Mercedes-AMG Teases New 600bhp+ Four-Door Sports Car

Mercedes is about to preview a four-door AMG GT concept at Geneva. The idea is that the production car, which will cough up more than 600bhp, will replace the beautiful CLS Shooting Brake.

It’s slated for production by 2019, after AMG has finished meddling with its upcoming F1-derived hypercar. After all, why bother going into F1 if you can’t step up your road car game? The new car would take Mercedes up another notch at the top end of its range, aiming squarely at the Porsche Panamera and Audi RS7.

According to Autocar, Mercedes has been toying with the idea of a four-door super-saloon since 2012, at which time the company was thinking about a long-wheelbase SLS AMG that used the standard two gullwing doors in front of two small, conventionally-hinged rear doors. That would have been weird.

The current plans would base the four-door Mercedes-AMG GT on the same modular platform as the C, E and S classes, with plenty of lightweight materials keeping flab down as far as possible. The engine would be a new evolution of bombastic 4.0-litre V8 we already know and love. Power is going to have to top the 603bhp of the E 63 S, so watch this space for more on that.

This will be the third model engineered and built solely by AMG since the company was further integrated into Mercedes a couple of years ago.

There’s even a mild hybrid drivetrain in development, where a small battery and electric motor combo could add performance over short blasts as well as providing instant start-up, allowing Mercedes to bin the old starter motor concept.

We’re not sure about the styling but it’s not likely to stay. It sounds like a bit of a weapon as a grand tourer, and we’ll hopefully find out more at Geneva this week.