Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series 2021 Review

Mercedes-Benz Australia is keeping schtum on how much the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series will cost when in lands around the second quarter of 2021, but it’s safe to say it will be, well, expensive.

In markets like the UK, the AMG GT Black Series model has been priced from £350,000 ($A630,000), which means when it arrives here the wild AMG GT could cost as much as $800,000 when GST and luxury car tax have been added.

There’s no word yet on how many will venture Down Under, but it’s believed around 15-20 cars have been allocated and all are spoken for, with buyers apparently happy to have paid a six-figure premium over the $645,000 (drive-away) charged for the Ferrari 488 Pista, or the similar money exchanged for the McLaren 765LT and Porsche 911 GT2 RS.

It’s easy to argue that for the price of two AMG GT R supercars ($368K) and one hot A 35 hatch ($70K), the sixth Black Series model isn’t the steal of the century.

That said, meet the people who developed it and learn the incredible tech lavished on it and the flagship AMG model begins to feel more of a labour of love than a cash cow for the German car-maker’s performance division.

More on that later, but for now we can tell you that for your considerable outlay the Mercedes-AMG GT Black gives you little opportunity to visit the options list, aside from the AMG Track Pack that is an absolute must, despite no word on pricing.

Tick that box and you get the ultra-lightweight AMG carbon-fibre bucket seats, a titanium roll-over bar, the necessary four-point harness needed for hot-lapping and a 2kg fire extinguisher.

As standard, the AMG GT Black comes with black Nappa leather and Alcantara seats that get orange stitching and cool door pull straps instead of the regular GT R handles. Ahead of the driver is a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster with customisable AMG displays, plus a 10.25-inch infotainment system.

Unusually, Mercedes-AMG has teamed up with tyre partner Michelin to develop a hard and soft compound version of its Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, with the hard tyre better suited to prolonged use on circuits in hot climates like Australia.

The AMG GT Black Series is backed by a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, while servicing for the high-performance Benz is spaced across 12-month/20,000km intervals.

Engineers claim that designing the AMG GT 3 race car was child’s play compared with developing the Black Series version of the AMG GT coupe.

Despite sharing its muscular squat proportions with the real racer, not a single body panel is interchangeable – and the same can be said for the GT R road car.

That’s right, the most remarkable aspect of the Black Series is how far designers and engineers have gone to push the performance boundaries.

This involves taking a completely different approach to aerodynamics. Whereas the latest McLaren 765LT produces about 250kg of downforce at around 250km/h, the Black Series musters an astonishing 400kg of downward force pushing it into a track’s surface – more than any of its rivals.

The difference is while the Brit firm claims it’s not interested in lap times, AMG did the bulk of its development work at the Nurburgring where lap times always count.

No outright lap record has been announced yet, but expect one shortly as beating the 6:44.97 lap clocked by the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ was very much on the agenda.

The big V12 Lambo also has active aero, but AMG soon abandoned similar tricks for the Black as it claimed the Aventador’s active aero provided inconsistent and even “weird” feedback in the time it took to deploy mid-corner.

Instead of taking a traditional fixed-wing approach, aerodynamicists had a good, hard look at the GT R’s set-up and promptly started from scratch.

In comes a new huge one-piece carbon-fibre front splitter. In its Street setting it adds meaningful downforce and useful ground clearance, but unclip it with two latches on its underside and it drops lower to the ground.

At speed, the splitter’s fabric membrane begins to deform by the air flow, dropping the leading edge lower and lower to the ground. As it does, it creates a Venturi effect, sucking the flat underside of the car closer to the ground. So powerful are the forces that the front splitter also drags the pair of suspension springs down, reducing the ride height and increasing downforce even further.

At extremely high speeds, one mischievous engineer said the splitter will even strike the ground, prompting AMG to add a protective metallic element that may, or may not, shower the road behind with “really cool sparks”.

With so much downforce over the front axle (100kg), work was then done to reduce lift over the rear wheels. This involved employing wind channels beneath the body to direct air to a larger rear diffuser, plus the implementation of a bootlid spoiler combined with that imposing twin-blade rear wing.

The rear wing is astonishing. At 250km/h it generates 300kg of downforce, but push further towards its 325km/h top speed and that increases to 500kg. So powerful were the forces, AMG had to develop supports within the boot to stop the rear tailgate buckling at speed.

As well as an active element, the rear wing has manual adjustment to help favour whatever circuit you’re at. Whatever setting, the upper central element can incline up to 20 degrees, boosting downforce at speed or under hard braking.

In Sport or Race mode it inclines at speeds of over 120km/h before levelling off flat again at 250km/h to ensure it does not compromise the outright top speed.

Other tricks include various measures like front fender extractors and louvres to reduce turbulence and boost cooling, plus small but crucial air-bending aids to keep the air attached below the beltline.

Keeping the more powerful twin-turbo V8 cool in the heat of battle was the single greatest challenge facing engineers and prompted the introduction of redesigned carbon-fibre bonnet.

The two large snouts are there to vent air from hottest part of the engine. Usefully, the superheated dense air is then directed around the A-pillars and to the rear wing, adding yet more downforce.

The pillar box intake, meanwhile, forces high-pressure jets of air to the back of the engine that then exit via channels to the rear diffuser. Even the humble vertical grille slats play a role, angling air to specific parts of the radiators.

