2026 Mercedes-AMG GT 63 Pro review: Australian preview drive

Think of the $418,900 plus on-road costs Mercedes-AMG GT 63 Pro as the standard GT 63 that's hit the gym since the last time you saw it. At first glance, it looks as if it's been at a combo of cardio and weight training, because it's shed a few kilograms and also put on some extra muscle.

In fact, AMG has tuned this one to be more at home on the racetrack, with the aim of not spoiling it as a road car in the process. Unfortunately, we can't really comment on the latter, because our preview drive of the car took place on the manicured smoothness of Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.

Nevertheless, we gained a detailed understanding of how this 450kW/850Nm monster performs when given the treatment. Without wishing to issue too much in the way of spoilers, most of it is very good news indeed.

Some background first. The old AMG GT R Pro, which launched back in 2020, was a very special thing. Roll into pit lane in one of those and it looks like something that'd driven off a GT4-class racing grid.

It was very special, a hoot to pedal around a circuit and ultra-rare. Only 15 cars came to Australia, making it even less commonplace than the flagship AMG GT Black Series, of which Australia got a 28-car allocation.

This body is now a 2+2, spun off the chassis that underpins the current-generation Mercedes-Benz SL. What's more, power goes to each corner rather than merely the rear treads.

Another factor to consider is that although weight has crept up by 18.7 per cent, torque has leapt up by 21.4 per cent and power by 4.7 per cent.

With the benefit of all-wheel drive, it can also deploy that mountain of torque more easily. So what you lose with one hand, you seem to gain with the other. It's an intriguing proposition.

At the moment, intriguing is giving way to intimidating. Rain's threatening at the Island. It's not an infrequent occurrence and the sky's a pan-flat grey of nimbostratus. The Bass Strait looks about as warm and welcoming as the reception area of Goulburn Supermax.

There's a pair of AMGs ticking over in the pitlane, and our hosts are keen to zip through the inevitable presentation and get us into the cars before the rain arrives.

With a chaperone in the jump seat, we head out on the track. The first lap's a sighter, reacquainting ourselves with the dozen corners of this beautiful circuit, checking for geese wandering onto the hotmix and warming the car's fluids and tyres.

Then it's time to get a bit more serious. Pour the throttle on through the final corner and the AMG takes a seat and gets on with it. There's no nervousness from the rear end or push from the front. That's probably a signal that I need to try a bit harder.

Down Gardner Straight, the car's gathering speed at a prodigious rate, the gutsy cross-plane V8 blaring, interspersed by the cough of upshifts from the nine-speed transmission. The drive logic in Race mode is good. I've no need to pluck at the paddle shifters.

At this point it's usually incumbent to humblebrag about what ungodly speed you carry into the sweeping right-hander of Doohan, but I was too fixated on the turn-in point to register that one. Sorry. The big AMG turns in cleanly, without a hint of nervousness, the air bolsters in the dynamic sports seats firming to hold you in position.

Step off the brake a little too sharply in a bid to balance the throttle and you'll feel some understeer as the nose picks up. A more measured bleeding off of brake pressure as you turn in keeps everything far neater. The GT 63 Pro is a car that rewards neatness, smoothness and a disciplined line.

A blat of throttle and you're into the Southern Loop, a tricky double apex left. You're supposed to let the car drift to mid-track here before tucking the nose in and being patient with the throttle on the corner exit.

A little foxed by exactly how much grip the Pro has in reserve, I'm a bit staccato on the throttle, prodding it to see what it'll do. It's well behaved, even with the relaxed stability control that comes with the Race mode. Carry more speed and exercise more patience and you'll be quicker here.

The Race mode delivers a more linear map for the throttle pedal than the Sport+ setting, which delivers a lot of instant urge in the first part of the throttle pedal travel. Race is definitely the mode you want if you want to measure your throttle inputs carefully, as in this long bend.

The giddy rush down towards Honda corner hints at the amount of grip is at your disposal. There's a tailwind here, so you need to be a bit circumspect about your braking point towards Honda, the second-slowest corner on the track.

The Michelin Pilot Sport S5 tyres on the Pro are no bigger than the standard AMG GT 63. Up front you have a pair of 295/30 ZR21 and at the back they're 305/30 ZR21.

