Yahoo Autos 2024 Mercedes-AMG GT Coupe First Drive Review: Better when faster
GRANADA, Spain — On the first day of the 2024 Mercedes-AMG GT Coupe media drives, I spurred the (genuine two-door) coupe through Spanish mountain roads outside Granada. I’ve spoken before of today’s super sports cars being too much for public roads — 100 pounds of ‘roids in a 20-pound sack. One needs a pressure suit, tower clearance and immunity from prosecution to approach their potential. Well, here is another: an Affalterbach big boy with an afterburner engine, its size and weight uniquely unsuited to humping over spindly Iberian roads with their byzantine zig-zags, their coarse, bumpy tarmac, their numerous, simultaneous cambers and their surprise herds of goats.
Worse, it was as awkward as an NFL offensive tackle asked to flamenco. Its multiplex systems kept me pointed the correct way, but did so by interrupting power delivery and dynamics in ways I couldn’t predict.
There was no way AMG had forgotten how to engineer a sinuous — if portly — driver’s car. I drove a GT in 2016, and other than it being stiffer than a crowbar, it was a hoot to hustle. Colleague James Riswick praised the AMG GT R. The AMG GT Black Series almost never met a heart it couldn’t win.
Enter Katrin, with AMG PR. During dinner that first evening, she asked what I thought of the drive. I did the most polite thing I could think of, answering her question with: “Can I complain?” Then I did just that, and in more detail than outlined above. My TEDx talk concluded, she said, “You need to speak to René.”
That was the beginning of how I learned to delight in the 2024 AMG GT.
But let’s start with the breakdown. The second-generation AMG GT Coupe embodies what the company calls “a new dimension concept.” This means customers wanted back seats for familial and pecuniary reasons — the potential to load kids or tiny dogs, and the real boon of lower insurance rates levied on a 2+2 vs. a two-seater. As a result, the AMG GT can be had as either, albeit with the latter possessing a parcel shelf instead of the vestigial seats.
The all-new coupe combines and distills AMG and Mercedes products that preceded it. The new multi-metal and composite platform shares nothing with the previous AMG GT, but is the same platform supporting the new AMG SL. Compared to the previous GT, the second-gen rides on a wheelbase 2.8 inches longer, its body 7.1 inches longer, and it's a skosh wider and taller. Compared to the SL, the AMG GT is an inch longer and three inches wider, subtly emphasizing its rowdier purpose.
The exterior playbook cribs the SL’s gameplan, with the SL itself an edited remake of the previous GT C Roadster. Cue AMG's Panamericana grille, its Mercedes insignia beamed from a dark sun, the long hood and ascending wedge of unfussed bodywork, the flush door handles, 20-inch standard wheels, and quad exhaust finishers. Differences include the three LED light-dot DRL signatures, recalled in back with the three-dot taillights. Four AMG-embossed noisemakers poke through an ornate and aero-efficient diffuser. Larger 21-inch wheels add grip and standoffish bearing, each tire representing the weekly output of a rubber plantation. Oh, and there’s a fixed hardtop.
Inside, there's all the Mercedes and AMG we expect — architectural elegance (gorgeous Nappa leather seats), technical opulence (extravagantly complex MBUX) and LED ostentation (Cyberpunk 2077 ambient lighting on demand). The big interior story is that there’s more of it: The additional wheelbase and body length relative its predecessor make room for a low shelf behind the front seats in the two-seater, one that would do well with netting or a bar to restrain objects. In the optional 2+2, fold-down second row seats are said to be suitable for anyone no more than 5 feet tall.
In the two-seater, a fixed bulkhead separates cabin from cargo area and 11.3 cubic feet of load space, an improvement on the previous GT’s 10.1 cubic feet. Another sign of AMG’s fastidious detailing, the optional 1,170-watt Burmester audio systems places one of its 15 speakers in the hold in case the owner’s Rimowa luggage also likes yacht rock. Lowering the rear seats in the 2+2 liberates 23.8 cubic feet of cargo space, apparently enough to fit a bicycle without its front wheel.
Powertrains match SL spec, a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 in either 63 or 55 trims. The former makes 577 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque, the latter, 469 hp and 516 lb-ft. Both shift through AMG’s nine-speed transmission, fitted here with a wet start-off clutch for lower weight and better throttle response. From there, output passes through 4Matic all-wheel drive --the previous generation was rear-drive only. The bookends of the front/rear torque split are a 0/100 pure pusher mode at one end, and a 50/50 spread when lack of rear traction demands all contact patches on deck. Power to the rear wheels runs through a torque-vectoring limited-slip differential additionally aided by brake-based torque vectoring.
There's a five-link forged aluminum suspension at each corner along with AMG's Active Ride Control suspension (the system that comes standard on the SL 63, but is an option on the SL 55). The secret sauce is oil, flowing through the hydraulic, semi-active roll control system. Compression and rebound are managed individually at each corner, while a hydraulic pump ahead of the driver’s side rear wheel pumps fluid through lines that connect the suspension across the car, e.g., the compression stage of the front left damper connects to the rebound stage of front right front damper.
The pressure in the system acts on electronic switches that control valving. Separating oil flow from valve actuation permits more precise valve control. All four corners contain a third “comfort” valve, too, which opens to reduce pressure and deliver a smoother ride. The benefit here is the widened spectrum of comfort and performance compared to what a physical torsion element could provide. AMG said the pump operates in a range from 18 bar (least roll resistance, most comfort) to 45 bar (most roll resistance, most performance) in the 2024 AMG GT Coupe. However, the system is capable of 60 bar. The hint is that an even more wicked GT variant this way comes. Eventually.
The “Active” in the name is a bit of a misnomer, though, as this is semi-active roll control. The hydraulics limit roll within programmed limits, they don’t reverse roll. If the coupe’s body leans two degrees through a bend, Active Ride Control cannot restore the coupe to a zero-degree flat aspect.
