We never saw this coming! In September 2014, at the Paris Motor Show, when the Mercedes-AMG GT was presented, a convertible version was decidedly ruled out. But now that the Mercedes-AMG GT R has just seen the light of day, the Mercedes-AMG engineers are already working on some other work of art for the road: the Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster.
AMG’s chief Tobias Moers has confirmed that there will be at least two more road-going variants of the GT, a convertible included.
2016 should be the year of birth for the soft-top GT, that will hit the road in 2017. “The convertible has moved well beyond the drawing board”, Moers told to AutoExpress. “It will be the next AMG GT model to arrive”. Rumours suggest that prototypes of the AMG GT ‘Roadster’ are already out and about, testing wrapped in heavy camouflage.
The Roadster will come to fill the gap between the luxury-oriented SL and the sporty SLK: “The SL is a grand tourer, this will absolutely be a proper sports car”, he revealed about the convertible that, as planned, won’t require major changes on the chassis, nor suspension.
In order to keep the weight down and the complexity as low as possible, the AMG GT Roadster is likely to get a canvas roof instead of a folding metal hardtop that the SL makes use of.
As for the powertrain, the AMG GT’s 4.0-liter V8 biturbo is here to stay, with the drop-top to feature the engine variants already familiar from the GT launched in 2014: 462 HP and 510 HP for the top-ranging S variant.
The Roadster will shortly be followed by a more powerful version. If it’s not the GT4, positioned below the current GT3, the “Black Series” will be back in business, set to arrive by 2018.
“It won’t be here soon because Black Series cars tend to come towards the end of a car’s production cycle, but an AMG GT Black is a car we must do”, Moers said last year.
The GT’s main rival, the Porsche 911, is currently available in coupé, convertible, Targa and GT3 vairants, with various engine guises amounting to 16 roadgoing models. For the moment, the roadgoing versions of the Mercedes-AMG GT are only three.
It’s about time somneoe wrote about this.