Image Credit: Mercedes-AMG.
For the better part of my life, I have been convinced that if a car doesn't make a noise like a disturbed gargoyle gargling gravel (yes, really), it isn't really trying. The wizards at Mercedes-AMG got us literally hooked on the V8 - a glorious, thumping heart that sounded like the end of the world but in a good way. The same wizards now built the new AMG GT 4-Door Coupe, and it's powered by nothing but lightning and ambition. However, because they know we're all a bit sentimental and daft, they've programmed it to pretend it's still burning the liquid remains of a dinosaur.
I've been watching the latest footage of this camouflaged beast sliding around the frozen tundra of Lapland, and I think it's a bit of a head-scratcher. They've recruited American actor Gabriel Macht to show us how it works. You might know him from that show about lawyers in posh suits. In the video, he twists a dial on the steering wheel to Sport+, and suddenly, the silent electric car starts to "rev." It's got a digital rev counter and paddle shifters that "shift" gears that don't actually exist. It's like hiring a choir to follow you around singing "Vroooom" while you walk to the shops.
Image Credit: Mercedes-AMG.
Under all that digital theater, though, is some genuinely terrifying hardware. This is the first car built on the new AMG.EA platform, and it's not only a battery on wheels. It's packing three axial-flux electric motors. If you aren't a total nerd, all you need to know is that they produce 1,341 horsepower - enough power to pull a medium-sized island several inches to the left. It's clearly aimed right at the Porsche Taycan, which must be feeling a wee bit nervous right about now.
To make sure everyone outside the car knows you're coming, Mercedes has fitted eight external speakers. The Concept GT XX had them, and this production version seems to be following suit. This means when you're silently gliding through a school zone, the car is actually shouting a synthetic V8 growl at the local pigeons. All I see is a house cat wearing a high-fidelity speaker that plays the sound of a lion's roar. A very fast house cat, of course.
Image Credit: Mercedes-AMG.
The clever bits don't stop at the noise, either. Inside the "screen-heavy" cabin there are three rotating dials on the center tunnel. These control Throttle Response, Agility, and Traction. The traction dial is the one that really tickles my itch. It allows for everything from "insane traction" to "crazy wheel spin." Basically, you can tell the car exactly how much you want to ruin your tires. It's got advanced torque vectoring, which means it can do drifts that would make a rally driver jump with joy.
Of course, a car with 1,341 hp needs some serious bits to keep it from flying into the nearest loch. AMG has confirmed it comes with adjustable air suspension, semi-active roll stabilization, and configurable dampers. You also get a choice of carbon-ceramic or steel brake discs. You'll want the ceramic ones, trust me, because stopping a luxury sedan that weighs as much as a small cottage requires the kind of friction usually reserved for re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.
Image Credit: Mercedes-AMG.
No word on an official sticker price yet, but let's not beat around the bush - it's going to be expensive. I expect it to sit comfortably well north of $200,000, which is a ton of money for a car that's essentially a very fast lying machine. But as I watched it dancing across the ice in Lapland, I couldn't stop smiling. It's absurd, loud-ish, and fast. Sure, the noise is fake, but the performance? Yeah, that part is very real.
In the end, does the synthetic V8 soundtrack matter? Probably not. We live in an era where we use filters on our photos and fake tan on our legs, so why not have fake gears in our EVs? If it makes the car feel alive and keeps the AMG spirit from becoming a dull, silent appliance, then I have no problem with that. It's a mad 1,300-plus-horsepower lie, and I think I might actually like it.
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