It is christened the ‘the Beast of Green Hell’ for lapping the notorious Nurburging in an impressive 7:10.92 seconds. It was the fastest car around the ‘Ring at the time and still maintains a ninth position on the leader board. A successor to the iconic SLS, this is the Mercedes-Benz AMG GT R. And the updated version is launched in India for a price of Rs 2.48 crore (ex-showroom). Let us dive deeper and take a look at what makes the GT R the beast that it is.
Engine
Sitting under its long hood is a twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 punching out 577bhp and a twisting force of 700Nm. This ‘hot V8’ motor has proven itself in its long line of duty and now powers almost the entire AMG line-up. The turbo boost is pumped up to 1.35 bar over 1.2 bar in the standard AMG GT and the compression ratio is optimised as well. Of course, there are the complex engine control electronics too which keeps a leash on all the 577 horses.
For cooling duties, AMG uses indirect air-to-water intercooling with separate two-stage water circuit. Moreover, the precise piezo injectors can spray the fuel at high pressure of up to 200 bar. Mercedes also makes use of Nanoslide coating on the aluminium crankcase which is sourced from their Formula 1 team. Rounding off the pack is AMG performance exhaust which lends the GT R its sonorous and throaty growl.
And since this is an AMG, each engine is built at Affalterbach on the ‘One Man - One Engine’ philosophy.
Transmission
The raw power is sent to rear wheels channelled through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. This gearbox is configured in the transaxle and the modified hardware/software is tuned for a racetrack, claims the carmaker. The first gear in this AMG Speedshift DCT transmission has a longer ratio, while seventh gear and the final drive have shorter ratios to allow a more agile acceleration.
Drivetrain
With the engine sitting between the front axle and the driver, the AMG GT R gets a host of equipment to prevent the driver from ending up in barriers after a little enthusiastic driving. This long list of hardware includes four-wheel steering for better agility, three-stage adaptive damper settings, AMG-spec coil-over suspension, electronically controlled rear-axle locking differential, speed-sensitive steering, and high-performance brakes. Also part of the package is AMG’s Traction Control system which is derived from the GT3 race car.
