Photo: Guido Ten Brink/SB-Medien
What do Belgian surrealist painter Rene Magritte and Mercedes-AMG have in common? Both of them are liars, with Magritte challenging us into thinking a pipe is not a pipe. The three-pointed star, meanwhile, calls the GT 4-Door Coupe as such despite it not having four doors. The truth of the matter is, the X290 has five.
That’s not the sole peculiarity about the GT 4-Door Coupe. Instead of using the AMG-developed platform of the GT Coupe and Roadster, the newcomer is underpinned by the Modular Rear Architecture of the C-Class, E-Class, and CLS. As a consequence, the seven-speed AMG SPeedshift DCT transaxle isn’t offered.
Customers will have to make to with two variations of the 9G-Tronic. For the inline-six engine, dubbed 53, Mercedes-AMG decided to go with the nine-speed Speedshift TCT. V8 models, on the other hand, get the Speedshift MCT, also featuring nine forward gears but ditching the torque converter for a multi-plate clutch.
“So you’re saying there’s not much between the range-topping GT 4-Door Coupe and E63 S 4Matic+?” Not in the least, for differences abound. One bragging right is the rear-wheel-steering system, which should help the AMG-ified liftback sedan handle the corners like it’s on rails. After all, remember that this bad boy benefits from all the technical know-how the mad professors in Affalterbach have to offer.
For the time being, the most potent model has 639 horsepower and 900 Nm (664 pound-feet) of torque to its name. These figures enable an acceleration to 100 km/h (62 mph) in a blistering 3.2 seconds, with the speedometer’s needle stopping at 315 km/h (196 mph) if you can find a road long and straight enough to hit that velocity.
There’s a downtuned V8 and an inline-six also on offer, with all three options married to the automaker’s 4Matic+ system. As it’s the case with the E63 S, the GT 63 S is the one that benefits from Drift Mode as standard. Drift Mode as in rear-wheel-drive.
Customers who want even more AMG-ness from the GT 4-Door Coupe will have to wait until 2019, for that’s when the three-pointed star will bring out a plug-in hybrid drivetrain with output in the ballpark of 800 horsepower.
Customers will have to make to with two variations of the 9G-Tronic. For the inline-six engine, dubbed 53, Mercedes-AMG decided to go with the nine-speed Speedshift TCT. V8 models, on the other hand, get the Speedshift MCT, also featuring nine forward gears but ditching the torque converter for a multi-plate clutch.
“So you’re saying there’s not much between the range-topping GT 4-Door Coupe and E63 S 4Matic+?” Not in the least, for differences abound. One bragging right is the rear-wheel-steering system, which should help the AMG-ified liftback sedan handle the corners like it’s on rails. After all, remember that this bad boy benefits from all the technical know-how the mad professors in Affalterbach have to offer.
For the time being, the most potent model has 639 horsepower and 900 Nm (664 pound-feet) of torque to its name. These figures enable an acceleration to 100 km/h (62 mph) in a blistering 3.2 seconds, with the speedometer’s needle stopping at 315 km/h (196 mph) if you can find a road long and straight enough to hit that velocity.
There’s a downtuned V8 and an inline-six also on offer, with all three options married to the automaker’s 4Matic+ system. As it’s the case with the E63 S, the GT 63 S is the one that benefits from Drift Mode as standard. Drift Mode as in rear-wheel-drive.
Customers who want even more AMG-ness from the GT 4-Door Coupe will have to wait until 2019, for that’s when the three-pointed star will bring out a plug-in hybrid drivetrain with output in the ballpark of 800 horsepower.
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