Mercedes-AMG GT43

A £105k GT with an engine we're more used to finding in a hot hatch? Could it possibly work?

- by SAM JENKINS

TO THOSE NOT IN THE KNOW, THIS CAR appears to be nothing less than an out-and-out super-GT, with enough V8-fuelled performance to bother a supercar, and a six-figure price tag to put it out of reach for most. In fact, only the last of those is true about the AMG GT43, for while it costs from £105,435, it borrows its powertrain from a hot hatch.

Of course, it's not unheard of for engines to be shared between models at various price points, but there’s no power increase here to help justify the £40,000 price difference between the GT43 and its A45 S relative. Output from its 2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder stands at an identical 415bhp to the hot hatch, and with power going to the rear wheels alone there's a significant traction disadvantage too - a 4.6sec 0-62mph time puts it a whole seven-tenths behind its more accessible, 4Matic+ counterpart. Its 174mph top speed is only 6mph ahead too.

It's not just the hit to mechanical grip that hurts the GT43 on paper. At 1715kg It weighs 110kg more than the A45, giving it a 246bhp per ton power-to-weight ratio, 17 points down on the hot hatch. If you'd prefer a coupe comparison, it also lags 13bhp per ton behind the Porsche 718 Cayman S. Although at least the AMG engine has more going for it than Porsche's insufferably coarse four-cylinder.