The 'Beast of the Green Hell', aka the Mercedes-AMG GT R, has been presented a few days ago. So, it's time to take a more detailed look at this car. The green color already makes it a very special car to look at, but the beauty of this car is in the details. Time to see how this car sets itself apart from the 'regular' AMG GT!
The AMG GT R is more than just an AMG GT which looks like it went to the gym. It got a massive power-bump though: the 4.0-litre biturbo V8 we've grown to love now delivers an astonishing 585 hp. Yes, that's more power than the SLS AMG used to have. The V8 is also quite torquey, with 699 nm you always have enough power at your disposal to leave (almost) everyone behind in a cloud of dust and rubber. 0-100 km/h is done in 3,6 seconds, two tenths of a second faster than its less powerful little brother. That's also due to the fact that the AMG GT R weighs 90 kilograms less than the GT. Quite an impressive diet, but at 1554 kilograms the car still is a bit heavy. Who cares though, it's not a Caterham after all.
A new exhaust system not only saves weight, but also delivers a far more aggressive sound. Very cool when you're trashing it on a track or on a mountain road, or if you just want to show off in a city like Monaco. More useful for your lap time however are the new splitter, the revised diffuser (with the exhaust situated in the middle, very cool) and the fixed rear wing. All these parts generate more downforce so that you can get trough the corners even quicker and without losing grip. Talking about grip, the GT R has got special tires which are developed for trackdays and road-use. They last longer on the track and they are a lot grippier than standard road-tires.
The grille however is the part that caught my eye first. It has been taken straight from the AMG GT3 and it looks madly aggressive on the GT R. If you jump inside of the car you will notice that the traction control has nine (!) settings. Nine! Overkill? Let's wait for the reviews to find out. In terms of speccing the interior you can go all-out by ordering the seatbelts in yellow, but I don't know if that's a great match with the exterior color: Green Hell Magno. Officially the car can be spotted on the open road early 2017, but at Autogespot we often see new cars appearing a bit earlier on the site. Alright, who can spot the first uncamouflaged AMG GT R? 3, 2, 1, GO!
