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Mercedes-AMG GT:: Australia to get three variants, New ‘Black Series’ also rumoured


  • Local AMG GT range to expand to three models
  • Black Series name to return with new R-topping GT variant
  • AMG GT Roadster in the works

Mercedes-Benz Australia will expand its range of flagship Mercedes-AMG GT range from one variant to three in the coming 12 months, with its current GT S to be joined by the 'regular' GT and just-debuted GT R variants.

Mercedes-Benz Australia Senior PR Manager David McCarthy confirmed that the new-for-Oz GT will arrive in the fourth quarter this year. Its 4.0 twin-turbocharged V8 is expected to maintain the 350kW/600Nm currently available in overseas markets, undercutting the 375kW/650Nm of the GT S version already available here.

Pricing for the base GT is said to be “around $40K less than the GT S,” McCarthy says, or around $255,000 - comparable in price to Porsche’s 911 Carrera S. It’s expected to represent around 10 per cent of total GT sales beyond its launch.

The 430kW/700Nm GT R unveiled earlier this weekend and confirmed for July 2017 release won’t go into production until September this year. And while final Australian specification is far from signed-off, it’s expected to land locally at around $400k, or around $100k more than where the GT S currently sits.

GT Black Series rumours confirmed

It looks as though Mercedes-AMG won’t halt GT’s spiraling performance potential with the ‘R.

Speaking at the world premier of the GT R at this week's Goodwood Festival of Speed in Brooklands, England, Mercedes-AMG chairman Tobias Moers (pictured top of article with F1 driver Lewis Hamilton) fuelled rumours of an even more ferocious GT iteration in the works.

“We’re not done with Black Edition (branding) yet,” he suggested, contradicting current thought that ‘R’ is the new nomenclature replacing ‘Black Edition’.

Above: the Black Series variant of the previous SLG AMG range

Further, Moers’ massage was echoed by McCarthy, who confirms that “the R designation is not a replacement for Black Edition”.

When asked whether the ‘R’ naming suffix would make it onto other Mercedes-AMG model lines, McCarthy suggests that the degree of motorsport-bred enhancement in the GT R wouldn’t translate easily to humbler, more volume-oriented Mercedes-AMG model lines.

“But there is the forthcoming roadster version of the GT,” McCarthy adds, suggesting a possible race-inspired drop-top GT variant.

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