Mercedes-Benz AMG GT 4-door - long-term review

I drove the Porsche Taycan recently, and enjoyed it. I despair of the gammon-faced climate-change deniers who think it’s OK to publicly and very personally denigrate Greta Thunberg. I hate single-use plastics. But the fact is that someone is going to have to prise the keys to my internally combustion-engined car out of my cold, dead hands. Sorry, but electricity just isn’t as exciting as suck, squeeze, bang, blow. 

Especially if it’s happening in a Mercedes-AMG with the number 63 anywhere on the boot-lid. Only the unit in Ferrari’s F8 Tributo can rival the 4.0-litre V8 bi-turbo for zero-lag flexibility, charisma and sheer ferocity. It’s a big machine, and it weighs 2,045kg, but it’s crazy fast: 62mph gone in 3.2 seconds, and a top speed of 196mph. And it sounds like a gathering storm. 

I drove this thing around the Circuit of the Americas, so I know what it’s capable of, and how astoundingly well it manages its mass. But I was still dialling myself into it a week after it arrived. 

Yet it’s AMG’s family supercar, created to flesh out the GT’s rather selfish remit. Although, by using the MRA platform that underpins the C-, E- and lots of other Mercs, it’s not really a GT with four doors. It’s certainly more practical, and heaves with pretty much everything Merc has in the tech cupboard: air suspension, adaptive damping, an active rear axle, electronically controlled rear-axle diff lock, dynamic engine mounts, and fully variable all-wheel drive. The nine-speed dual shift box uses a wet clutch to cut weight and improve response, and has rapid shift times. 

Our car arrives with the optional Premium Plus Package for enhanced comfort (£3,600), Driving Assistance Package (£1,695), magno paint (£2,145), and nappa leather (£2,885). There is much to evaluate here, and it’s on winter rubber, so the coming months hold no fear.