by Andrew Frankel
New GT-based race car set for Geneva motor show reveal - and AMG is already hard at work on a harder, faster version of the road car ahead of a 2016 launch.This is the first official image of the Mercedes-AMG GT3, which will make its debut at the Geneva motor show next month.The new race car is the second such track-focused model to emerge from the Affalterbach-based performance arm after the SLS GT3 launched in 2010.
The new GT3 model is based on the GT road car and will inspire an ultra-high-performance version of the road car, company boss Tobias Moers has told Autocar.‘Why not?” said Moers when quizzed on the prospects of a high-performance GT.“A street-legal version of our GT3 racing car – that sounds like a pretty good idea.”
The new car will be targeted directly at the Porsche 911 GT3, although it will use neither that name nor be a Black Series model. “GT3 belongs to the other company,” said Moers. “We will find another name for our car.”Moers would not be drawn on when the new car will be available but confirmed that the FIA GT3 racing version of the GT would be available from the 2016 season to replace the immensely successful SLS GT3. It would be logical to introduce the road car in a similar timeframe.
The target for the car, said Moers, is a package that excels in every area. “I don’t want to make a dragster that’s only good for doing 0-100km/h [0-62mph] in 2.8sec. We need more power, less weight, better aerodynamics and different suspension, but the targets should be the power-to-weight ratio, driveability, lap time and tremendous feel.”
The aim for the new car will be to reduce weight by 80-100kg compared with the 1570kg S version of the GT, a task Moers admitted would not be possible without using different materials. “The car is already 80kg lighter than the SLS and has a similar power-to-weight ratio, so to lose much more weight we will need to use carbonfibre, as we have with our Black Series models.”
He was less easily drawn on how much additional power will be extracted from the new twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine, although he admitted that it would be fair to speculate it will be around the 550bhp mark, a near 10 per cent power increase on the more powerful (503bhp) of the two engines available for the GT at launch.
Making that power from the engine should be straightforward, because the V8 shares its internal architecture with the 2.0-litre four-cylinder motor used in the likes of the A45 AMG, from which 355bhp is already extracted. He added: “That doesn’t mean we can get 700bhp from the V8 – it is not as simple as that – but the V8 is currently very understressed.”
A 550bhp GT weighing 80kg less than the standard car would provide a power-to-weight ratio of 369bhp per tonne, compared with the 312bhp per tonne of the current Porsche 911 GT3.That should be enough to knock its 0-62mph time back from 3.8sec to a traction-limited 3.6sec.
Top speed is unlikely to increase from the current 193mph, because Moers is keen to equip the car with considerable downforce, even at the expense of extra drag. AMG now employs an entire department of aerodynamicists for the first time in its history.
The new car will also receive wider front and rear tracks to boost mechanical grip. The entire package should cut 10 or more seconds off the GT’s Nürburgring lap time, which currently stands at 7min 30sec with the car using, as Moers put it, “standard tyres, not special compounds designed to last just a few laps”.
Mercedes says the GT "forms the ideal basis on which to model the new Mercedes-AMG GT3."
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