2018 Mercedes-AMG GT R Video Review
CARS.COM — What do you do when one of your friends shows up at your local track-day club with a new Porsche 911 GT3? You’re not going to go out and buy a 911 GT3 yourself; that would be gauche. So what can you bring to the party?
Related: 2018 Porsche 911 GT3: Icon of the Road Hits the Track
How about this? This is the new 2018 Mercedes-AMG GT R. It’s the racetrack-ready version of the AMG GT lineup. That lineup starts with the base GT — which is a great grand tourer — then goes up to the S, then the C coupe, and then you’ve got this: the R.
It is racetrack-ready. It’s got a bunch of carbon-fiber bits, a more powerful engine, rear-wheel steering and a traction-control knob on the dash that lets you dial in a different amount of sideways slide if you want.
If you want to talk about a ticker, check out the heart of the AMG GT R. This is a 577-horsepower, twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8. It’s massively powerful, and it’s not that much different from the other 4.0-liter V-8s that Mercedes has in the rest of the GT lineup … except that this one’s been dialed up to 577 horsepower.
This V-8 is hand-assembled by a guy named Norman, and you’ll have to watch the rest of the video to see what it does on the track and find out just how well Norm did.
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