SEDUCTIVE OFFERING BLENDS GRACE WITH HINT OF MENACE
Might as well get this out of the way right off the bat: The 2019 Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S 4-Door Coupe, finished here in satin Designo Brilliant Blue Magno, is quite a looker. No car this side of a Lamborghini or McLaren has attracted so much attention during its brief stay at Chez Bleakney. Sitting in my driveway, the AMG drew gawkers. Most of my neighbours are pretty blasé about what I bring home, but not with this car.
Yet the Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door is not in-your-face outrageous. It seduces with a masterful blend of grace and menace, art and aggression, beauty and brutality.
The $177,500 Benz does not write any visual cheques it can’t cash — this car backs up its looks with bonkers performance ... or so I’ve read. Driving on public roads is essentially an exercise in frustration; other than a few wide-eyed felonious blasts and some off-ramp strafing, I came nowhere near pushing this nutty hatchback’s envelope. But in reality, nor will most who buy it, unless they live in Germany or take it out for a day at the track.
This is the second car designed and built in-house by AMG, and while it follows the svelte twoseat AMG GT Coupe, it does not share that car’s all-aluminum/ rear transaxle architecture, instead riding on the bones of the Mercedes-AMG E 63 Wagon. This, after all, is a long and luxurious executive express with generous rear legroom and a hatch able to swallow a full complement of luggage. Nonetheless, it goes about its business with the classic AMG “atomic-fistin-a-velvet-glove” sedan thing that, up until now, has not seen this level of ferocity. And that is saying something.
It all stems from AMG’s masterpiece of a 4.0-litre twin-turbo “hot-vee” V-8 that, in this 63 S iteration, makes the most power of any application yet — 630 horsepower and 669 pound-feet of torque. Yes, you can buy a turbocharged straight-six version of the AMG GT 4-Door Coupe, or even the slightly detuned V-8-powered 63 variant with 577 hp, but why would you? In for a penny, in for pound, I say. With a body this sexy, you might as well take the engine that drop kicks the laws of physics into whimpering submission. Just because.
It’s not all about explosive straight-line acceleration, however, even though the 63 S will eclipse the speed limit in a tick over three seconds. The chassis shines, displaying a sharpness, agility and sense of communication that belies the car’s 2,045-kilogram mass, no doubt helped by the standard rearwheel steering. Grip from the optional 21-inch forged wheels with Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires ($1,500) seems unending, and the steering is precise and connected. The 4Matic all-wheeldrive system is decidedly rear biased, and there’s even a Drift Mode that disengages the front wheels for those times when exiting the Sobeys parking lot requires just a tad more drama.
The AMG’s attitude is easily altered by the nifty rotary controller placed at four o’clock position on the steering wheel. Switch from Comfort to Sport, Sport+, and Race, and the sedan gets progressively louder, stiffer and more alert. At lower speeds the nine-speed AMG Speedshift transmission can be jerky — Porsche’s PDK twin-clutch, this is not. And if you have the exhaust in Sport mode all the time — guilty as charged — well, it just furthers the impression the car is a dog that would rather hunt than sit on the porch.
The interior of this tester is the most visually pleasing of any Mercedes I’ve seen, stunning with its Saddle Brown/Black Nappa leather (an $1,800 option) and Grey Ash Open Pore trim (another $500). The dash panel features the broad expanse of digital screens found in most Mercedes sedans, while the centre console with its array of buttons for modifying the car’s behaviour is snagged from the AMG GT Coupe. I found the ventilated sport seats supremely comfortable and supportive, and the standard Bowers and Wilkins audio deserves the heavy-metal salute for kick-butt clarity.
The 2019 Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S 4-Door Coupe’s obvious competitor in the rapid executive four-door hatchback game — before the arrival of the latest 2020 Audi RS 7 — is the 550hp Porsche Panamera Turbo, starting at $174,200. However, these two are markedly different. You do sit lower in the Panamera, but with this latest generation, Porsche has thrown a blanket over driver engagement. Compared to the AMG, the Panamera is distant and aloof.
But here, you can feel the DNA of all those legendary AMG super sedans quivering in this beauty’s bones.
Driving.ca