Grinch Mode – 2018 Mercedes AMG GT R Packs a Punch
The 2018 AMG GT R is a straight up track monster. It will dominate your local NASA track day, gets the most eyes at your local Cars & Coffee, and rip the throats out of the Mustang GT kids you may encounter on the way to work. Its official hashtag is #beastofthegreenhell. LOL. It’s debatable whether or not the dudes stepping up for the retail price of $157,995 even use hashtags.
All that aside, this GT R is a lightweight fighter ala Sugar Ray Leonard in his prime and unlike the hi-pitched tones of a GT3 RS, the AMG GT R is a growling bear. It is also the most agile beast Mercedes AMG has ever produced. The German engineers at AMG took cues from their GT3 race car and packaged them for the street. Combining a wider track, custom lightweight coilover-based suspension with a limited slip diff, and nine-way adjustable traction control system with adaptive dampers, the GT R sticks hard in the turns. Of course, it stops on a dime with carbon ceramic lightweight race brakes.
Now for the muscle. The newly tuned 577-horsepower, 700 lb-ft torquey twin turbo 4.0 liter V8 gets the butt dyno to full “yes mode” with 3.5 second 0-60 sprints unleashing the full throat of the thunderous V8. The Deceleration backfire blips are heavenly! After Renntech comes out with their custom tuning options, you can bet this beast’s 0-60 time will come precariously close to the high two-second zone.
About that color though. That’s an acquired taste huh? Mercedes calls it “AMG Green Hell Magno.” If we’re spending a buck fifty, we’d prefer red, white, carbon grey or perhaps yellow. The AMG GT R goes on sale this summer. Drop us a line if you get one. We want to ride shotgun on your first track day.
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