What has changed is the braking durability. AMG has worked to improve airflow to the front brakes on this Pro model, and it's equipped with huge ceramic-composite discs all round, the fronts measuring a whopping 420mm. This means that the brakes are well up to the demands of throwing a heavy car around a race circuit. That's reassuring.

Get the car pointed in a straight line and accelerate hard towards Siberia, so called because it's the remotest point on the circuit and often whipped by the cold winds off the Bass Strait. This looks easy but is, in fact, an easy corner to get wrong.

The apex is further round the corner than you first expect, so you trail-brake into the corner. In the old AMG GT Pro, such antics would likely have resulted in a big flare of oversteer, the tail coming gliding round to overtake you. There's no such histrionics in this car.

The nose tucks neatly, the steering just suggests a little bit of neutrality and, as you spy the exit of the corner, you open your hands and let the big Mercedes run wide. Full throttle.

Then it's the run to and through Hayshed; a point on the track that keeps me awake at night. A right kink taken at terrifying speed, it's one where you really want the car to feel as if it's beneath you. The AMG GT 63 Pro is unshakeable in its resolve here. You're thankful for its frontal aerodynamic changes that cut 30kg of lift over the front axle.

Tucked beneath the front is an inflatable bladder that forces a plate closer to the ground, speeding the air and sucking the AMG to the ground. It's very welcome in the here and now.

The twin-turbocharged V8 bellows its way through this section. There's a lovely hollowness to its timbre that sounds exotic. No, it's not a high-revs screamer, but that's okay. It feels meaty and muscular in a very AMG way. True to its roots in other words.

Ease off the gas as you approach Lukey Heights and the exhaust detonates a few drops of fuel, delivering some authentic pops and woofles. It's not a particularly vocal exhaust sound otherwise, but all manufacturers have drive-by noise targets to hit these days.

Atop Lukey, you can feel the crosswind attempting to push the AMG wide. The steering's so good and the throttle so well judged that it's easy to correct this mid-corner. It's a very solid platform. While it loses a little in agility to a 911, there's a satisfaction that comes from getting the best out of the GT 63 Pro that's different.

It feels as if you're wrangling something that's inherently more challenging to wring the best out of than a 911. Not that it's difficult to drive, it's just that perhaps the 911 is our datum point to which we compare everything and has a certain familiarity.

Another big brake downhill into MG. This is the slowest point on the circuit and it's deceptive. It's also where the AMG feels every one of its 1937kg. Yes, the brakes are excellent, but at this low speed, you're more limited by the ability of the front tyres to stop you, and if you get too ambitious, the front Michelins let you know about it.

Mercedes claims that by the time the GT 63 Pro arrives in showrooms at the end of Q1 2026, they'll have a sticky Cup 2R tyre option available for it. If you're ever going to put your Pro onto a track – and you should – that'll be a box you should definitely tick.

If a car is going to power-oversteer anywhere on this circuit, it's likely out of MG. The AMG's traction control keeps things neat and tidy. It does have a drift mode that can send 100 per cent of power to the rear tyres, but maybe we'll play with that another time. My fellow journalists probably wouldn't thank me for turning up with canvas showing through the treads.

This Pro gets extra liquid cooling of the front and rear differentials, helped by extra radiators tucked into the front flanks. It feels mechanically tough.

Turn 11 is one I've never quite mastered, but the GT 63 Pro doesn't punish my varying lines and throttle inputs. Run wide and set up for the last corner. Roll off the throttle slightly turn in and steady, steady, go.

Accelerating onto the Gardner Straight is always a beautiful, if slightly heart-in-mouth, exercise in physics. It's how much aerodynamic downforce you have which, in this Pro, is aided by a fixed carbon rear wing, as well as significant underbody wizardry.

It's about how much heat you have in your tyres – and you rarely have too little at this point on the racetrack. Too much and the kerbing on the outside of the corner comes to meet you at an alarming rate.

It's about the resistance of the car to roll, something AMG seems to have pitched about right here. It does without anti-roll bars too, the electromechanical and hydraulic suspension connecting the axles and wheels in an H-pattern.

Stability too, with the Pro's four-wheel steer system giving you a 'virtual long wheelbase' through this particular section.

It also delves into the faith you have in the safety systems of your car, because a big moment here would probably test every one of those to their absolute limits.