Weight-saving has been a key part of the Black Series coupe’s development. Not that the measly 35kg saving over the AMG GT R is reflective of that, but the bigger body, wider front and rear track, huge wing and wider wheels offset most of the kilo-cutting that came from using carbon-fibre for the roof, fenders, tailgate, splitter and even things you can’t see. The transmission mounts and the propshaft, for example, are up to 40 per cent lighter.

There’s little chance Mercedes-AMG will volunteer the new GT Black Series for crash testing, but new carbon-fibre supports for the front section, underbody and rear of the car are designed to increase chassis rigidity and should boost crash protection.

Semi-autonomous driving aids like AEB and lane keep assist are not available.

Under the bonnet the surprises continue with the Mercedes AMG GT Black Series, with the familiar twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 completely overhauled.

Instead of simply boosting power, AMG wanted to change the current M178’s character. So rather than a cheeky software fix, the V8 underwent open-heart surgery, receiving a new flat-plane crank that trades some NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) smoothness for superior throttle responses.

Output has risen to a heroic 537kW and 800Nm on the back of new camshafts, a pair of new exhaust manifolds, two twin-scroll turbochargers that get anti-friction bearings, a larger compressor wheel, plus bigger intercoolers.

That peak torque figure was too much for the standard rear-transaxle-mounted AMG SPEEDSHIFT DCT 7G seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, which had to be beefed up for the task and have revised gear ratios added.

Tailoring the AMG GT Pro’s advanced nine-stage traction control and ESP for the Black Series’ bigger power, in launch control the powerful rear-drive coupe can now hit 100km/h from standstill in 3.2 seconds and reach 200km/h in ‘under nine seconds’.

In isolation those figures might sound respectable, but in reality they’re some way off the pace.

Its three closest rivals, the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, Porsche 911 GT2 RS and McLaren 765LT can smash the 100km/h benchmark in 2.8 seconds.

Worse still for AMG, the new McLaren can hit 200km/h in just 7.0 seconds dead – and driving both just days apart has shown us that, in reality, the performance gap feels even wider.

On track, though, the Mercedes-AMG’s aero should come into its own and in faster sweepers it should claw back an advantage.

The Black Series’ new carbon-ceramic brakes that feature new disc and pad coating to reduce fade also felt well up to the task of repeatedly hauling the AMG GT down from speeds in excess of 240km/h.

Considering its competition, the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series is a bit of an odd bedfellow. It’s the only front-engine rear-drive track-suited supercar in its class and that is a bit of a blessing in a field dominated by rear- and mid-engine cars.

For our drive in Germany, we were limited to track on the bumpy Lausitzring race circuit that just has enough fast bends for the GT’s aero to come into play.

Sadly, we’ll have save our drive on some challenging roads for another occasion.

Since it’s created for those who like to track their car, as well as having adjustable aero, the coil-over suspension is fully adjustable and comes with bushings and bearings lifted from race cars, so there’s zero play. The ride height can also be lowered by up to 10mm.

This might all sound a bit faff but will be a joy to those who will actually own the Black Series as it offers owners the ability to tweak and perfect their car for a circuit and tailor the car’s handling to their individual driving style.

Climbing behind the wheel is certainly an event to be savoured. Sitting low in the bucket seat, what feels like a position that’s far out over the rear axle also provides a different experience.

Selecting drive, and as we crawl out of the pits it’s clear how much stiffer the Black is set up compared to GT R and how much more energetic the V8 feels when your right foot stabs the pedal to the firewall.

Interestingly, the Michelin tyres dish up plenty of traction to deploy all of its 800Nm everywhere. Thanks to all that extra bracing the steering feels precise and accurate and, mirroring the McLaren 765LT, it’s easy to get into a rhythm and drive quickly.

Most fascinating is what happens through the circuit’s fastest left-hander that features a nasty mid-corner bump – nothing. The Black Series tracks true.

Upping the speed every circuit the same result occurs as its aerodynamics begin to kick in and that is the joy of a car like the fast track-focused Benz. It invites you into the inclusive aero club and provides you with some of the sensation a fully-fledged GT3 racer does, without the need for a pit crew.

Better still, you can drive home at the end of the day.

Pushing harder and harder, the inevitable 1595kg kerb weight does catch up with the Black Series. Carrying around 250kg more than the featherweight McLaren, the AMG will overheat the front tyres and push on, but up until that point the rear-drive coupe always feels like it’s on your side.

We had only just begun to play with the nine-stage traction control before the chequered flags came out. But powering out of the final slower corner with half a turn of lock on is addictive, if slow, with the AMG demonstrating none of the spikiness at the limit (with electronics off) that its rivals do.

It will be a true automotive crime if the small batch of Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series imported Down Under spend the rest of their days as part of a climate-controlled collection because after a brief spell behind the wheel AMG’s new flagship is a riot to drive on track where it belongs.

In what feels like a golden age for the supercar, it’s also fascinating that the Black Series has genuinely carved its own niche in the segment by focusing on aero rather than outright performance.

That said, it’s also fair to note considering its price hovering at the very top of the segment the AMG Black Series remains overweight and simply not quick enough to really challenge the top of the class for superiority.

Despite this, we are deeply jealous of all those who managed to bag a build-slot and look forward to seeing the small loyal band of Black Series owners bravely exploring every one of those 400kg of downforce at a track day someday soon.

How much does the 2021 Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series cost?
Price: $800,000 estimated (plus on-road costs)
Available: Second quarter 2021
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbo petrol
Output: 537kW/800Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel: 12.8L/100km (NEDC)
CO2: 292g/km (NEDC)
Safety Rating: Not tested

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