You know how in cowboy movies they say "This town ain't big enough for the both of us"… or was that a Bugs Bunny movie? Regardless, two of the biggest German car-building egos in the world seem to have outgrown the city of Stuttgart and Mercedes has drawn first blood with a new commercial for the AMG GT.
At first, the ad seems perfectly innocent, showing a kid waking up in the middle of a nightmare to realize his dream car isn't as good as the new AMG GT rocket. However, if you look closely enough, you may notice little bits of the Porsche 911 in some of the shots.
The AMG GT is about a quarter cheaper than the SLS AMG, a car it replaced. Why? Because Mercedes wanted a slice of the 911 action. Oh sure, sportscars don't sell as well as SUVs and they won't make much money, but the notoriety of having a "911 killer" in your arsenal is priceless.
We need to remind you that even though they are rivals, the GT and the 911 have almost nothing in common. In fact, the 911 has never actually had a direct rival in its whole life. Instead of copying the rear-engined formula, Mercedes has created the grand tourer for the 21st century, with a long hood, modern tech and a turbocharged engine.
Behind the sexy aluminum body bits and the yellow paint is the heart of a monster, a 4-liter twin-turbo that's eventually going to be available with two outputs. The base unit packs 462 PS and 600 Nm and gets you to 100 km/h in 4 seconds. For now though, you can only order the GT S with a 510 PS (375 kW) and 650 Nm (479 lb-ft) of torque.
That's about 50% more torque than a Porsche 911 GTS for the same sort of money. The Stuttgart cold war just got hot! On that thought, we leave you with a question: is the new Mercedes sportscar a #dreamcar or a #wannabe?
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News