Merc’s new Missile

San Francisco, California

THERE’S a strange sense of abandonment by Mercedes-AMG towards its first offspring, the SLS. Not that this teutonic partnership isn’t proud of its original creation, which flew in gullwings and all, seemingly not that long ago in 2010. But at the launch of its second born held in the US last week, the okes from AMG all seemed to shrug off comparisons between their new model, the GT, and the now discontinued SLS.

The SLS was a sledgehammer of a sportscar. Despite its clever rear-mounted gearbox, lightweight carbonfibre torquetube propshaft, and race-inspired coilover suspension setup, it’ll forever be remembered for its honking 6.2 V8, loooong wheelbase, and of course… “those” doors.

The new AMG GT is a sharper, lighter, higher-tech and more refined implement, which, I suspect is why the dudes at Affalterbach have subconsciously filed its predecessor into the history drawer. A fresh start, so to speak.

The new GT will inevitably be compared in size and profile to Jag’s equally phallic F-Type Coupé, which obviously means it’s much smaller than the SLS. Still, AMG’s big boss Tobias Moers rolled eyes at me when I mentioned the F-word. He believes, in performance terms, the AMG GT is closer matched to Porsche’s scalpel-like 911 – a modern benchmark in handling.

To prove the point we were taken to the Laguna Seca racetrack; a venue famed for its rhythmic flow and unforgiving undulations. If the GT had a fault, this place would expose it.