Mercedes AMG GT Track Sport testing – special with GT3 RS-rivaling road potential shapes up
Mercedes-AMG has skipped right past any new GT R or black series to a track-spec race car for the road. We hope it makes production…
The latest AMG GT might be a more practical, more refined coupe than the original two-seat hot rod but that hasn’t stopped Mercedes from looking at preparing both a new GT3 race version (that we’re also yet to see) and a mysterious model for now known as the AMG GT Track Sport.
Following a tease a few months back, Mercedes has now shown images of it in heavy disguise taking its first tentative steps on track – a strange activity for any concept, though Mercedes has past form in making its show cars prove their worth beyond looking sparkly on a motor show stand. What almost certainly carries elements of the forthcoming AMG GT3’s DNA could also spawn Mercedes-AMG’s answer to the Porsche 911 GT3 RS and Ford Mustang GTD in the form of a future Black Series model.
When we first saw the teaser we weren’t sure whether this was a road car, or the new race car. This disguised AMG GT is wider, lower, with jutting aero addenda at the front and a rear wing that looks to have escaped from an N24 race car. We can see the wing follows on in methodology from the 911 and the Mustang GTD, with a prominent swan neck design and what looks like room for active aero and DRS.
When we first saw the teaser we weren’t sure whether this was a road car, or the new race car. This disguised AMG GT is wider, lower, with jutting aero addenda at the front and a rear wing that looks to have escaped from an N24 race car. We can see the wing follows on in methodology from the 911 and the Mustang GTD, with a prominent swan neck design and what looks like room for active aero and DRS.
The prototype Mercedes has shown testing on track wears even more disguise, hiding aggressive air outlets on the bonnet, very racey looking side-exit exhausts and a fuel filler where the coupe’s window would be, and a vented ducktail atop the boot lid, below the swan-neck wing. Obviously, we know no downforce figures, we don’t know what the new steroidal bodywork is made of, we don’t know if there’s to be a power increase. More details will come with the car’s full reveal.
What are the suggestions that this isn’t just a race car? Well, the teaser and this rolling prototype show some very road-looking wing mirrors and the wheel sat next to the car is clearly shod in a treaded road-legal tyre, probably a Michelin Cup 2 R. The fuel filler is obviously pure race car, as are the side-exit pipes, though we can look to the SLR as a past Merc road car that’s featured these. The ride height on the car seen testing on track is oddly high for a dedicated racer too – that splitter certainly has half a chance of surviving a sleeping policeman.
Though a Concept for now, it’s clear there’s some production intent. Mercedes intends to put the concept to work too, ‘to set new record times’. That could mean going after the 911 and Mustang at the Nürburgring, the former having recorded a 6min 49sec and the latter achieving a 6min 52sec time earlier this year.
So far in this generation, we’ve had the GT63 Pro and the GT63 E Performance but there is clearly room for upward movement with more hardcore models akin to the old AMG GT R, GT R Pro and Black Series models. The Track Sport looks like it’s skipped right past the Black Series, to be all but a GT3 car for the road. No complaints here…
The latest Mercedes-AMG GT is an excellent car, probably the best AMG GT there’s been (save for the GT R). But there’s no denying it is a bigger, heavier, more practical take on the once quite exotic, long-bonetted, back-axle-under-your-backside coupe. With the Track Sport (and whatever GT3 or Black Series variant that it’s set to spawn) the GT will surely be back to its most intense best. We can’t wait to find out.
