The Mercedes-Benz AMG GT R is the car everyone seems to be talking about these days. Even the guys from The Grand Tour took a stab at it, Jeremy Clarkson being the one who said it’s not an AMG at all, the first journalist out there to basically give the GT R a thumbs down. Nevertheless, for the first time in the history of the Affalterbach company, they actually made a car that is meant to go fast round a track instead of being a tire slayer.
That’s actually the other way around compared to BMW. Ever since BMW M and Mercedes AMG have started trading blows, the BMW side of things was always the one that was more focused, more engaging to drive at the limit, posting better lap times. At the same time, AMG machines usually have incredible amounts of power and torque while also being on the heavier side of things, with less control on a track.
It looks like things are changing in the AMG head office and the GT R is a proper supercar these days. But then again, does that mean it won’t be as fast in a straight line? Well, you shouldn’t be fooled. Under the hood of the GT R hides a 4-liter V8 with 580 HP and that’s considerably more than what the GT S offers, for example. At the same time, the car it’s going up against in this particular drag race is down on power by quite a lot.
The BMW M4 DTM Champion Edition is a limited run model built to celebrate Marco Wittmann’s number one spot in the DTM at the end of the 2016 season. Only 200 units were ever made and they come with 500 HP and 600 Nm (438 lb-ft) of torque out of the box. They also have a couple of adjustments done to them to help them be faster off the line. Apparently these tricks work as the drag race below was a lot closer than we initially thought it was going to be.
