AMG GT R - Der Tag

Housey

Housey

Housey

Man of Honour
Joined
21 Feb 2006
Posts
29,478
I am sitting here like an excited little boy, which at 53 is a rare feeling these days. My new car is on the trailer and due to arrive around 10am. We live for these days as petrol heads. As I did with my last car I thought I would do an ownership thread and try to keep it up to date when events occur.

Some exterior shots taken from the dealers website.
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Some interior shots
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The car is a 2 owner car, with the current dealer being the second owner. It has been a dry weather car and is in incredible condition for the videos and vast collection of images I have seen, many of which I have not shared here. I have been watching this particular car for some weeks now and bid them on Friday last week and did the deal. It is heavily optioned up and the only things missing, which I am not bothered about is carbon fibre packs inside and out and that is fine with me as it costs big to replace and I am over carbon fibre trim, which my R8 had all over it,

I will add to this thread as I go but this is the starting point. Now for more coffee, to insure it and then to wait some more for it to arrive....
 
Joe T said:
Quite a machine.

Is the dealer using it for personal purposes then? :)
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The dealer has been exceptional, a proper petrol head with his own track car as well. The car has been sitting under cover since August and has not moved and it was dry use only up to that point, I have many pictures of the underside (a work of art!). I will of course address that lack of use shortly. He was keen to move the car on so he could release funding for other cars, they are a small new partnership and have been an absolute pleasure to deal with and I would heartily recommend them.
 
pugheaven said:
That is gorgeous. I've never in my life been a merc fan other than this particular car which is simply stunning design and hits all my check boxes. Very very very nice purchase mate and really chuffed for you. Looks amazing condition, beautiful and I don't use them words often with cars and never for a Merc! That front end and the side profile of these things are stunning!:cool::cool::cool:
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Thanks.

Even though I already have a Mercedes E Class for daily duties, I have never really been a Mercedes kind of guy. I never expected to buy one of these, thinking it was likely McLaren or Porsche to replace my R8 but then I borrowed one and all that changed. It isn't as 'feelsome' as a GT3 or McLaren but I need to appreciate I am 53 years old now. My use profile is long trips to Europe with friends for some Ring/Spa laps, posing and making some noise, running top speed on autobahns and back home. I want different things from a car and this felt special and mad fast and a me sort of car. So I watched the market, found a car, kept my eye on it and pushed the button.

Time will tell if I made the right call.
 
So popped back home for loo break. First impressions are it needs respect and is somewhat more rapid than my R8. The torque is massively more and the sound in sport plus is naughty, very naughty. On a nice dry road with tyres warm rather than wet it feels planted but I’m so far off it’s limit at present that’s more gut feel.

Nice to be sitting in and not on a car again. Superb driving position and the buckets are superb so far. Brakes are immense but this is all first impressions. Need to drive it more but already had people coming up to me at Shell garage.
 
Thanks for the positive comments guys and gals. Just an excited petrol head with a new toy. It never really matters what the car is really. New toys can be 2cv to Chiron and it doesn’t matter.
 
Not convinced by the Burmeister hifi. Bose system in the R8 slaughters it but outside of that Merc wins. Sharper, faster, even noisier, road presence. I can see how this is so quick on track, very sharp and easy.
 
TomO said:
some of it can be how its setup / what you are used to hearing. I test drove a M6 GC with the optional B&O system and thought it sound muddled and was very underwhelmed, someone had really messed around with the EQ settings but even with trying to change those I wasn't impressed.
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Tidal. It’s fairly basic sound settings too. Base, middle and treble with surround on or off.
 
Chris1712 said:
That, is a significant driveway.
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To enter my place you have to come in via a well hidden 11th century church and it's (not 11th century) car park. The car was unloaded there for ease and then it's 200 yards to my drive via the entry road. I don't have a massive house (though we must keep the castle story going) but I do live in a great location.
 
So my first day impressions are as follows...It loves to drink!

I have done a tank and a quarter of fuel today not really going anywhere. V8's are always thirsty and this is no different. The biggest difference over the R8 is power anywhere. The R8, being a V10 NA needed revs and lots to get it going. Get it in the range (or on cam in olden days terms) and it pulled hard and kept pulling, but put the throttle down low down and it took time to get going in higher gears. This car just pulls in any gear at pretty much any revs, it really is a monstrous engine.

I have not really used the brakes hard but their feel is superb and I suspect they will also provide monstrous stopping power. They are there in an instant when you call for them and provide a nicer feel than the R8's ceramics, which were also incredible at hauling the car to a stop when I first got the car. The ride is fair in comfort and seems to soften things out well for a car like this. Never smooth it is however usable daily if you have experience of cars like this. The stiffer settings are really for billiard table smooth surfaces and the comfort damper setting is better for most roads.

The DCT gearbox is fast and smooth and snaps the gears in when in Sport + or Race mode. In comfort it is lovely and smooth, just like the R8 was, and gear changes just happen with no fuss or fanfare. Open the baffles on the exhaust however and it becomes an absolute animal with massive cracks and bangs are lift off and when changing down. Very naughty and smile inducing. I found myself, like I did in the R8, putting the gearbox into manual mode and changing using the paddles. Again like the R8 it won't change up if you hit the limiter, just kills the power like a manual car.

I have pushed it a little but nothing serious. I will be taking it to Spa and the Ring in the coming months (when allowed) and have Spa and the Ring booked for closed sessions in May, but likely to push to June in current climate. The steering is incredibly sharp and I can see how this car can pull serious lap times. On this front it is a different league to the R8, just much sharper on the nose.

Dislikes are the HiFi which is average, slow speed (5mph moving around type speeds) full lock is proving to give me some shove like my R8/RS4 did, tyre slipping and that I will investigate as "they all do that mate" is not acceptable, think that can be dialled out with pressures/camber. When up to temp, for a little bit today, I can confirm the cups are superb. However, get the damp or mucky roads and the back does like to move around, though I have not found that lairy at all really...so far. It seems to wiggle, settle in and go. Few rattles (all minor, such as harness on roll cage) and need to set up some of the media stuff, but so far I am loving it.
 
Bear said:
With respect to the Burmester sound system, are you playing it over Bluetooth or a wired connection? If it’s Bluetooth, try using a wired connection as I’ve seen reviews saying Bluetooth connections are disappointing.

I’m always surprised how good the throttle response is for a turbo engine on those v8s
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Thanks I’ll give that a try
 
On the harness question I’m using the normal belts and have the full harness out until I track it. Easy to put in and out.
 
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