Most In A Shell

Mercedes ups the ante with the new GT and GT C Roadster

- Bertrand D'souza

Now I could either start this review with a pop…crackle…bang, which’s the note the exhaust throws up on the overdraft. It spits and burbles, and it is at its sweetest when you activate the baffles that raise the decibel level on that exhaust note. Or I could simply start off this review with the legacy of the AMG GT and how MercedesAMG have now given their sportscar brand a fourth and fifth dimension as a Roadster, with the GT and GT C trims. Obviously, the former sounds like more fun, no? But here’s the thing, the car is a Grand Tourer and keeping with the spirit of being a roadster you keep the top down and cruise, and that sort of motoring suits a country like the USA. That, however, also means things are not going to get very fast simply because in this land there are innumerably more straights than there are twisties, majorly restricted speed, so dynamic and visceral are probably two things you won’t hear in my story. In fact, at points on our drive, especially the bits involving the interstate, things got so downright boring that we yawned and then some more. In a GT that sounds absurd but the expanse of North America in hindsight simply isn’t the backdrop for a car like this. Europe would have been much better.

The AMG GT Roadster, however, couldn’t care less about what the backdrop is. It has an aura about it that just couldn’t care! It’s the poster boy for the bad boys’ club, the muscle car rep from across the Atlantic to stand up against the Americans. The GT Roadster does not appear to be aggressive in its images, but in the flesh to see it come around a corner, it’s a beast. The GT Roadster’s stance is low slung. Its slightly longer width compared to the base GT and the low ground clearance give it an immensely well-planted footprint. The GT Roadster appears to cling to the road at all times, and it is in my mind its most appealing visual recall.