AMG GT
Born again
8/10
You remember the AMG GT. Super long bonnet, cabin parked on the back axle behind growling V8, fairly frenetic approach to life. Yeah, that one. Well, the badge is back but the car has changed. No longer a supercar, now a super GT. There are two seats in the back and a bigger boot.
Customer demand apparently. I ask one of the AMG execs if owners were threatening to go off and buy Porsche 911s. There’s a rueful non-denial. So it’s returned as a Germanic alternative to the Aston Martin DB12 and Ferrari Roma. Or a Porsche 911 Turbo of course. Think it’s fighting above its weight? In terms of badge prestige, we agree. On other parameters, it has the measure of them.
Very little is carried over from the first gen. The chassis architecture is all new and shared with the SL, but Mercedes is at pains to point out this is not an SL with a fixed roof and has been developed entirely separately. That car hasn’t been very happily received, this is far more fluent and capable – not only than the SL, but also its aggressive and edgy predecessor.