2019 Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe First Look

The Mercedes-AMG GT S is a truly fantastic car. It looks great, the interior is gorgeous, and if you drive it hard, it’ll leave you grinning like an idiot for days. Leave the race track behind, and the GT S will also devour long stretches of highway like nobody’s business. If you need a back seat, though, you’re out of luck. The GT S is a true two-seater. At least you used to be out of luck. If Mercedes-AMG is to be believed, the new GT 4-Door Coupe is a legitimate four-door sports car.

Design-wise, the GT 4-Door Coupe looks more like the new CLS than the coupe it shares a name with, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The redesigned CLS is a good looking car, and AMG’s designers did a great job of making sure the four-door GT looks like a proper AMG. Even with unique headlights, a stretched cabin, and a proportionally shorter hood, no one is going to mistake this sedan for a run-of-the-mill Mercedes. Even better, the four-door GT retains the original GT’s rear hatch for an added dose of practicality.

Inside, it’s a similar story. The four-door GT’s cabin borrows lots of styling from other modern Mercedes sedans, but it does get a few unique design cues. The wide center console, for example, looks like an updated version of the one found in the original GT coupe. Depending on which package buyers choose, the four-door GT’s interior can either look like a luxury sedan with its quilted leather and wood trim, or it can double down on the sportiness with carbon fiber trim, yellow seatbelts, contrast stitching, and sports seats. European buyers will have the option of a four-passenger or five-passenger version, but in the U.S., only the four-seat configuration will be available.

For most buyers, the four-door GT’s performance will likely be the most important factor, and at least on paper, AMG definitely delivers. All versions get torque-vectoring all-wheel drive and a nine-speed AMG automatic transmission, and there are three different levels of power.

The base version, the GT 53, gets a turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six good for 429 hp and 384 lb-ft of torque. Like the CLS 53, the GT 53 uses a mild hybrid system that contributes 21 hp and 184 lb-ft of torque, allowing it to hit 60 mph in an estimated 4.4 seconds. Step up to the mid-level GT 63, and the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 makes 577 hp and 553 lb-ft of torque, good for a 3.3-second run to 60 mph, according to AMG. The GT 63 S tops the lineup with 630 hp and 627 lb-ft of torque from the same V-8. It’s also the quickest of the three, needing only 3.1 seconds to hit 60 mph. Keep going, and the GT 63 S has a top speed of 195 mph, 21 mph faster than the GT 53’s max of 174 mph.

To make sure the four-door GT could hold its own on a race track, AMG says it engineered an exceptionally stiff chassis, even using a rear anti-roll bar from the GT R. The six-cylinder version uses steel springs and adaptive dampers, and the V-8s get AMG’s multi-chamber air suspension for even sportier handling. The all-wheel-drive system is rear-biased, and on the GT 63 S, it even includes a standard drift mode that completely disengages the front wheels. Drift mode is also available as an option on the regular GT 63. Both 63s come standard with a limited-slip differential and rear-wheel steering, as well.

For even better handling, AMG gave the GT an active aero package. Up front, engineers borrowed the GT R’s electronically controlled louvers to manage airflow, while a multi-stage rear spoiler adjusts itself depending on how the car is being driven. In a straight line, the spoiler lowers to minimize wind resistance, but in a corner, it raises to increase downforce and improve handling.

No information on pricing is available at the moment, but expect Mercedes to announce that closer to the GT’s on-sale date. For the GT 63 and 63 S, that’s scheduled to be early next year, with the GT 53 not going on sale until mid-2019.

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