getrag transaxle. (A torque tube ties the two ends together.) Moers explains that as the car turns, the front mounts’ initially soft setting fools the front tires into thinking they’re guiding a much lighter machine. The nose swings first, followed milliseconds later by the engine. This agility-sharpening ploy works so subtly that the sensation passed through the seat and steering wheel is that of one fluid movement.
Even though this GT S test car feels ready to challenge the 911 in a road race, Moers stresses that the next iteration of chassis calibrations will be better: slightly higher steering effort, a tighter null zone, and a more poised ride over bumpy pavement.
After confirming that the steering assist is hydraulic, he adds that his engineers are confident they can achieve the same or better feedback with the electric booster that is a long-term inevitability. Turning the discussion to brakes, we agree that they need no additional fiddling. The firm pedal provides good feedback, and there’s a moderate amount of travel to aid modulation.
Even though the dual-clutch automatic delivers consistently quick and crisp shifts, we can’t resist ask-ing if the obvious alternative was considered. Moers insists that AMG customers aren’t interested in clutch pedals and sticks. What about moving the engine farther back some day? “Why follow Ferrari and Lamborghini to a mid-engine layout,” he responds, “when we’ve just begun to tap the promise engineered into this new, perfectly balanced platform?”
The return to AMG headquarters with Moers behind the wheel provides a calm moment to study cabin accommodations. The view ahead is better than the SLS’s thanks to nearly three inches excised from the hood. At the rear, though, the combination of zaftig haunches, sweeping C-pillars, and a prominent deck spoiler impairs rear-three-quarter visibility.
In spite of a wide, structural doorsill (using parts from the SLS roadster), there’s ample leg, foot, and hip room. The sport buckets are comfortable and laterally supportive but not confining. The boss reports that the seats have been lowered and the roof elevated to accommodate the more statuesque of AMG’s clients. Arranging the stubby shifter, COMAND mouse, and eight round switches at the rear of the broad, rising center console clears room for a Guinness Book–level cup-holder cubicle, a bone thrown to U.S. customers that Moers finds amusing.
The 20 years Moers spent in AMG’s developmental trenches have prepared him well for guiding the fate of this new car. He’s a former endurance racer, an avid supporter of advanced technology, and a Benz lifer, so he knows what he wants and, apparently, how to get it. What his AMG organization is about to deliver is a two-for-one: grand-touring grace combined with a sports car’s hunt-and-kill instincts.
But we’ll need a full comparison test to see how the GT S measures up to—or possibly even surpasses—that sports-car golden mean, the Porsche 911.
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Source: Reviews - aranddriver.com
