Gadgetory

this is the 2016 Mercedes AMG GTS it's the spiritual successor to the automaker's SLR and SLS supercars only now which sort of evolved into a super sports grand tourer meant to compete with the likes of the 911 and the Audi r8 now viewed in profile it looks to me like the Porsche 911 is the most direct competitor of those two models the GTS and it share very similar proportions and a very similar roofline and if you walk around back it even kind of looks like Mercedes's whole sill ripped off the 911s rear taillight cluster however Mercedes has chosen not to hang the engine over the rear end like the Porsche or over the rear axle like the Audi instead it's gone with a front amidships configuration for its v8 that means the engine sits ahead of the driver but behind the front axle that's how we end up with this extremely long and exaggerated front hood and one of the biggest differences between the GTS and its predecessors is the doors the GTS s door is open and closed like this not like this not like this but like this these are not billionaire doors people humorous pop-culture references aside super sports grand tourers like the AMG GT are as much about drama as they are about outright performance so the lack of dramatic doors to step down to regular doors is well a bit disappointing for this generation fortunately there's plenty of drama to be had coming out of the tailpipe especially in this race mode we're just going to put the active exhaust in its loudest most aggressive setting we've also got Sport Plus sport and comfort settings that are going to allow you to dial down the performance and aggression from fast and furious down to daily driver acceleration from the v8 engine is locomotive like that is to say that it is smooth it is strong and well it's loud and the handling of this grand tourer even in its most comfortable mode is going to be pretty firm the car stays really flattened the turn then gives you really good feet of the pants feedback coming up through the chassis and into the sport bucket seats steering on the other hand is a bit over boosted and doesn't offer as good fingertip feel as I would like but that does kind of help the car feel a little less twitchy and a little more planted what I do like is that the steering is very direct and weights up nicely when you chuck it into a turn and you can really sort of feel the vehicle working around you so the state of the pants feel sort of makes up for the lack of fingertip feel in this vehicle firstly pink it's gonna be with that very long hood we've got out friend which can make nuvaring in very tight quarters a bit tricky you've kind of got to get used to having the equivalent of the length of a smart fortwo between the steering wheel and the Mercedes logo on the hood the other problem is going to be with the rear quarter visibility the blind spots on this vehicle are a little bit bigger than I'd like but to its credit there's not a whole lot of vehicle back there to keep track of ergonomics are good they're not Porsche good but this is a very comfortable car all the controls are where you'd like them with one exception that's going to be the shifter which is located way back here and probably the worst bit of real estate on the center console with an automatic transmission and paddle shifters you're not going to be touching it a whole lot when you drive around so even that is a little bit forgivable I know no-one came here to talk about fuel efficiency so I'll just say that during about 250 miles of testing I've averaged about 18 miles per gallon which is pretty good for a vehicle this powerful when you consider the way that I've been driving regardless of which setting you find yourself in the GTS does a really good job of making the driver feel awesome and making the drive feel special but it doesn't really feel like a race car even when you put it in the race mode you really start tossing this car around it starts to feel a bit like an apex Road car which is a good thing it's very comfortable the drive is very relaxed you can go ridiculously fast this car but I don't know if I'd want to go ridiculously fast on a race track the 2016 Mercedes AMG GT is a car that will turn heads everywhere you go both with its will gorgeous looks and with it's extremely loud exhaust note the thing that I like most about this car is the way that it makes you feel if you give the GTS enough road it will make you feel like a race car driver on the street even if it doesn't necessarily back it up with race car performance it is a super sports car in the truest sense of the word later this year Mercedes will also launch a GT with no s that's a little bit more toned down with a little less power and the gt3 version for those looking for something race-ready pricing for those hasn't been announced but we expected they'll bracket this Brut in the suit nicely