Mercedes-AMG GT S 2015 Review

Driving a sports car like the Mercedes-AMG GT S along the Great Ocean Road just begs for some purple prose; the sleek two-door coupe carving the serpentine bitumen that slithers between sheer rock walls and boiling sea, the thunder of the crashing waves drowned by the roaring 4.0-litre bi-turbo V8.

Sweaty palms, screeching tyres, eyes narrowed to concentrated slits viewing the ribbon unwinding beyond the long bonnet.

You get the picture. Very purple.

Yes, driving this car on that road is something special, but not only for the hyper-reality delivered by sampling it somewhere near the lowest edges of its upper limits.

Try driving it at the lower limits of its lower limits and you’ll find it’s actually … liveable.

Rotate the AMG Dynamic Select button to Comfort and what happens? Why, on Australia’s crap roads (and in the case of the GOR we’re talking roughness not enjoyment) the GT S almost lives up to the dial position. The suspension is at its least back-breaking, the Getrag dual-clutch seven-speed gearbox shifts with some attempt at civility, the M178 engine snoozes along like the sleeping giant, happily nibbling away at that 650Nm available from 1750rpm to 5000rpm.

Why, you could almost imagine commuting every day to work and home in it … except it costs $294,610 (before on-road costs) and the thought of an errant taxi driver rubbing his rusting Falcon up against its aluminium flanks is horrifying. That would be enough to keep it in the climate-controlled garage and prompt you to take the C 63 S instead … or maybe the A 45 AMG ... or the S-Class thanks, James.

If at this point you are wondering what a Mercedes-AMG GT S is, then welcome back from Mars, your coma, or maybe one of those little towns on the west coast of Tassie where everyone looks eerily similar.

It’s the second bespoke rear-wheel drive two-seat coupe built by Benz’s Affalterbach hot shop following on from the larger more expensive SLS. This one has two orthodox doors rather than gullwings and is pitched straight-up against the iconic rear-engined Porsche 911, as well as the mid-engined Audi R8 and front-engined Jaguar F-TYPE R.

So far there’s been the interior photo reveal, the preview video, the engine detail reveal, the exterior reveal, the Paris show reveal, the international first drive, the first Australian drive on the Norwell circuit in Queensland and the second Australian media drive at Bathurst’s legendary Mount Panorama.

So what the hell is this? Why it’s the first drive of the GT S on public Australian roads. And yes, yes you posters desperate to be first to point out that Mount Panorama is officially a public road, we do know that. But it was treated as a race track for the GT S drive. This is the first time on local soil we’ve had to stick to the left and stop for traffic lights in a GT S.

So I’m not going to backtrack through mountains of detail about this car’s front-mid 375kW dry sump V8, with its two turbos mounted in the centre of the vee. Or the carbon-fibre driveshaft encased in a cast aluminium torque tube connecting to a transaxle rear-end that includes an electronic locking diff that can be 100 per cent open or closed. Or the double wishbone suspension with adjustable dampers. Or the dynamic engine and transmission mounts filled with magnetically charged fluid. Or the lightweight aluminium spaceframe chassis construction. Or the standard 360mm (front) cast iron brakes with six-pot calipers and optional ($17,500) 402mm (front) carbon ceramics.

Nope, not going there.

Nor am I going to labour through an endless stream of capitals and acronyms to tell you about the GT S’ safety armoury or bother to recite the interior trinkets and appointments when all you have to do is click here to read my colleague Marton Pettendy’s detailed rundown from one of this car’s multitudinous preview and media events.

Enough! Back to the GOR and the driving.

So one thing we have already established is the GT S is a lot more flexible that its low, wide and lean style gives it credit for.

From the front this thing looks like it eats baby seals for breakfast, but the rear-end is strangely out of synch, like the AMG design office iPad fried itself and the guys just bolted on the back of a Porsche 928.

From behind the wheel it’s all very purposeful. The big steering wheel has a mark at top dead centre so you know this is a serious sports car. And the massive centre console – shaped like a vee leading into a NACA duct – has a profusion of buttons that variously makes the exhaust loud or louder, the suspension hard or harder and the transmission fast, faster or manual.

An individual mode allows tailoring to suit personal preferences, so after some fiddling, sampling and bucking bronco impersonations I settled on drivetrain in Sport+, suspension in Sport, transmission in Manual for when the going gets fun.

The first big challenge you are going to have punting along in the GT S is the steering. It’s variable-ratio hydraulic assist – not electric – and it’s quite light. Light enough I nearly drove off the inside of the first corner. But after a few kays of tightening radii and clipping apexes it won me over. Quick, faithful, accurate and feel-some, it complemented the dogged front-end beautifully.

The rear-end felt a little sketchier on some greasy roads, but prodigiously grippy in the dry – no doubt something to do with those fabulous 295/30ZR20 Michelin Super Sport tyres. The 265/35ZR19s up-front weren’t bad either. They did pass some noise into the cabin of course, but you have to expect that.

The speed out of corners courtesy of that fat torque curve was epic – like the soundtrack that growls, booms and invades every part of your being.

For kay after kay of swooping, winding and thankfully traffic-free road it was 3000-5000rpm, usually in third or fourth and occasionally second or fifth; just punching out of turns and rushing along the next straight. There was no evidence of turbo lag.

Passing power is febrile, the 3.8sec 0-100km/h claim utterly believable.

Slicing through the gears in manual mode via the flappy paddles is a think-and-it-happens experience, followed by a delicious crackle-bang on the over-run. Make sure you also give the DCT-7 a go in Sport+ auto mode. There can’t be many more intuitive or quick gearboxes. This thing drops gears braking into corners quicker than the Chinese stockmarket drops value.

Speaking of brakes, the stopping power, progression and feel of our utterly stock GT S was a highlight. A little initial pressure before response, which then builds linearly as the pedal is squeezed harder and more urgently.

And that is where the GT S really excels. The exquisite detail of the tuning. Every connection between driver and the car and the road has a delicate progression that encompasses tremendous power. Be it steering, brakes, throttle or gearshift, this car delivers massive performance cloaked in an astonishing level of useability.

It really is the assembly of a bunch of components into something greater than what you suspected it could be. Or to put it in purple: Wow!

Read latest review of Mercedes-AMG C 63 S