Gentlemen and lady racers, a more budget-minded Mercedes-AMG race car is finally ready for your next FIA world tour. Just buy the new AMG GT4, paint your name on the door, and go win. Even if you turn on the air conditioning, Mercedes promises you won’t be the first loser.
“We aren’t entering a new segment to finish second,” says Stefan Wendl, who leads AMG’s customer racing program. And with that modesty, AMG delivers a modified version of the killer GT R for ?198,950 ($232,000), a reasonable upcharge from that road car’s $157,995 price. That’s quite a discount from the $420,000 AMG GT3 and on par with other factory-built GT4 racers, including the Audi R8, Aston Martin Vantage, BMW M4, McLaren 570S, Porsche Cayman, and Shelby GT350R. None of their drivers want to finish second, either.
The GT4 class is considered an amateur entry-level racing class in the way that a $1 million property in Greenwich, Connecticut, is a starter home. Among all the GT-level series, GT4 racing is the modern European equivalent of 1960s NASCAR. Cars like the AMG GT4 run closest to stock as possible, and that means the AMG GT3’s 6.2-liter naturally-aspirated V-8 and many of its carbon fiber body panels are missing. A 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 from the AMG GT S suffices at the production-rated 503 horsepower, below the GT3’s restricted 550 hp and the GT R’s 577. The AMG GT R’s aluminum space frame and carbon-fiber roof, torque tube...