The Mercedes-AMG GT 4 Door Just Nabbed A Niche 'Ring Record From The Porsche Panamera
The wording of Nurburgring records is becoming increasingly important. With Porsche having claimed what it called the “fastest executive car” lap record with the new Panamera Turbo S, Mercedes has gone two seconds faster with the AMG GT 4 Door.
With this 7min 27.8 effort from AMG development engineer Demian Schaffert, Mercedes is calling dibs on ostensibly the same thing, although it’s referred to by the company as the best “luxury class” time. Previously, the GT 4 Door was said to be the “fastest four-seater”.
The reason for all the wordplay shenanigans? That pesky Jaguar XE SV Project 8. Mercedes can’t lay claim to having the fastest four-door or saloon car record, and not just because the GT ‘4 Door’ is technically a five-door hatch, but because the Jag is significantly faster around the Nordschleife. In two-seater Track Pack guise, the car improved upon its already blisteringly fast time by 2.9 seconds last year, going around in 7min 18.361sec.
Semantics aside, the GT 4 door’s feat is an impressive one, particularly given the conditions at the time of the run, which are described as “anything but optimal”. The ambient temperature was seven degrees Celsius, with the tarmac only a few degrees warmer. There were even damp patches dotted around the track, something that wouldn’t have gone together all that well with the car’s dry-biased Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres. The lap was timed by a German company called Wige Solutions, and certified by an “independent notary,” Mercedes says.
It also looks to have been filmed very late in the day, and sure enough, in an analysis by Nurburgring local Misha Charoudin (above), we’re told the lap was set just after 16:00 on 4 November, within an hour of sunset. Given the less than ideal setting for the attempt, he reckons the car could easily go a few seconds faster.
We’re expecting this to be something of a warm-up for the main event - a new production car lap record set by the AMG GT Black Series, which Charoudin estimated to have set a 6min 43sec lap.
Watch this space.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
I don’t think that they needed to do this. The AMG GT 4-Door was introduced in 2018, so people looking for one already probably have one. Additionally, the majority of people who own these cars don’t have the skill to drive anywhere near this fast or a need to (The majority of them either want the luxury or the badge). I believe that they should just focus on the AMG GT Black Series lap which is the one that everybody wants to see.
As with most performance car owners it isn’t a matter of actually taking your car to ten tenths as much as it is knowing what your car is capable of if you did.
Just imagine the following at the pub on a friday night:
Guy 1 “My car hits 100 in just 5.6 seconds and laps the Nurburgring in less than 8 minutes!!!”
Guy 2 “But have you ever done that?”
Guy 1 “Ummm, no… but I could if I wanted to!”
Or something to that effect.
How about produce some luxury cars with actual luxury instead of stiff seats that satisfy journalists need for “sporty”
It’s not journalists who are asking for sportiness at the expense of comfort - quite the opposite in my experience. The blame can probably be left at the door of the marketing office…