Devastatingly handsome in its own right, the GT’s design tells a bigger story than the official one about emotional tension and muscular proportions. It pretty much looks like an SLS at the front and a wannabe Porsche at the rear, meaning it’s a synthesis of design DNA that properly reflects the spirit of the car.
The bodywork is by no means “wrapped around the mechanicals,” a phrase we hear issuing from the mouths of so many designers. Open the long hood and you’ll find what appears to be a plastic engine cover. Unclip this and you’ll discover it shields nothing more than the coolant reservoir and expansion tank. The twin-turbocharged V-8 is so compact that it sits several inches aft of the axle line, well behind this faux shroud. Mercedes could have easily made the GT a couple of feet shorter, but it presumably didn’t want it to look underendowed next to the grandly phallic SLS AMG.
The Mercedes GT S is resplendent in $9900 worth of yellow paint. Or you could pay only $3950 for matte-silver paint, if that's your thing.
And despite being nearly $100,000 cheaper than the recently retired SLS, the GT S is no poor relation. In addition to being the quickest car in this test across the board, it also outsprints the SLS. In our testing, we recorded a blistering 3.0-second zero-to-60 time, two-tenths quicker than even the megapriced SLS AMG Black Series. Both cars manage identical 11.2-second quarter-miles.
The GT S’s cabin feels better finished and better equipped than the SLS’s ever did, and the hatchback rear makes it vastly more practical. Other than the gullwing doors, you’re really not missing much. But can it deliver on the other part of its mission, to beat the 911? In terms of raw firepower, absolutely. The V-8 is definitely the most charismatic engine here, rumbling like a straight-piped brodozer at low speeds, then delivering some proper thunder when worked hard. It pulls cleanly and without lag, and although it might lack some low-down enthusiasm compared with the compressor-fed F-type, it revs higher and more relentlessly. It even pulls hard beyond 6600 rpm, where the Jaguar calls time.
The AMG’s dual-clutch gearbox isn’t as refined as the 911’s PDK, with some noticeable clunks as it shuffles between first and second at low speed. But with one of the more aggressive drive programs selected through the rotary controller—which cycles through individual, comfort, sport, sport-plus, and race modes—gearchanges become brutally fast and accompanied by a head-bobbing torque bump that makes them feel even quicker.
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