Chris Harris drove the Mercedes AMG GT S and his conclusion was really surprising. It seems that the Porsche 911 has a stronger competitor than expected.
The Mercedes AMG GT reflects the new Mercedes-AMG philosophy: to put more cars on the street in order to make the brand more visible. Mercedes AMG chief, Tobias Moers, believes that ”it was the right direction for us to step down”.
And he added: ”You have to step into the traditional sports car segment, because that gets you the awareness, everybody gets the knowledge about it. This was the decision to get the GT in that segment. We want to have a car in the traditional sports car segment, that’s more approachable.”
This was the philosophy which gave birth to the strongest competitor of the Porsche 911.
Chris Harris believes that the conventional electrohydraulic steering is one of the biggest advantages of the AMG GT up against the Porsche 911, which adopts an electrical steering.
The AMG GT is the first AMG Mercedes to get the new 4.0 liter V8 bi-turbo engine which is mounted well behind the front axle and delivers 510 HP in the S most powerful version. The new V8 features both turbos mounted inside the V, a solution patented by BMW with the M5, but refined by AMG.
The front axle was carried over from the SLS, while the rear axle is completely new.
The AMG GT uses a shorter version of the SLS platfom with a transaxle construction, in which the gearbox is placed on the rear axle near to the rear differential.
Chris Harris was very impressed by the reworked gearbox which is faster now. He also like dthe very good traction and the engine. “BMW did a very good job with the turbo engines, but this is the best turbocharged engine in a regular performance car”, said Harris. “The throttle response is just superb”, Harris added.
If we compare it with the Jaguar F-Type, Harris believes that the Mercedes AMG GT S is more competent, faster, has a better transmission, more traction and is more balanced.
For such a short wheelbase, the Mercedes AMG GT S has a very predictible chassis.
In the end, Harris asked himself: Is the AMG GT S really better than 911? “I need to spend more time on the race track to work out, but in the end, I don’t know if it really matters because probably the AMG GT S is more desirable than the 911.”
Watch the following video and I am sure that you will agree with Chris that the AMG GT S is more desirable than the 911.
