Mercedes-AMG GT: A good one anyway

Before the V8 is a thing of the past, Mercedes-AMG will pair it with a battery and electric motor. As expected, the result is not an eco-warrior, but a quarter-mile shotgun.

Vienna. We have to say right away: unfortunately, during the test period it was not possible to take the car out onto the usual terrain.

However, the question is what this is actually: a four-door, five-meter sedan with an unladen weight of 2,380kg that unleashes a whopping 639hp – where exactly does it belong? For example on the racetrack. The Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E-Performance, as it’s called by its full name, was on the road there last season as a Formula 1 medical car (it has since been replaced by the Aston Martin DBX), with expert racing driver at the wheel and emergency doctor on call. with the passenger seat. On another racetrack, the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, the Mercedes-AMG GT holds the lap record “in the luxury class”, as they say. Unfortunately, a trip to the racetrack never came to fruition.
For fast curves on country roads, the load is too powerful, too heavy and “overbearing” – it doesn’t really belong there.

But it doesn’t suit the city either, although it is a plug-in hybrid and can also be powered purely by electricity. Not too far: the 6.1 kWh battery does not give more than ten kilometres, purely electric.

We wouldn’t describe the interaction between the combustion engine and the 150-kilowatt electric motor as harmonious when rolling around town—the goal isn’t CO2 offsetting or potential NoVA elimination (NoVA rate: 15 percent). It sprints from zero to 100 for approximately three seconds (Vmax: 316 km/h).

On the German autobahn, as long as you can, you might be in good hands.

However, these are all questions and doubts that AMG fans do not have. They want Swabian-style glamour, prestige and performance, which the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 gladly delivers, and if the electric motor can crank that up even more – so much the better! Tariff: 248,468 euros. (tiff)