The Mercedes AMG GT 63 Pro aces that particular test, once again blaring down Gardner Straight, fixed on the point where the track seems to dip out of sight into the steely sea ahead.

Pushing onto a second fast lap sees the tyres start to go beyond their best towards the end. Combine that aero, that weight and the capacity of the ceramic-composite braking system to pump additional heat through the hubs of the beautiful forged alloy wheels, and you have a severe assignment for what is a road tyre.

Bringing the car back into pit lane to let the car cool, I'm wondering just what sort of sports car this new AMG GT 63 Pro really is.

It's definitely a good-looking one. The shape has grown on me and the details that this Pro brings – the more aggressive front end, the extra carbon-fibre elements, the handsome Himalaya Grey alloys and the ballsy fixed rear wing – give it some real visual clout.

It's certainly not AMG's version of a Porsche 911 GT3. It's too heavy and too compromised to be that car. I'm not even sure it's a 911 Turbo rival, as that's now become far more of a long-legged road car, and this Pro has definitely had some track optimisation.

I'm left thinking it's more of a rival for the 911 GTS, the new hybridised prodigy of the range. That car is also great fun to pedal at speed on a track, but is primarily a road car.

In the round, I think the 911 is still a more capable thing. That said, there's something about the AMG GT 63 Pro that feels far more of an event. The differences in actual ability are modest, but were you to get out of one car and into another without knowing the price tags, most might figure the Pro to be $100K pricier. It's not.

Compare the two apples for apples and it gets intriguing. The 911 GTS 4 coupe carries a $412,300 (plus on-road costs) sticker price, fronts up with 398kW/610Nm and weighs 1645kg, delivering a superior power-to-weight figure of 241.9kW/tonne versus the AMG's 232.3kW/tonne. No wonder the hybridised Porsche feels sprightlier off the mark.

Keep at it and the AMG GT 63 Pro's torque advantage becomes apparent. Whereas the Pro is no quicker than its AMG GT 63 sibling to 100km/h (3.2secs), it makes good at higher speeds, carving half a second off the 0–200km/h time versus its sibling, registering 10.9 seconds. The Porsche? Nearly a whole second adrift to 200km/h.

But then you get into the weeds of the comparison and things aren't quite so crystal clear. You want active roll stabilisation for your Porsche, like the AMG? That'll be $9250. A similar front axle lift will deprive you of $4950. You want a Burmester stereo? Ka-ching: $6700. How about matching the AMG's carbon-composite brakes? Another $22,120. Suddenly you'll be paying an absolute stack more for a car that still feels less of an occasion.

Ultimately, you pay your money and take your choice. Despite the fact that the AMG GT has morphed into a sleek 2+2, Mercedes doesn't seem particularly worried about the Porsche 911, claiming that AMG buyers are a specific brand-loyal breed.

While there are some similarities in their aspirations, the characters of the two cars are indeed poles apart. It's hard to see somebody driving a 911 GTS and an AMG GT 63 Pro and then feeling torn over the decision.

As the Pro pings and ticks cool in the pitlane, AMG techs swarming over it, measuring tyre temperatures and downloading from its onboard data logger, the contrarian in me feels that, given the choice, I'd have the car with the three-pointed star.

On another day, it might well be the 911 GTS. And then there's the fact that to land an AMG GT 63 Pro, you'd have to wilfully ignore the Aston Martin Vantage. One thing's for sure. For AMG to have seriously entered this discussion is praise indeed.

Does it matter that this Pro is slower in just about every measurable metric than its similarly badged predecessor? You can be the judge on that one. I'll just say that it's a very different car.

We'll have to wait for the Mercedes-AMG GT 63 Pro's 'official' launch in Australia to get a drive on-road, so until then it's a provisional thumbs-up. Keep an eye on this one. This could get very interesting.

Andy brings almost 30 years automotive writing experience to his role at Drive. When he wasn’t showing people which way the Nürburgring went, he freelanced for outlets such as Car, Autocar, and The Times. After contributing to Top Gear Australia, Andy subsequently moved Down Under, serving as editor at MOTOR and Wheels. As Drive’s Road Test Editor, he’s at the heart of our vehicle testing, but also loves to spin a long-form yarn.

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