Quick Drive: 2017 Mercedes-AMG GT S at the Circuit of the Americas
MBWorld.org gets behind the wheel of the Mercedes-AMG sports car at the Texas Auto Writers Association’s Texas Auto Roundup.
I’m going to die.
That’s the thought that went through my mind over and over again as I rode shotgun during a hot lap around the Circuit of Americas (COTA) in a silver Mercedes-AMG GT S. It was the day before I would get a chance to drive the car myself during the Texas Auto Writers Association’s Texas Auto Roundup, a two-day event in which the manufacturers of sports cars, sedans, and crossovers compete for a variety of titles awarded by automotive journalists from the Lone Star State and beyond. The top prizes for this year’s competition were Car of Texas, Family Car of Texas, and Performance Car of Texas.
I showed up the day before the roundup began to take in the sights and sounds of the Advance Auto Parts Sportscar Showdown, part of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Out of the blue, I was invited to go for a hot lap in a GT S. Shortly after shaking hands with AJ, a professional driver, we roared off the line. As he flung the coupe into curves and charged down straights, my brain’s panic fought its logic. Part of it knew I would emerge from the car motion sick but unbroken. Another part of it thought that with every foot of trail braking, every muscling of the wheel, every degree of wheel slip, AJ was tempting fate. Surely it would tire of his scoffing at its powers, gnash its teeth, and slam us into a wall.
It didn’t.
AJ was as skilled as he was aggressive. He continued to taunt our collective mortality for all of COTA’s 3.4 miles, a smile on his face as he effortlessly jiggled my brain inside of my skull with his hands and right foot. My belt tightened with each stomp of the brakes to set up for the track’s numerous tight turns. AJ would look over at me to gauge my level of excitement. He was never satisfied with what he saw. He gave the GT S more gas, kicking its back end out again and again. At the end of the course, I emerged from the GT S with a woozy smile on my face and my stomach mashed against the bottom of my heart.
The next day, it was my turn to drive a red GT S. Instead of going flat out around COTA, my fellow 51 journalists and I took each of the 42 vehicles at the venue through a series of driving exercises set up at various points along the track to keep speeds down and body panels straight. Those included a slalom course, a 0-60 mph run, a chicane, and, of course, plenty of curves and turns.
It only took me one sharp left in the GT S to have an epiphany: Stats aren’t everything. My life as an automotive journalist changed. Going into the roundup, I knew the GT S would be there. I knew there would be long lines of people waiting to drive it. I knew unleashing its twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8’s 503 horsepower and 479 lb-ft of torque would be a g-filled experience.
What I didn’t know was that none of those things would be my favorite part of the GT S. I had no idea that I wouldn’t be able to shut up about its steering.
With a Mercedes-AMG representative riding next to me, I thundered out of pit lane and blasted up the tarmac toward the first turn, a tight left-hander. In other cars, I felt myself having to firmly rotate the wheel in that direction to keep from going off track. In the GT S, the wheel eased left at the perfect moment, the ideal speed. It was as if the power steering fluid had become sentient and capable of sensing my desires. The steering system’s immediate and intuitive responses were almost unsettling.
Almost.
They were also addictive. The second day of the event, I took the GT S out for a road drive around the grounds of COTA, curious if the eye-opening moment of the previous day was just a fluke or a moment of hysteria brought on by two nights of poor sleep. It was neither of those things. The turn in was magical every time I moved the wheel. I didn’t see the GT S’s window sticker, but based on its full Dinamica steering wheel, I’m forced to assume it was equipped with the optional AMG Dynamic Plus Package, which also adds dynamic engine and transmission mounts, a widened power band, sharper steering, and more negative front-wheel camber. It didn’t matter if I jinked right or cut left, the result was the same: a smile that soon formed a shouted four-letter word for how much I was enjoying the drive. Rough spots in the pavement and manhole covers did nothing to upset the ride quality or my spirits.
Despite the number of times I thought I was going to die in a GT S at COTA, I didn’t. In fact, I lived through a career-changing discovery in one. Perhaps my colleagues did the same thing. The 2017 Mercedes-AMG GT S ended up beating the 2017 Nissan GT-R to be named the top Supercar of the roundup and other competitors to be crowned the “Performance Car of Texas.”
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Review and photos: Derek Shiekhi
