Mercedes-AMG GT R Hire Sydney: Review, Specs and What It Is Really Like

The GT R is what AMG built when it stopped treating the GT as a grand tourer and started treating it as a racing car with a warranty. Wider tracks, rear-axle steering, an adjustable traction control dial in the middle of the dash, and 430kW from the twin-turbo V8. We confirm it for your dates on request, and you should read the downsides before you ask.

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Specifications

Those are AMG's own figures for the GT R coupe. The later GT R Pro and the Black Series are
different cars with different numbers and are not what this page describes. The proposed rate
for the test is from $1,900 a day, and the car is confirmed by request rather than listed on a
calendar: your dates first, then our written confirmation, then payment.

What It Is Actually Like in Sydney

The engine sits behind the front axle, and you feel where it is

AMG mounts the V8 low and far back, which is why the bonnet is so long and why the car turns
in the way it does. The weight is between the axles, the driver sits almost on the rear wheels,
and the nose responds to the wheel in a way a front-heavy coupe cannot. On the tight second
half of Bells Line of Road that balance is the whole experience.

The 700Nm arrives early and stays. Unlike a naturally aspirated exotic the GT R does not need
to be wound out to feel fast; second gear at 2,500rpm is already more acceleration than most
drivers have felt. The exhaust in Sport Plus is genuinely loud, loud enough that a 6am departure
from a quiet street will be noticed, and the softer Comfort setting exists for exactly that.

The gearbox is a seven-speed dual-clutch mounted at the rear axle, and it is the reason the
GT R is easier to live with than the Gallardo of a decade earlier. In traffic it creeps and
shifts like an automatic. In Race mode it holds gears to the limiter and shifts hard enough to
feel through the seat. The paddles are large, fixed to the column rather than the wheel, and they
are where your hands end up on any road with corners.

Rear-axle steering makes it smaller than it is

Below about 100km/h the rear wheels turn opposite to the fronts, which shortens the effective
wheelbase and makes a wide car feel agile in a tight car park. Above that speed they turn in the
same direction for stability. In practice the low-speed effect is the one you notice: a Surry
Hills laneway that would need a three-point turn in an ordinary GT is a single sweep.

It is still a wide car. The GT R's rear arches were pushed out for wider tyres, and the mirror
to mirror width is more than the standard GT. Older multi-storey car parks with narrow bays and
tight ramps are best avoided rather than negotiated.

The traction control dial is not a toy

In the centre of the dashboard is a yellow knob with nine positions, taken directly from the
GT3 racing car. It only works with the stability control switched off, and it decides how much
wheel slip the car allows before it intervenes. For public roads the answer is to leave stability
control on and never touch the dial, and that is our position too.

With everything on, the GT R is a fast, planted car that will not surprise you. It is
rear-wheel drive with a lot of torque, so a wet roundabout still wants a gentle throttle, but the
electronics are calibrated well and the wide rear tyres find grip most cars would not.

The loop that suits it best is the one that starts early. Out of the city on the M1 before the
traffic builds, off at Berowra for the Old Pacific Highway to Brooklyn, across the river and up
through Peats Ridge, then back down before lunch. Two hours, mostly empty, and every part of the
GT R gets used at a speed that keeps your licence. The alternative is south through the Royal
National Park to Stanwell Tops, which is shorter, busier and better for photographs.

Ride comfort is the price of everything above

The GT R uses adjustable coil-over suspension rather than air, and even in its softest setting
it is firm. Sydney's patched inner-city roads and the concrete slabs of the M5 make it busy. On a
smooth road it is fine; on a rough one you will be aware of every join. The seats are deep
buckets that hold you well and forgive nothing on a long day.

Tyre roar on coarse-chip country roads is the other thing. The car has little sound
insulation because sound insulation weighs something. Conversations at motorway speed are
possible but louder than in the regular GT.

None of this is a complaint, because none of it is accidental. The GT R was set up for the
Nordschleife and every gram removed from the cabin was removed on purpose. It simply needs to be
understood before the request goes in: this is the AMG GT for a driver, not the AMG GT for a
weekend of shopping and dinner, and the difference is felt within the first kilometre of a
Sydney street.

Things You Should Know

The front splitter and the driveway

The GT R carries an active aerodynamic element under the nose and a fixed splitter ahead of
it. Both sit close to the ground and both are expensive. Steep driveways, speed humps taken
square and the ramps in older shopping centres are where this car gets hurt. The rule is slow,
at an angle, one wheel at a time, and if a driveway looks marginal it probably is.

We ask about your parking before handover for this reason. A flat driveway or a street bay
is ideal. A basement car park with a steep entry is a conversation.

The handover covers the drive modes, the exhaust button, the location of the traction dial
and why it stays alone, and a slow lap of the driveway you will actually be using. Every panel,
the splitter and each wheel are photographed with you present. It takes about twenty minutes and
it is the best protection you have against a dispute about a mark that was there before you
were.

Two seats, one shallow boot

The boot is a hatch behind the seats and it is wide but shallow, which suits two soft bags
laid flat and does not suit a hard suitcase standing up. There is no space behind the seats
beyond a coat. Anyone planning to carry more than two people or more than a weekend's luggage
should look at the M3 Competition instead, which is quicker to 100km/h than most people expect
and has four doors and a real boot.

The cabin itself is well made and the driving position is very low, with the dashboard high
and the bonnet stretching away ahead. Taller drivers fit well; shorter drivers may find the
forward view over the nose takes getting used to when placing the car in a tight space. The
cameras help, and the rear one is essential because the rear window is small and the wing
takes up part of it.

Fuel, kilometres and the paperwork

The V8 uses 98-octane premium unleaded and, driven with intent, uses a great deal of it.
The kilometre allowance is set on the booking before payment and sized to the hire: a weekend
loop through the Royal National Park is well within a standard allowance, while a run to the
Snowy Mountains needs the allowance adjusted in advance rather than settled at the end.

Because the GT R is sourced for your dates, the bond and excess are confirmed for the
specific car in writing before you commit. Interstate travel needs prior written approval.
Track use is not permitted, and a car built at the Nurburgring is exactly the one where we
enforce that most carefully.

Who Books This Car

Drivers who have done the standard AMG GT and want the version the engineers kept for
themselves. The GT R was never sold in large numbers in Australia, and the people who ask about
it usually know precisely what the wider body, the rear steer and the dial mean. They are not
booking it for a wedding.

The second group is the car enthusiast being given a weekend they will remember, usually by a
partner or a group of friends who have done their research. For that use the GT R works well
because it is dramatic without being fragile, and the green-hell-magno launch colour, where the
car we secure has it, photographs like nothing else on the road.

A smaller third group asks for it as a comparison. They have driven a 911 or a Huracan and
want to know whether AMG's front-engine answer holds up against a mid-engine car on the same
road. It does, in a different way: less agile at the limit, more stable through fast sweepers,
and with an engine note the flat-six cannot match.

It is the wrong car for a comfortable week away, for anyone carrying luggage, and for anyone
who wants an automatic that creeps politely through Pitt Street at lunchtime. Those bookings
belong in the regular AMG GT or the M3 Competition, and we would rather match you to the right
car than confirm a GT R you will spend the weekend fighting.