While there’s plenty of technological innovation and engineering achievements on display at NAIAS 2017, there’s a distinct shortage of visceral excitement across many of the automakers showing off their wares. It’s a sign of the times, but car lovers looking for cool and sexy are adrift in a sea of electric and economical.
Fortunately, Mercedes-AMG was on hand to offer an island oasis of impractical and irresponsible speed and power to celebrate their 50th anniversary. As the official sport tuning house of Mercedes-Benz, AMG takes already refined luxury machines and makes them a bit more spirited. There’s plenty of spirit onboard for both of Mercedes-AMG offerings here in Detroit.
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Mercedes-AMG will extend the AMG GT family of sports cars this year with the new GT C Coupe, which joins the AMG GT C Roadster as this show’s big debuts. Pay attention because this gets a little complicated: The CT C Coupe parks between the AMG GT S and AMG GT R in the Mercedes-AMG line. The new sports car will initially be available exclusively as a special Edition 50 model, but it could survive in the line beyond this 50th anniversary.
All new 2018 models in the AMG GT family will now have the AMG Panamericana Grille with 15 chrome-plated vertical bars. The AMG GT versions also sport the special AIRPANEL active air management system. Vertical louvers in the bottom of the front bumper are opened and closed by AI and an electric motor in about one second to control engine cooling.
Since Mercedes-AMG step away from the Benz model of dignity and poise, they need to be powerful and make a nice noise. So, the company is reshaping the range the output of the 4.0 liter V8 biturbo engine in the AMG GT.
The entry-level model will now put out 469 horsepower (13 more than before). The output from the GT S grows by 12 horsepower to 515. The GT C variants of the Coupe and Roadster offer 550 horsepower, and the top of the line AMG GT R serves up 577.
