The pantheon of power within Mercedes-AMG has since been reshuffled after the unveiling of the brand’s latest flagship sports car, the all-new AMG GT 63 S E PERFORMANCE. It’s certainly not winning any awards for the catchiest model name on a car, but as far as speed and power go, it’ll be hard to match it. Pairing AMG’s legendary 4.0-litre V8 engine and Mercedes’s new E PERFORMANCE hybrid drive, the AMG GT 63 S E PERFORMANCE cranks out a mighty 816hp, in addition to 1,420Nm of torque. That’s good for a 0.62mph time of a mere 2.8 seconds.
That’s faster than hypercars just a handful of years ago, and you’re getting this much speed in a relatively approachable, daily-able sports car. All that power is shoved through Mercedes’s 9-speed dual-clutch automatic. Moreover, to ensure maximal grip and optimum torque delivery, the AMG GT 63 S E PERFORMANCE utilises a 4MATIC+ all-wheel drive system. This means that the 4.0-litre turbocharged V8 engine powers the front axles, and the E PERFORMANCE electric drive runs just the rear axles, in addition to mechanical limited-slip diff in the rear.
Hypercar Performance In A Sports Car
Being a hybrid, the battery is an important element in the new AMG GT 63 S E PERFORMANCE. This lightweight battery pack sits in the rear of the car, which helps with weight distribution. It also ensures that it can convert power more directly to the rear-mounted electric motors. If a bit of slip is detected, the 4MATIC+ all-wheel drive system could readily transfer some power to the front wheels. As you can imagine, with how much work it’s doing in a performance car, the battery pack might overheat or overload pretty rapidly, right? Well, not here.
To combat temperature fluctuations – either the battery being too hot or cold – Mercedes used some of their Formula 1 know-how to engineer the entire battery pack. Direct cooling systems and temperature control units ensure that all 560 individual battery cells can be kept cooled and heated up, if need be. As such, you can bet that this 6.1kWh battery in the AMG GT 63 S E PERFORMANCE isn’t going to bog down when the hybrid drive needs it most. Otherwise, if you are more eco-conscious, you can drive purely on electric power for around 13 kilometres.
A Smorgasbord Of Tech And Performance
To more precisely fine-tune how you’d like to drive your new AMG GT 63 S E PERFORMANCE, it has eight different drive modes… Perhaps a bit too many, don’t you think? Still, whether or not you choose to fiddle around with these drive modes, it has an abundance of clever tech to keep your car poised at all times, especially at speed. Underneath, you’ll find an active aero flap that could extend downward by up to 40mm, maximising all that ground effect aero. Then, there’s the AMG ACTIVE RIDE CONTROL super-intelligent suspension set-up.
With adaptive dampers and active anti-roll stabilisation, it could more quickly counteract body roll, and keep the handling as sharp as a razor. As standard, you also get rear-axle steering to give you a more agile turning radius at lower speeds. Or, when you start picking up speed, it’ll keep your car more stable. Thankfully, the new AMG GT 63 S E PERFORMANCE should stop on a dime, thanks to its gigantic ceramic composite brakes. It remains to be seen whether all this tech and electric power will improve the old AMG formula, but I think it just might.
