2024 Mercedes-AMG GT2 Racer First Driver: Faster Than GT4, Lighter Than GT3
Mercedes-AMG's newest factory racer is designed to take amateur drivers up to the professional level.
The name certainly says it all. The GT2 racer version of the 2024 Mercedes-AMG GT coupe should be edgier, fiercer, and of course faster than its GT3 sibling. However, the AMG GT3 racer we drove in 2019 represents a significant step up over the GT4 version, with more power and more downforce as well as a purpose-built chassis and suspension that can be better tuned to produce the best lap times. The lower the number, the more serious the racing car is, right? Not fast.
The new GT2, the latest in a series of impeccably engineered Mercedes-AMG sports racing cars, isn't the next level above the GT3 and GT4 but is a halfway house between the two. It's a car designed to be faster than the entry-level GT4, but not as demanding at the limit as the pro-racer GT3. What's the name of the GT2? You can thank Stéphane Ratel, the French entrepreneur who has been shaping modern sports car racing since 1995.
Ratel's SRO Motorsports Group created the modern GT4 and GT3 categories, helping define the rules for the cars and organizing the races for them. In 2018 he put together a new category designed for amateur drivers who want something higher-powered than a GT4 racer but less specialized than a GT3 car. Although GT2 was planned from the start as a tweener category, Ratel deemed it commercially unreasonable to rebrand the hugely successful GT3 category, which enjoyed huge support from automakers and racing fans, just to satisfy some notion of performance hierarchy.
So, GT2 it is. And, based on our experience driving the Mercedes-AMG GT2 at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit, outside Valencia, Spain, it is indeed a midway point between the GT4 and GT3. This Mercedes has the power and performance to thrill even the most jaded GT4 driver, but it doesn't require pro-GT3 driver-level skill and commitment to deliver fast lap times.
The AMG GT2 is based on the AMG GT Track Series, the AMG GT4-derived track day monster we tested last year. Under the hood is the same 4.0-liter twin-turbo flat- and dry-sump V-8 engine, bolted via a carbon fiber torque tube to the Hewland six-speed sequential transaxle transmission used in both. GT3 and GT4 racing cars.
To comply with GT2 regulations, the engine produces slightly less power and torque than in the Track Series—697 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque, compared to 724 hp and 627 lb-ft—but it's still enough to make it the most powerful. powerful from the factory Mercedes-AMG GT racer. By comparison, the GT3's 6.3-liter naturally aspirated V-8 makes about 550 hp, and the GT4's engine, which is essentially identical to the Track Series and GT2, is tuned to produce between 400 hp and 510 hp, depending on the engine. the balance of performance regulations under which the car is racing.
Other differences between the GT2 and the Track Series (pictured just above) include a longer top gear that allows the GT2 to reach speeds of 201 mph over long distances, a new rear wing that allows more adjustability, and, most importantly, produces more downforce, plus full 18-inch wheels with racing center locks.
The GT2 also gets engine and brake cooling upgrades, an acknowledgment that the car is intended for racing over short distances rather than just putting in a few hot laps in splendid isolation on a track day. It's true, says development driver Thomas Jäger, whose career honing race cars for Mercedes-AMG began with the SLS GT3, the GT2 can be ordered with an endurance racing package consisting of a special light system, drink system, number lighting, speed light system. engine oil refill tool and full tank display.
The multi-link suspension features racing-specification three-way adjustable shocks that are adjustable in compression and rebound, and are height adjustable. Front and rear camber settings and front and rear stabilizer bars can also be adjusted manually. The brakes use steel rotors measuring 15.4 inches at the front and 14.0 inches at the rear that are used on the GT3 and GT4 race cars. The balance bar allows the front and rear brake bias to be adjusted. As is common practice in modern GT racing, the GT2 is equipped with traction control and anti-lock brake systems, each of which can be adjusted independently in 12 settings.
