Second coming of the Porsche 911 pretender promises the same plus a bit extra
MATT SAUNDERS @thedarkstormy1
TESTED 13.5.24, OXFORDSHIRE ON SALE NOW
Confirmation bias must be something that car makers account for when they’re doing their market research, mustn’t it? In press material for new cars like this Mercedes-AMG GT and so many others, the feedback from owners of the outgoing model is treated with gospel reverence. “We kept everything they liked but also addressed every absence or failing they identified,” we’re told. But little is said about the opinions and feedback of others.
What about David, 59, from East Sussex, for instance? David liked the look of the original GT, but after scaring himself paler than the cream of his favourite cotton slacks when he opened up the taps on a slightly bumpy and damp B-road during a test drive, he duly decided that another Porsche 911 was in order. David didn’t buy a GT, then, and I wonder if that makes his opinion mute – as it very often is made when it comes to ‘discretionarily bought’ sports cars especially. His is the money that Mercedes should be bidding for, surely? But because banking on the deposit of someone who has a track record of actually handing it over is a much safer bet, that’s what car makers so often seem to do.
This second generation of Mercedes’ range-topping super-sports coupé feels like it could have done with a bit more confirmation-bias adjustment. It significantly differs from the original model in several quite fundamental ways – and yet to drive, not so much.
Mercedes decided to marry up development of the C192-generation GT with that of the R232-generation SL roadster. While the two therefore share a cabin architecture, interior fittings, engines and a spaceframe chassis, you might imagine that the company would have designed and defined them quite differently from each other so as to cover the biggest possible sports car market territory. But they didn’t. The SL sprouted a pair of occasional rear seats and part-time four-wheel drive so that it could be made more usable than before, as well as firmer AMG suspension tuning so that it felt sportier. And the GT did much the same. Its old two-seat, rear-drive concept has been dispensed with, the 4Matic+ system has been added to all models and the better part of a foot has been added to its length, along with around 250kg of kerb weight – and that’s without counting all the electrification gubbins of the new range-topping, 804bhp, GT 63 S E Performance plu
