The Green Schnell

It’s conquered the ’Ring. So how well will the sportified AMG GT R handle Portimão?

- Ollie Marriage

Intimidation, it turns out, is green. And wide, loud, long of bonnet, short of temper, fat of tyre and hairy of arse. Yes, the AMG GTR is a supercar. It conforms to all the tropes except the one that demands the engine should be behind the driver.

So here it is on a track, creating balls-out smoky mayhem, thrashing a set of Michelin’s finest, the vapourised remains of which are filling my nostrils and fugging the cockpit. It’s up for a spot of bad behaviour, the GTR. Which ought to come as no surprise. Ladies and gentlemen, we have surely reached peak AMG.

But apparently we haven’t. Merc is keen to point out that this is actually a precise track machine. Fast laps, rather than smoky ones, are what it is designed for. It proved this recently by getting around the Nordschleife in 7:10 – ahead of a Viper ACR, Lexus LFA Nürburgring and Ferrari 488 GTB. And that’s before we get started on the really exotic stuff such as a Pagani Zonda F Clubsport or Gumpert Apollo Speed.

So what’s the truth here? Where does the GTR fit into the supercar hierarchy? And what sort of machine is it? A track-focused 911 GT3 RS rival or something with more bandwidth? We’ve got to grips with the standard AMG GT, and I find it a bit of a handful. It’s a snatchy, fighty car on a bumpy road, and the margin for error, between quick, direct steering and lively back axle, is small. But a few months ago, I had a passenger ride in the GTR alongside AMG boss Tobias Moers, and came away sensing it was more approachable and had a bigger sweet spot than the standard car.