2023 Mercedes-AMG GT S E Performance review: Executive burnout

If you want to drive a more powerful Mercedes than this, you’ll have to talk someone into selling you their One hypercar for a few million quid. And if you want to drive one heavier than this, you’ll probably need to buy one of those enormous G-Class SUVs that are becoming as familiar a sight on London streets as Fiat 500s.

This, then, is AMG going excess all areas: its exceptionally fruity 4-litre V8 motor being assisted to the tune of a further 201bhp by a battery-powered electric motor. I can remember we all swooned when the Ford Sierra Cosworth turned up with that amount of power. Now it’s just adding a bit of a boost. All in this four-door executive express comes with an 831bhp punch.

Driven with circumspection, all is well. It’s sufficiently quiet and comfortable to work as a daily driver, although the battery has cost a little boot space. But when you drive it as you would expect such a colossally powerful machine might want to be driven, it rather falls to pieces. Sometimes when I nailed the throttle the acceleration was suitably apocalyptic, sometimes it wasn’t, and in the corners it always felt cumbersome because it weighs almost 300kg more than the standard AMG version of the car without the hybrid. And that’s one  of my favourite Mercedes of the modern era.

This is not. It’s too heavy, too blunt, too inconsistent in its responses to convince as the ultimate family AMG car. Sometimes you really can have too much of a good thing. AF

Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance 4-Door

Price £81,510
Engine 5 litres, eight cylinders, petrol, supercharged
Power 575bhp
Torque 516lb ft
Weight 2058kg
Power to weight 279bhp per tonne
Transmission Eight-speed automatic, four-wheel drive
0-60mph 3.8sec
Top speed 178mph
Economy 23.5 mpg (WLTP)
CO2 274g/km (WLTP)
Verdict Sweet Jag petrol swan song.