Mercedes-AMG GT2 review – a track weapon that’s almost too easy

I’d planned to build up gently in the Mercedes-AMG GT2, the race version of the last-generation Mercedes-AMG GT; treat the warm-up lap as exactly that, a chance to warm myself up as well as the tyres, and get my bearings before pressing on. I’ve made a mistake, however.

The pitlane speed limiter release button is right next to the headlamp flasher button, which triggers an ‘out-the-way-now!’ volley from the ultra-bright headlights, intended for clearing slower traffic in endurance races. Rumbling to the stripe at the end of the pitlane, I’ve inadvertently flashed two AMG GT Black Series cars ahead, which immediately indicate and politely scamper to one side.

The Black Series are being driven by pro drivers (including the likes of racing legend Bernd Schneider and Daytona 24 Hours winner Philip Ellis), who are giving high-speed ‘taxi rides’ to high-level AMG customers. So my planned baby-steps beginning isn’t going to be an option: I’d better get on with it and clear off up the road as best I can.

Luckily, the AMG GT2 turns out to be the most user-friendly racing car possible in which to do just that. The GT2 racing category is designed for amateur and gentleman drivers, sitting halfway between the slower, more affordable GT4 class and the seriously quick, seriously competitive and seriously costly GT3 class, which nowadays is predominantly the preserve of pro drivers. GT2 cars have less downforce than GT3 machinery for more forgiving handling, but more power, making them nearly as quick around a lap and theoretically even more fun to drive.

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Mercedes-AMG’s GT2 car is an imposing-looking beast, with a sky-high rear wing and composite bodywork stretched across its slick tyres. I think it looks fantastic, just as a GT racing car should: packed full of drama yet still with a recognisable link to AMG’s road-going cars. The aero surfaces are less complex than those of its GT3 sibling, and it exchanges that car’s older, naturally aspirated 6.3-litre V8 for a flat-plane-crank variant of AMG’s 4-litre twin-turbo V8.

It packs a mighty 697bhp, and as a result it doesn’t take long for the GT2 to devour the straights. Braking power is similarly forceful, and one of the attributes that makes the car so user-friendly is its switchable ABS system, with 11 levels of assistance. Set to the safer end of the scale, you can jump on the brakes as hard as you can, knowing that locking a wheel will be all but impossible. 

And on the way out of the corner, there are likewise 11 levels of traction control to curb wheelspin. Lights flash on the digital display behind the steering wheel to let you know if you’re triggering either ABS or TC – handy in slippery conditions and also because the power steering is relatively light, making the GT2 less physically taxing.

I have five laps of Silverstone in which to get to know the car, with the circuit drying from an earlier rain shower (and yes, most of these photos were taken somewhere sunnier), so I begin with TC and ABS alike in a conservative setting and decrease their intervention bit by bit each lap. 

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The last time I drove this circuit was nearly two years ago but happily everything seems to be in the same place. Except that all the kerbs seem to have been flattened. I don’t think I’ve ever driven a racing car that absorbs kerbs as smoothly as the AMG GT2. Sawtooths and sausage kerbs alike don’t faze it. Were this a race meeting, it would take some self-restraint not to pick up track limits warnings because you can really take liberties.

There’s a lot of understeer in the early laps, partly because the car has been set up with a relatively ‘safe’ balance, but once the tyres are hot it becomes more energised. On the final lap, with the rear tyres beginning to overheat (there is 697bhp coursing through them, after all), there’s plenty of power oversteer if you’re indelicate with the throttle, but the TC means it never develops beyond easily controlled little slides. 

With the assistance systems, light steering and limo-like stability over the kerbs, this is a remarkably easy car to drive. One of the trickiest things is actually vision out, since you’re buried so low with such a vast expanse of bonnet ahead of you. If there’s a downside to the GT2, it’s that it’s almost lacking a bit of drama. But a field of other GT2 cars to spar with and striving to find those last few fractions of a second would quickly add that. And it’s a bit churlish to criticise a racing car for being ‘too good’.

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No matter how capable a track car is, someone will always crave more firepower, so just as Maserati has created a ‘no rules’ version of its MC20 GT2 race car with the MCXtrema, Mercedes-AMG has too. This year it launched the GT2 Edition W16 – not because it has a W16 engine but because it’s named (and painted) after last season’s Mercedes F1 car. It’s neither road- nor race-legal, with active aero (banned in racing) and a push-to-pass system boosting power to 817bhp. 

Only 30 will be made, each signed by Mercedes F1 driver Kimi Antonelli, at a price of €679,000 before taxes; call it £700,000 all-in, compared with around £432,000 for the regular GT2 race car. Each customer gets a personal handover at a European race track, with F1 personnel including the team’s drivers in attendance – it’s at just such an event that we’re sampling the GT2 (hence those taxi rides).

Even without the extra horsepower, motorised aero surfaces and Kimi’s signature, the GT2 is an impressive beast. If its brief is to be forgiving enough for inexperienced drivers to get up to speed with confidence yet also have the ability to lap circuits at mind-bending pace, it nails it.

Specs

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