Devil’s Advocate: In a Fight with the 911, the AMG GT Will Lose
Yes, the SLR McLaren was a solid supercar contender, but that was only thanks to the input of McLaren, and the current SLS is a mightily powerful thing, but it really can’t hold much of a candle to most of its peers from Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche. It is fast, but it’s a hammer in a world of supercar scalpels. I hate to see it go, but to me it makes sense to see Mercedes kill it off.
That long-hood and short-haunches design is not completely dead though, as Mercedes is prepping a smaller version of the car dubbed the Mercedes-AMG GT. The GT is a smaller and more agile sports car that has instantly ended up being paired against the king of Stuttgart, the Porsche 911, along with other “911 fighters” like Jaguar’s F-Type and Aston Martin’s V8 Vantage.
I’m left wondering why Mercedes even cares about this segment.
On average, Porsche is only selling 10,000 or so 911’s every year, and that is worldwide. Meanwhile, Jaguar peddled fewer than 2,500 F-Types on American shores. Flip that coin completely over, and Mercedes-Benz managed to pass off more than 330,000 cars … in the U.S. alone. Why in the hell does Mercedes need to have a competitor in the “911 segment”?
With cars like the SL, SLK and every single AMG model in the lineup, Merc isn’t hurting for performance.
The 911 is a special car with a particular following, and the F-Type was created to build on the nostalgia of a car that is four decades old now. If Mercedes thinks it can swipe buyers from those nameplates, the company must have served tea and LSD for breakfast at the last planning meeting.
Don’t get me wrong, the GT is incredibly cool and I do look forward to driving one. I mean, have you seen the spy shots and renders of this thing? It looks just like the bonkers SLS, but with a lower weight and tauter handling, it could be even more incredible to drive.
Now, I will never fault any company—especially the gurus at Mercedes and AMG—for making more sports cars, but as a competitor to the rear-engine marvel from Porsche, I think the GT is doomed to fail at its task.
Concept Sketch by Josh Bowles Design
