AMG finally confirms GT

Mercedes-Benz’s effort to tease its upcoming AMG GT supercar into public consciousness has begun.

AMG today released official images of the GT’s interior, accompanied by a scant press release with no official details or specifications for the V8-powered Porsche 911 hunter, which will make it public debut at the Paris motor show in October.

Built off the aluminium SLS architecture but priced about 25 per cent lower than the outgoing supercar, the GT will go on sale in Europe from April 2015, before arriving in Australia priced from around $300,000.

The interior has, according to Mercedes-Benz, been heavily influenced by the aviation industry, though keen observers will note it has also been heavily influenced by the just-launched C-Class sedan as well.

“The new Mercedes-AMG GT proves that we will be positioning AMG as a dynamic sports car brand even more strongly and aggressively than before,” AMG CEO Tobias Moers said.

“The technological substance of the GT underscores our high aspirations with regard to vehicle dynamics, agility and sportiness. Following the global success of the SLS AMG, the new GT is the second sports car developed fully independently by AMG.

“A first exclusive look at the design of the interior shows what is in store for our customers: a GT sports car in its purest form.”

While much of the GT’s switchgear seems to be taken directly from the C-Class (a car itself praised for taking Mercedes-Benz on a great leap forward in interior design), there are plenty of independent pieces there for AMG.

The interior images show it inherits the C-Class’s overtly curved touchpad and wrist support for the controlling knob, while one significant button also shows the GT will also keep the SLS’s strategy of adjustable damping.

Its designers have given it four buttons on either side of the gear lever in an overt attempt to create a V8-style layout for the controlling switchgear.

It retains the SLS’s signature short dashboard, though finds space to fit it with six face-level vents, which may be overkill for two people.

AMG insists the dashboard uses six vents, amongst other styling tricks, to place extreme emphasis on width and tries to create the impression of a wing.

Whatever Benz does with the interior, the GT will be nothing without its engine. Code-named C190, the rear-wheel drive sports car will use a new generation twin-turbocharged, direct injection V8 with variable valve timing and lift to punch out around 410kW.

The engine, dubbed M177, is essentially two of AMG’s cracking 2.0-litre, turbocharged four-cylinder motors (as fitted to the CLA 45 and the A 45) crammed together in a vee.

Slated to also find a home in the next C 63 AMG, the 4.0-litre V8 shares its bore spacings and other key architectures with the 2.0-litre four, with AMG insiders insisting it will comfortably deliver up to 430kW in production trim and more than 450kW in race trim.

AMG has taken lessons from Porsche and will offer the GT with the choice of 358kW or 388kW, though the more powerful car will be the only one available at its launch.

There is also a track-focused Black Series version of the GT in the planning stages, with even more power, more aggressive aerodynamics and less weight, though it’s not expected to arrive until 2018 at the earliest.

Although it will be less powerful than the SLS’s 6.2-litre atmo V8 (which makes 420kW in the standard SLS and up to 464kW in the Black Series), its forced-fed layout means it will deliver far more torque at lower rpm to boost the GT’s everyday drivability without losing linearity at higher rpm.

It will also have demonstrably more torque than the linear SLS V8 (650Nm), but may miss out on some of its earth-shattering sound.

The AMG GT will drive through a development of the transaxle seven-speed dual-clutch transmission fitted to the SLS (and, also, the Ferrari 458), with newer electronics masking near-identical hardware, upgraded for the increased torque. You can also expect a mechanical limited-slip differential and torque vectoring.

Its design will provide styling hints for the rest of the performance-oriented Mercedes-Benz models, including subsequent AMGs and the swoopier CLA and CLS models from the parent company.

Set for a six-year model cycle, the GT will use aluminium panels combined with aluminium-rich architecture to pull the weight down to a target of 1480kg -- around 130kg less than the SLS.

AMG still plans on building the GT at its Affalterbach HQ, even though the chassis architecture comes from Magna Steyr in Austria and most of its sales are expected to come from the United States.

Spy pictures published so far indicate the GT’s proportions are similar to the SLS, with a long nose, a short cabin set well back in the wheelbase and a truncated tail, though the GT will use a liftback rather than the SLS’s conventional boot. It will also be similar in size, with unofficial numbers leaking out of AMG suggesting it will be close to 4650mm long and 1940mm wide, and could even be lower than the 1260mm SLS.

The Gullwing doors have gone, too, having served their purpose to make the SLS’s historical links impossible to miss. The iconic doors will be replaced by cheaper, easier-to-build conventional doors, like the doors in the SLS Roadster, which have the added advantage of lowering the centre of gravity and the car’s roll centres.

Oddly, there are no plans for a convertible version of the GT.