The Mercedes-AMG GT might be the talk of the town right now in Affalterbach, but the word on the Straße is that there’s an even badder Benz in the pipeline. Speaking at the Detroit auto show, AMG head honcho Tobias Moers hinted that a Porsche 918-fighting hypercar is on the horizon.
In a conversation with Motor Trend‘s Jonny Lieberman, Moers responded to questions about whether AMG is readying its entry into the hypercar fray. “We want to be seen by the public on the same level as the other sports car makers in Germany,” he said. If the recent resurgence of the Maybach nameplate takes some of the luxury reins from AMG’s hands, allowing it to focus more on performance, Moers has a shot to “Make race car technology street-legal.”
While AMG’s top-dog AMG GT seems like a possible candidate for hybrid upgrade, it’s not as easy as slapping on some electric motors. Part of what makes the Porsche 918 rocket to 60 mph from a dead stop is its mid-engine, all-wheel-drive layout, and there are some complications with turning the front-engine AMG GT into an all-wheel-drive car. That’s not to say though that there isn’t more muscle to coax out of the swept-back German showstopper—we already know there’s a Black Series Mercedes-AMG GT lurking behind closed doors. When it arrives, the Black Series could pack as much as 600 hp from the GT’s 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8, compared to the 503 hp available in the Mercedes-AMG GT S. There’s also the potential for more AMG GT variants, if Moers chooses to follow in the footsteps of the Porsche 911 with track-ready and convertible options.
If there does end up being a Mercedes-AMG hybrid hypercar to slot in above the GT, there’s a fighting chance it’ll inherit some of the best features from the now-defunct Mercedes SLS. That means, yes, Gullwing doors, and high-powered electric propulsion technology that might be related to the 740-hp EV powertrain from the SLS Electric drive.
Look for a heavily-clad mule carving up the Nürburgring sometime within the next few years.
