A STAR IS BORN - Mercedes-AMG GT 4-door Coupe
AMG’s latest super sedan is their most potent weapon yet, and it is ready for landing
There was once a time when the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series was the most powerful AMG you could buy, with 464kw and 635nm from its naturally-aspirated 6.2-litre V8. And that was just six short years ago! Nowadays, the most powerful AMG isn’t a hard-core super car - it’s a four-door coupe.
This is the Mercedes-AMG GT63 S and it is the first 'sedan' wholly developed by AMG. Under its hood is the same 4.0-litre biturbo V8 as the C63, E63 and the AMG GT R, but in this application, it’s been dialled up to 11, with the four-door coupe boasting an incredible 470kw and 900nm - trouncing BMW's M5 Competition's 460kw and 750nm.
The GT63 S is actually the most powerful Mercedes-Benz currently available, and much like the E63 S, it features a 9-speed transmission and an AMG-tuned 4MATIC+ all-wheel drive system, that helps it rocket from 0-100kph in just 3.2 seconds, and will it keep accelerating hard until it reaches 315kph - comfortably beating the M5 Competition's 3.3 second and 305kph top speed.
The GT63 S is both minutely longer and wider than both the E63 S and M5 at just over 5 metres long and 1.9 metres wide, and registers a weight almost identical to the nearly 2.1 ton E63 S. It’s important to remember that the AMG GT63 S competes against the Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid and the upcoming Audi RS7 and BMW M8 Gran Coupe.
However, due to its dimensions, layout, and seating capacity; by default, this makes it an M5 rival. Let’s not forget that the GT63 S is also the fastest "four-seater" to ever lap the Nürburgring - thanks to a lap time of 7:25:41.
While the overseas line-up of the AMG GT 4-door Coupe consists of four models - GT43, GT53, GT63 and GT63 S, South Africa will be getting only two variants – the 320kw hybridized GT53 and the epic 470kw GT63 S, priced at R1 960 958 and R2 922 30 respectively.
Mercedes-Benz South Africa plan to launch it locally in the coming weeks. For reference, the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid Executive it rivals is priced at R3 134 000 and produces 500kw and 850nm from its hybridized 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8.