The cockpit has the same user-friendly layout as other AMG racers. The butterfly steering wheel tilts and telescopes, and there's a center console with a large, illuminated gear switch that can be easily found and operated, even at night, with racing gloves on. The driver's seat is fixed, but a lever adjacent to the carbon fiber center console controls the spring-loaded pedal box. To get the right riding position, press the brake pedal, pull the lever, and push the pedal away from you. When they are the right distance apart, release the lever and they lock into place. These are race cars that are carefully designed to accommodate drivers of all shapes and sizes.
According to Mercedes-AMG figures, the GT2's base weight is 3,086 pounds, although its racing weight may be higher, with extra mass added to meet the balance of the category's performance regulations. That means it's about 150 pounds shy of the GT3's claimed minimum weight, so it's eye-catching when you consider you have 26 percent more power and 22 percent more torque under your right foot.
But here's where the performance calculus gets interesting: The GT2 may have more power and torque than the GT3, but it's also only 50 to 55 percent downforce, Jäger said. This makes its dynamic limits more accessible to amateur drivers, especially through fast corners, where the GT3's stiffer aero makes it harder to feel the edges of adhesion and where—because you're traveling at higher speeds than the GT2. manage—you need faster reactions to catch the car when it finally gives in to the limits of physics.
While the AMG GT3 is still arguably the most accessible GT3 race car for non-professional drivers today, it only takes a few laps to understand that the GT2 is a much more approachable machine. The growling power of the flat-plane crank V-8 turbo motor is backed by a broad foundation of torque that keeps you out of trouble when learning unfamiliar tracks. In third place, when should you be in second? Does not matter. The GT2 grunts over the top, then clears its throat and launches straight down.
As with the GT3, you can rely on the traction control, using it to learn where you need to modulate the throttle or take a better line. And it doesn't take long before you start to lower your intervention threshold a notch or two, such is the confidence GT2 quickly instills. You can brake deep into corners, accelerate hard, and you can clearly feel what the tires are doing. Fast and loud, this Mercedes, but not scary.
Pay attention, and GT2 will help you improve your driving skills. Every one of my 10 push laps of the Ricardo Tormo Circuit, was faster than my previous lap, and when I finally got out of the car, I knew exactly where I could easily find more time, brake deeper here, step on the gas earlier there, even before I saw the data trail behind the garage.
Remember, the same trace also shows how good the advantages are. When superimposed on mine, they reveal that Thomas Jäger stepped on the brake pedal much later, with double the pressure, and went full throttle through a corner I was still exploring for a while. But this also shows how much potential there is in GT2. In the right hands, this is a very fast and accomplished race car. “The new Mercedes-AMG GT2 is fully mature when it enters the stage, capable of immediate victory,” reads a glossy promotional brochure. It doesn't feel like empty talk.
All Mercedes-AMG racing cars are sold directly from the factory at euro prices. At current exchange rates, the GT2 will cost around $440,000 to $450,000, plus shipping and taxes. No, it's not cheap, but it's a much cheaper car to run than a full-fledged racing GT3, which in endurance racing spec now costs around $530,000 plus shipping and tax (and even if you wanted one of those, you couldn't have one because all sold out). The GT2's engine was good for nearly 25,000 miles of racing between rebuilds, says Thomas Jäger, and the transmission, pending inspection at 8,000 miles, didn't need to be touched until 11,000 miles.
The GT2 is eligible to enter the GT America series, which consists of 40-minute sprint races with a single driver, and in the 2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge America series, which begins at Sonoma Raceway in April, and includes laps at such storied tracks as Sebring, Circuit America, and Road America.
And if you don't want to race, you don't have to. If you have the money but not the time, Mercedes-AMG says the GT2 is almost perfect for track days. Almost. After selling all 55 2023 Track Series cars, Affalterbach has developed a follow-up track day weapon. It's called the GT2 Pro, and the main difference between the regular GT2 and the regular GT2 is the push-to-pass function that unleashes 739 hp when you press a button on the steering wheel.
Priced at around $520,000 for the GT2 Pro, which can't be raced at any events other than AMG-hosted special events, it's much more expensive than the standard GT2 that can be raced anywhere. But as the old saying goes, speed costs money.
