In a move that mirrors Toyota’s parallel development of the GR GT and GR GT3, Mercedes-AMG has built the next AMG GT Black Series alongside the next-generation GT3 race car. Unlike previous Black Series models, where a road car was prepared for the circuit after the fact, this is a genuine homologation special. The road car exists in part to legitimise the race car, which means the aero, cooling and chassis geometry are dictated by the rulebook of professional motorsport. If you want the closest thing to a GT3 car with a number plate, this is it.
The previous GT Black Series, launched in 2020, divided opinion. Its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 broke with the naturally aspirated tradition of earlier Black Series cars such as the SLS, C63 Coupé and CLK63, and the move to a flat-plane crank gave it a sharper, more exotic voice that some felt strayed too far from the AMG bloodline. It still earned its place in the Black Series lineage, which began with the SLK 55 AMG Black Series in 2006.
This new car is built on the second-generation AMG GT coupe. Final specifications are yet to be confirmed, but the engine is expected to be a heavily uprated version of the new 4.0-litre flat-plane-crank V8 that debuts in the facelifted S-Class and steps up again in the forthcoming CLE-based Mythos. AMG boss Michael Schiebe has called the new car “the most extreme Black Series ever” and committed to setting a new motorsport benchmark with the GT3 alongside it. Given the 2020 car already produced 720bhp, that is quite a statement.
The extremity is not confined to the engine. The new GT Black Series shares aggressive aerodynamics with the GT3 and a lightweight chassis tuned around the same demands, which makes the transfer of racing technology to the road more direct than in past generations. Development has run at Mercedes-AMG’s Immendingen proving ground as well as Bilster Berg, Portimão and Monteblanco, and the programme has now moved to the Nürburgring Nordschleife. AMG has form there; the 2020 GT Black Series set a production lap that is still talked about.
It is genuinely difficult to tell the two cars apart in the promotional shots, and that is the point. The yellow-and-green livery is the road car. The red livery is the GT3. Even with that key, the differences are harder to pick out than you might expect. The vast rear wing, comparable to that of a 992 GT3 RS, looks almost identical on both.
Full details are yet to follow. With Mercedes-Benz marking 140 years this year, the launch calendar is crowded, taking in the next-generation S-Class, the electric GLC and a refreshed C-Class. But the GT3 and GT Black Series are the pair to watch. When the covers finally come off, they should be the cars that define Affalterbach’s 2026.
