Ah, AMG. The home of thunderous engines and supreme tyre shredding. I’m actually quite fond of AMG despite never driving a Merc with the famous AMG badge on the side, although that’s not to say I cannot appreciate the sound of such model roaring by me when I’m out and about. The AMG brand is celebrating its 50th birthday this year and because of this, Mercedes-Benz has chosen to add another model to its GT family.
What is it?
It’s the new AMG GT C Coupé, which will sit between the AMG GT S and the barking mad AMG GT R, and is essentially the GT C Roadster with a permanent hat. However, it is a bit more than that, the new GT C Coupê will be offered as a special Edition 50. It will be offered in two colours – designo graphite grey magno and designo cashmere white magno. It will also comes with Merc’s ‘Night Package’, which adds black detailing inside. As with the other GT models, it will receive that wonderfully massive Panamericana grille and of course, plenty of power.
It will be fitted with a 4.0 litre V8 which has not one, but two turbochargers just for good measure. This throws out a health 557bhp with 680Nm of torque. 0-62mph is dealt with in just 3.7 seconds and the top speed comes in at 196mph, just two short of the bonkers GT R. The 4.0 litre engine itself has been tweaked to give more power too. The base model GT now receives 476bhp (14bhp more) and the GT S now has 552bhp at its disposal (12bhp more).
Air control
The tweaks don’t stop there though; all AMG GT variants now received Merc’s AIRPANEL active air management system, which was initially fitted to the GT R. The system uses vertical louvres in the bottom of the front bumper which remain closed at normal driving to aid aerodynamics, but open at higher speed to allow the big engine to get maximum cooling. Clever stuff.
The price of the new GT C Coupé will be confirmed in weeks to come with deliveries arriving in Spring.