APRIL 2019 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 91In the upper echelons of its
drive modes the AMG’s body
control and steering response
are quite something
Printed
switches are
out, animated
graphics inwith time but the first few hours can be infuriating until you’re fluent.
Conversely, the GT 4 Door’s handling makes you feel instantly at ease.
By rights a car more than five metres long and with more power than a
McLaren F1 ought to be a right royal handful, but the GT feels smaller
than it is. That’s partly thanks to all-wheel steering helping it into tight
corners (and parking spaces), all-wheel drive on the way out of them and
the machinations of the active suspension to take care of everything in
the middle. The rear wheels are permanently driven, and an electro-me-
chanical clutch brings the fronts into play when required. Exactly when
that is, and with exactly how much torque, is constantly adjusted on the
fly. The system feels seamless in action. Feeling all four 20-inch Michelins
hooking up to tear at the tarmac out of tight corners is quite a sensation.
If you prefer sideways to forwards momentum the S features the same
Drift mode as the AMG E63, which turns the car purely rear-driven and
disables traction control.
Four-wheel steering means you rarely need to move your hands on
the comfortable, chunky steering wheel. Hugely responsive, it requires
barely any lock for all but the tightest of turns. It doesn’t feel entirely
natural at first, but you quickly dial into it, helped by satisfyingly weighty
resistance off centre. One of its spokes wears a plastic clickwheel control
like a rosette. That’s the Dynamic Select wheel, which scrolls through
the GT’s various driving modes (very much like the Panamera’s mode
control). With every click the digital graphic on the wheel shape-shifts;
a C for Comfort, for example, through to a chequered flag in ultimate
Race mode, and there are yet further options in the media screen ⊲