Mercedes has announced the pricing details
of the new AMG GT Black Series for the UK market and as expected, it’s pretty
eye-watering expensive. Like £ 335,000 (US$ 438,000) kind of expensive. That’s £ 147k (US$ 192,000) more than the AMG GT
R Pro, which was the king of the range until the new Black Series came along.
That steep premium is also the first indication of the amount of changes
Mercedes did to turn the AMG GT into its most extreme iteration.
For starters, the engine. The twin-turbo
4.0-liter V8 has been heavily re-engineered to the point it’s given a new
internal code – M178 LS2 if you had to ask. The engine now features dry-sump
lubrication, new camshafts, new exhaust manifolds, a pair of turbochargers with
larger compressor wheels, and larger intercoolers to name a few.
The end result is 720 HP at 6,700
to 6,900 rpm and 800 Nm between 2,000 and 6,000 rpm. That’s 143 HP
and 74 lb-ft more than the GT R Pro we mentioned earlier. The new Black Series
engine, which features a special badge finished in black, can rev up to 7,200
rpm.
Paired to the engine is a seven-speed
dual-clutch automatic transmission, which here is modified to deal with the
extra torque and offer better response and “shift performance”. Mercedes claims
that the new AMG GT Black Series can hit 100 km/h in 3.2 seconds and
reach 200 km/h in under nine seconds. The top speed is set at 325 km/h.
The bodywork has been extensively
redesigned to host the racecar-like adjustable aero agenda, with the front end
dominated by the larger front grille -which is exactly the same with the GT3
race car- and the massive carbon-fiber splitter that can be manually adjusted
in two positions – Street and Race. The front fenders are wider and feature
their own vents, as does the bonnet while the giant rear wing comes with its
own active flap that can be electronically adjusted.
The price of the new AMG GT Black Series
is indeed pretty steep, especially if you consider that models like the last
Porsche 911 GT2 RS -at £ 207,000- and the Ferrari 488 Pista -at £ 252,000- were
significantly cheaper when they were available new.