Mercedes-Benz Malaysia teases hardcore Mercedes-AMG GT R, coming soon?



We are halfway through October and while everyone is preparing to end the year on a quiet note, Mercedes-Benz Malaysia (MBM) seems to be hinting that the upcoming months will be a loud and rumbly one.

On Deepavali, the kind folks at MBM uploaded a greeting card for all those celebrating the Festival of Lights. Nice gesture, but blink and you will miss a cheekily embedded silhouette of their flagship super sportscar, the AMG GT.

As we all know, the AMG GT S has been around for some time (launched in 2015) but what piqued our interest in this particular teaser is the additional fixed rear wing. There are only two ways to have a fixed rear wing on an AMG GT (from factory at least), one is to specify the Edition One package and the other is the track-bred AMG GT R. Our best guess? The AMG GT R, no less.

The AMG GT R is essentially the road legal version of the GT3 race car that dominated the Nürburgring 24-hour race. It draws aesthetic and aerodynamic enhancements from the GT3 race car such as the Panamericana grille, carbon fibre rear wing, bumper elements, active aerodynamics and more.

Motivation comes from an uprated 4.0-litre twin turbo V8 mated with a seven-speed dual clutch automatic to drive the rear wheels. Power is bumped from 510 hp to 585 hp while torque figures jumped 50 Nm to 700 Nm. It’s quicker to the century mark too, at 3.6 seconds (3.8 seconds on the GT S) and top speed is raised to 318 km/h.

This bonkers of a road weapon gets the marque’s first ever Four-wheel steering technology that turns the rear wheels by up to 1.5 degrees for better handling at the limit. It also rolls on sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres fitted onto the light-weight 10-spoke forged alloys (19-inch at the front, 20-inch at the rear).

Another party trick of this Green Hell Beast is its nine-stage traction control system which gives the car nine-levels of slip at the rear axle. Need to be a responsible and civilised driver on the public highway, stage one shall be your default setting – allowing almost no slip to the rear wheels . But if you have an empty race track all to yourself, dial it all the way to “ESP off” and it will happily dance to your tunes.

As of press time, we have no information on when the Mercedes-AMG GT R will be officially available, but stay tuned for more updates.


IMAGE GALLERY