The 2021 Mercedes-AMG Black Series Was Built Purely to Take Records
Clips of Mike Tyson back in boss shape have been doing the rounds ahead of his big comeback fight this November. But imagine if he strolled into the weigh-in for his clash with Roy Jones Jr., not only looking absolutely jacked, but also not sounding like a Mel Blanc Looney Tunes character. Sounding instead like James ‘Darth Vader’ Earl Jones instead.
That’s the kind of transformation we’re talking about with the circa-$420k (but TBA) Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series, and not because AMG has been watching one-too many YouTube videos and straight-piped its 911 rival. This is way more serious than that.
Yes, the seventh Black Series, and the successor to the spectacular SLS Black from 2013, follows the ‘more power, less weight, big wings, bigger price’ formula automakers reach for when they want to make a fast car faster. The same one used by McLaren to turn the 720s into the incredible 765LT we recently drove.
But AMG has done something radical to give the ultimate incarnation of the GT a completely different character: switched to a flat-plane crank for its 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8. Ford did the same thing a few years ago when it created the Shelby GT350, and the effects here are similarly transformational. Hit the starter button and the V-8 settles to an impatient rat-tat-tat idle, like it's pissed that it’s wasting time in the pit lane when it could be bouncing off its limiter out on a track. And just to add to the sense of foreboding, the track in question is Germany’s Lausiztring, where former F1 driver and now Paralympian, Alex Zanardi, lost his legs, and F1 contemporary Michele Alboreto lost his life.
We’re using a mix of twiddly infield turns that don’t show off the Black’s imposing new aero features, and two parts of the speedway banking that fortunately do, because there’s no run-off to save you from hitting the wall if you mess things up. The most obvious of those aero devices is the giant bi-plane rear wing, but the two-position, electrically-adjustable front splitter that juts out for track use from below the new bigger grille is going to be every bit as important if we’re to have any hope of keeping up with DTM legend and AMG brand ambassador Bernd Schneider in his GT Black.
Those devices exert up to 882 pounds of downward pressure at 155 mph, but the use of carbon fiber for the hood, fenders and roof, plus lighter windshield glass, means there’s less mass than in the next rung down the AMG GT ladder, the GT Pro.
Where the R’s V-8 makes 577 hp at 6250 rpm, the Black kicks out a massive 720 hp between 6700-6900 rpm. Torque is up from 516 lb-ft to 590 lb-ft and the 0-60 mph time falls from 3.5 seconds to 3.1. At 3616 pounds (down 70 pounds versus the GT R) it’s still a heavy car compared to something like the McLaren 765LT, and according to AMG’s figures, which say it’ll get from 0-124 mph in “under nine seconds” compared with well under seven for the Macca, it’s clear there are quicker cars in the class.
Feels that way from the driving seat, too. But the character of that new engine more than compensates. A display stand in the pit garage showing the old and new cranks side by side highlights exactly why that character is so changed. Where the cross-plane crank fitted to lesser AMG engines (and most other non-supercar V-8s) has its adjacent crank pins positioned at 90 degrees to each other, the Black’s are at 180 degrees, radically changing the firing order. Instead of a traditional mellow V-8 you get something more like a pair of inline fours. Hard, angry, edgy.
And with so much less counterweighting required to balance the frequencies, the new motor’s appetite for revs is huge. True, the redline is only 7200 rpm and not the 8k-plus of the GT350, or the McLarens and Ferraris that also employ flat-plane crank V-8s, but the energy you feel on the way to that 7k redline and the machine-gun braaarppp that goes with it makes this feel like so much more than an AMG GT R with the wick turned up.
Out on track (we weren’t able to try the Black on public roads) and with our driving mode set to Race, Schneider takes it easy on us for the first lap, then defaults to his natural pace, which equates to trying to outrun a tornado in a disaster movie.
Even with the engine stuffed right up tight to the bulkhead behind the front axle line and a bespoke version of Michelin’s Pilot Sport Cup 2 tire fitted on each corner it’s possible to nudge the nose wide on the really sharp turns when your clumsily trying to keep up with a guy who won the ’97 FIA GT Championship in a CLK GTR.
Those turns would be better suited to a flyweight hot hatch anyway, though it's possible that you could get busy with your wrench and tweak the camber and sway bars to dial some more of that slip out. But on the quicker stuff, through the left-right transitions and the really fast curves where the aero gets to work its magic, the Black feels epic. The huge flat pool table of a hood stays dead level with each input, the steering feeds back so much information your fingertips will feel like they’ve got ADHD, and the brakes are parachute-powerful.
By the third lap Schneider is really on it. I’m not kidding myself that he hasn’t got some in reserve but as we tip into the hairy left hander coming off a big haul down the banking, I can see his rear tires squirming and him making micro adjustments to keep the car on line. And I’m keeping up.
‘That was a good drive,’ he says as we climb out of our cars back in the pits. ‘We were really carrying some speed.’
Yeah, that’s what I thought too, Bernd, I think to myself, sweat beading on my brow, chest puffed out like I’ve just landed second step on the podium at the German Grand Prix.
‘Of course you guys were on the Cup tire, and I only had the P Zero Corsas…’ he adds, his words a glistening pin to my ego balloon.
The disappointment is short lived. This car is too much fun for that. More fun than the 765LT? More serious, less playful, we’d say. Less like a supercar, and more like a machine built purely to take records.
And in the hands of a proper hand like Schneider and his AMG race mates, it might just be quick enough to take the Nürburgring lap record, which currently stands at 6 minutes, 44.97 seconds and is owned by Lamborghini’s Aventador SVJ.
Schneider wouldn’t talk times, only saying, “We are very happy with the number.” But from the wry smile on his face, we’re expecting some big news very soon.
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