The Mercedes-AMG GT’s V8 combustion engine remains wonderfully, enticingly dominant. It’s aggressively responsive at times, and angrily potent when you dare explore its performance at revs – but mostly it’s just a woofling, bellowing, mid-range audible treat.
Even in a heavier car, you can’t argue with the performance it serves, nor the way it’s delivered, once you’re out on the open road. The GT remains both rapid and exciting to drive. There’s great response and intent from the reworked V8, which is mounted well back in the engine bay on magnetic mounts that are designed to reduce load change.
You need at least 2500rpm wound on the rev counter before the pair of twin-scroll turbochargers start to do their best work. Keep the throttle loaded and you’re treated to a truly potent surge of acceleration as the prodigious torque is unleashed through the mid-range. The V8 digs deep, growing ever more intense and characterful all the way up to its 7000rpm redline.
In any of the more sporting driving modes, each application of the throttle is accompanied by a deep rumble of the exhaust through the four rectangular tailpipes. It’s unfiltered fun, with loads of old-school internal-combustion aural charm, including loud crackles on the overrun.
On the GT 63 E Performance hybrid, there is a bewildering array of driving modes, including Electric, Battery Hold, Comfort, Slippery, Sport, Sport+ and Individual. The default mode is Comfort, in which the new AMG model starts silently and is initially propelled via the electric motor when there are sufficient battery energy stores. On top of this, there are four levels of energy recuperation, controlled via a button on the right-hand spoke of the steering wheel.
While it sets off on electric power in Comfort mode, it doesn’t take much of a nudge on the throttle to prompt the GT 63 S E Performance to automatically switch into four-wheel-drive hybrid operation with the introduction of the petrol engine.
There is also a significant amount of electrical noise, with whine from the electric motor and associated electronics. The highest of the regen modes wipes off speed smartly, converting kinetic energy to electricity.
Select Sport or Sport+ model and there’s a noticeable hardening in character: the petrol engine revs with greater intent and there’s an appreciably deeper and more alluring tone to the exhaust note. The combined reserves and the ability of the four-wheel drive system to place them to the road cleanly makes extra light work of the new coupé’s weight, providing the GT 63 S E Performance with truly intense accelerative properties. There is huge flexibility and savage thrust from little more than 2000rpm to beyond 6000rpm.
You can nudge up to and beyond 190mph on an unrestricted autobahn with great confidence. The ability of the battery to retain charge and keep the electric motor running to boost performance, even over longer distances at sustained high speeds, is very impressive.
The new gearbox is spectacularly good. In manual mode, its shifts are as fast and determined as those of the old dual-clutch unit, with an edge of brutality to upshifts especially. Meanwhile, there’s even smoother and crisper operation than the old gearbox managed in automatic mode. The additional two gears aid the GT’s cruising abilities a little: at 80mph in ninth gear, the engine is turning over at just 1800rpm.
The hybrid’s brakes lack feel at the top of the pedal, owing in part to the regen function. Delve further with added pedal pressure, though, and the 420mm, six-piston brakes deliver truly powerful retardation.
