Mercedes-AMG GT63 Pro 2024 review – a four-seat 911 GT3 rival?
Mercedes-AMG has toughened up the GT63 coupe for track work. It’s expensive but crushingly effective
The latest AMG GT is a car we rate highly at evo. Our first drive earlier this year revealed that the move to a new 2+2 platform has turned it into a genuine Porsche 911 rival, despite being related to the less-than-dazzling SL cabriolet. We’ve subsequently lined it up against a 911 Turbo S (issue 324), which it ran very close, and tested the stonking 805bhp E Performance hybrid. ‘The way it piles on speed from 124mph to 186mph is unreal,’ reported evo’s John Barker. We thought it’d be a while before AMG turned up the heat with a GT for circuit driving, but with the new Pro version, that’s exactly what we’ve got.
The GT Pro’s positioning is a little odd. Mercedes says it’s been created in response to customers that want a GT for track days, but it’s no ground-hugging, wide-track monster like the old GT R (a replacement for that is surely coming, and would be ‘a lot more radical’ according to AMG). Instead, the GT Pro gets a series of incremental changes to make it more durable and slightly faster around a circuit, which almost feel like they should come as part of an option pack rather than a new model.
A 27bhp uplift for the GT’s 4-litre twin-turbo V8 brings it up to 604bhp, with torque peaking at a monstrous 627lb ft compared to the base car’s 590. The boost has been achieved through ECU programming, and while the GT’s 3.2sec 0-62mph time is unchanged, the Pro reaches 124mph half a second quicker, in 10.9sec. The drivetrain is kept cooler too, thanks to radiators positioned in the front wheel arches and active cooling for the diffs and transfer case.
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There are no changes to the suspension hardware or geometry, but there is a redesigned front apron that reduces lift by more than 30kg, as well as underbody air deflectors and a fixed rear wing – available as an option on the standard GT – that adds 15kg of downforce. Despite the slightly increased aero loads, the GT’s interlinked Active Ride Control dampers are able to automatically maintain the correct ride height at speed without modification.
The brakes are specified for track use, too. The standard items can wilt under hard road use, but the Pro gets massive carbon ceramic discs (measuring 420mm at the front) with improved cooling, gripped by uprated pads. The 21-inch Michelin Cup 2 R tyres fitted to our test car are a no cost option (and may come as standard on UK cars – Mercedes is yet to decide on the final spec), and there’s plenty of rubber on the ground – the 295-section fronts are wider than a BMW M3's rears.
Sometimes the wide expanse of a race track can dull the sense of speed in even very, very fast cars, but not Spain’s Ascari circuit. Especially not when it's been raining. There really isn’t much time to rest throughout the lap, and following five-time DTM champion Bernd Schneider in a GT Pro pace car, it’s clear that a slow and gentle build up isn’t really his style. From the green light he’s absolutely on it.
Thankfully, the GT doesn’t bite unless you take liberties in these conditions – particularly with the ESC left on, as suggested by Schneider, who was three seconds quicker than with it off. Through Ascari’s medium-speed sweepers it turns in with an alacrity that you just don’t expect from a near 1.9-ton front-engined car. There is an undeniable sense of heft but the platform resists roll, and the way the wide front tyres dig in, working with the rear-axle steering, means you can carry momentum into an apex as you would in something lighter. Traction is gently managed before the V8 rips onto the next straight and through its nine gear ratios.
You need to be careful on the wettest parts of the track, though, because while the scantily-tread Michelin’s work up to a point, when grip falls away it does so very quickly. Suddenly your confidence disappears, and it takes a few corners to edge back up to the limit. Schneider has a couple of ‘moments’ in the GT ahead. He says the car is much more progressive on Pilot Sport 5 tyres in this kind of weather, but part of the problem is that the steering is numb in your hands, forcing you to drive on your wits rather than feel.
Don't take this to mean that the GT Pro isn't mightily effective on a damp track, because it absolutely is. Traction is excellent, it’s rock steady at speed and you can lap very quickly without much effort. It’s just that squeezing the last bit of performance from it requires a bit of a leap, and some understanding of how the four-wheel drive system works. When power overcomes grip at the rear you need to settle into the slide and keep a constant throttle, keeping your corrections to a minimum and allowing the electronics to figure out where to distribute the torque.
When the track dries out and the Cup 2 Rs warm up, the GT is devastating. That positive turn in is even sharper, and you can work the throttle harder and earlier with much more confidence. Sport mode for the ESC really helps the balance, too, freeing up the engine in the traction zones to energise the rear where the nose would normally edge wide. The V8 doesn’t rumble like an AMG engine of old (the noise is strangely synthetic from inside the cabin) but it’s tractable enough to drive out of slow speed corners on the edge of grip, with small flicks of correction at the wheel. Its delivery is explosive but not unmanageably so, and given the momentum you’re already carrying into braking zones, you never want more. The brakes themselves, meanwhile, have great power and endurance, but slowing this much mass from high speed can be physical and intense.
The GT63 Pro never escapes the sense of being a substantial, heavy-hitting coupe. It's not as deft as a 911 GT3, nor as wildly playful as Aston Martin’s new Vantage, but you can't help but be deeply impressed by what it does, and what it can now do for lap after lap. And that’s before you remember it has a pair of (admittedly tight) rear seats and genuine GT credentials.
Price and rivals
The GT Pro is expected to cost around £180,000 in the UK, which is a huge amount of money for what still won't be the ultimate AMG GT, no doubt about it. In concept, it's closer to Porsche’s 911 Turbo S than it is the GT3 despite its track credentials. The former is currently only available in 50 Years special edition guise, and is even more expensive than the AMG at £200,600.
Aston Martin’s new Vantage starts from £165,000 and is a more bespoke, desirable coupe but only seats two, and the same goes for the Ferrari Roma.
