MoneywebDrive: Driving Impressions
The AMG GT will whisk you up to the national speed limit of 120 km/h in about five
seconds, so unless you have access to your own private road somewhere, legally
you won’t get anywhere near the car’s top speed of 303 km/h...
had speculated that it would
come in at less than R2-million
and we weren’t disappointed.
The “base” model comes in at
R1 652 157 after CO2 tax has been
added, while the GT S weighs in
at R1 991 157.
We may well recommend the
base model here, because
there is a huge saving, but with
one proviso. The S comes standard with the AMG Ride Control suspension, whereas on the
plain GT it is an option. We suggest if you are after the base
model, please tick the option
box for the adaptive damping
suspension, as it makes driving
our bad roads a pleasure in
“comfort” mode. And for track
days, you will relish the firming
up of responses. The option is
hardly cheap, coming in at
26
If you are keen on doing track
days on a regular basis, you may
want to consider the ceramic
brake option, but this really does
up the ante. Optional on both
models, it costs R123 000, but it
will enable you to run hard and
fast all day, every day, at the
race track.
We were lucky enough to run
the car at very high speeds on
the Gerotek oval, and I can tell
you that at all speeds approaching that top speed the AMG GT
is one of the most stable cars I
have ever experienced. It makes
speeding up to the region of
300-plus a doddle, and the only
cautionary note here is that it is
all too easy to travel faster than
you might be aware in this car,
because it is so aerodynamically
and mechanically stable.
The AMG GT will whisk you up
to the national speed limit of
120 km/h in about five seconds,
so unless you have access to
your own private road somewhere, legally you won’t get
anywhere near the car’s top
speed of 303 km/h on the standard GT or 310 km/h on the S.
Part of the secret to this is that
by locating the dual-clutch
seven-speed transmission at
the rear of the car in tandem
with the rear axle, weight distribution works out 47% front,
53% rear. For a rear-wheel-drive
car the high-speed stability is
truly impressive.
R26 000, but this is the most
important of a raft of options
available for both the GT and
the GT S.
Another aspect that makes it so
easy to drive at very high speeds
is that the steering is not at all
over-sensitive at high speeds.
Yet there is enough feel as soon
as you begin loading the front
wheels up in a hard corner.
This we experienced at Zwartkops raceway during some hot
laps, which was interesting as
on-board cameras and computer links in the car gave us the
opportunity to analyse o \