There are less pleasant ways to part with two hundred thousand dollars.
And AMG’s ‘Green Monster’ GT-R, the latest model in their grand-touring lineup that includes the GT and GT-S, offers a fairly convincing consolation for letting go of a good chunk of cash.
Imagined, then developed as a street vehicle with racecar aspirations, the GT-R is the product of close communication between AMG’s design and engineering teams. Mercedes head designer Gorden Wagener has in mind a personal paradigm of ‘sensual purity,’ which he may envision as a perfect merger of aesthetics and visceral emotion into a single, adrenaline-stimulating formal statement. Under his developmental guidance, the GT-R emerges as one of the more effective offerings from AMG-Mercedes. Rejecting the operatic drama of supercar pretentions, the GT-R is for the serious sportscar enthusiast more interested in driving than status-seeking.
Which is not to say that the GT-R is not a meta-engineered thing of beauty, as it is most certainly that; however, design decisions were arrived at with performance entirely in mind. Widened and lowered somewhat, with an airfoil and carbon fiber appointments, the car is certainly meant for speed and interactive responsive. Active aerodynamics, in the form of an electronically controlled airflow dam, adjust according to speed and turning radius, opening or closing to cool or reduce drag; additionally, a wing mounted beneath the engine compensates, at higher speeds and in ‘race’ mode, by increasing stability via downforce. In more conventional driving modes of ‘comfort,’ ‘sport’ or ‘sport+,’ the foil deploys at somewhat higher speeds.
AMG’s 4L bi-turbo V8 pushes the GT-R with 577HP. The transmission is seven-speed. AMG claims the Green Monster tops out at 200MPH. With all the engineering involved, the statement may be accepted as read. Perhaps the most compelling reason to consider it as a practical supercar, though, is its different preset driving modes of race, comfort, sport and sport+, which allow the car play the part of both gut-wrenching speed-machine, and comfortable, capable and luxurious touring car, as desired.
