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Michael Taylor27 Feb 2015
NEWS

GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: Big-bore AMG GT3 confirmed

More pics released and shock engine swap revealed for AMG’s Bathurst 12-Hour challenger

The latest battlefield for Germany’s premium car-makers is also its oldest one, with both Audi and Mercedes-Benz claiming their production racers will set new standards in customer racing.

Not to be outdone, Aston Martin and Lamborghini will also debut their GT3 sports car racers at next week's Geneva motor show, where Porsche will show its most hard-core road-going 911, the new GT3 RS.

Mercedes-Benz has teased its AMG GT3 racer before, with a single dark front-on photo revealing a 300SL-inspired vertical grille and very little else.

Now, though, it has announced the biggest shock of its AMG GT racer. For all AMG’s talk of having a customer race car that is close to the new production GT S Coupe, the two AMGs will have very different engines.

Where the GT S uses AMG’s new, in-house 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, the AMG GT3 will use a development of the older 6.2-litre naturally-aspirated V8 from the SLS GT3.

It does make a slight mockery of one of the cornerstones of the success of the FIA’s GT3 category, though, with one of its leading contenders stepping so far from its production origins.

“User-friendly technology, high reliability, long service intervals, low running costs and high-end speed tipped the scales to use it in the new AMG Customer Sport GT3,” AMG President and CEO Tobias Moers said.

Still, it’s a big call to promote the flexibility, V8 soundtrack and reliability of the all-new 4.0-litre biturbo V8 at the GT launch and then replace the motor in the factory-designed racer a couple of months later. It makes linking any racing successes of the AMG GT3 to the GT and GT S road cars perilously tenuous.

The 4.0-litre biturbo is essentially two of AMG’s hotshot 2.0-litre turbo motors (from the A 45, CLA 45 and GLA 45) stuck together, with the turbochargers nestled inside the 90-degree vee angle.

The much larger 6.2-litre V8 (Benz markets it as a 6.3-litre V8, but it’s 6208cc) is heavier in standard form but has proven itself to be a winner in the SLS GT3.

Where the road-going GT and GT S use a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, the GT3 will use a six-speed racing transmission mounted in a transaxle housing just ahead of the rear axle.

The AMG GT uses the same space-frame aluminium chassis architecture of the GT road car, which Moers insists is both light enough, safe enough and strong enough for racing without alterations.

The standard fit-out includes just one lightweight carbon-fibre racing shell seat, a six-point harness and an integrated, high-strength steel roll cage.

It will carry over the GT’s double-wishbone, alloy suspension, including its radically accurate rear architecture. The brakes, springs, dampers and bushes are all pure racing technology.

“With the new Mercedes-AMG GT3, we start in a highly competitive and crowded field. We are expanding our commitment to motorsport,” Moers said.

“The high technical levels and fair regulations in GT racing motivated us to deliver again. Only he who wins against the top competition makes its leadership claims credible.”

AMG says its factory racers, including five-times DTM champion and Bathurst 12-Hour winner Bernd Schneider, will test the GT3 extensively during 2015, before it is delivered to customer racing teams later in the year.

The AMG GT offered a solid starting point for the race car, Moers insisted, because of its weight distribution and low centre of gravity, which helped it deliver precise steering response, high lateral acceleration, a lot of traction and low inertia in direction changes.

The AMG GT will be shown in Geneva in a matt grey ('dubbed magno selenitgrau' by AMG). The photographs reveal AMG will highlight the GT3’s enormous rear wing, wider body, massive air intakes, front splitter and underbody rear diffuser – all aimed at producing more downforce for minimal drag.

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Written byMichael Taylor
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