Would the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series have been able to beat Porsche’s 992 GT3 into second place if it had bowled up at Phillip Island this year? Eyebrows will undoubtedly be raised by the fact that Affalterbach, fresh from their maiden PCOTY win with the GT R Pro last year, didn’t supply an example of the Black Series to throw into Australia’s premier performance car competition.
The more world-weary among you might well look at the Porsche 911’s record of success in PCOTY and reason that perhaps Mercedes-AMG felt that putting anything up against a new 911 GT3 was putting them on a hiding to nothing. The reality is a little more prosaic. Put simply, all the cars had gone to their new owners and no vehicle was available for testing. But how would it have stacked up had it made the starting line?
There aren’t too many people who have driven a Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series and a new Porsche 992 GT3 flat-out around Phillip Island but I’m lucky enough to be part of that number. Given that I’m also chair of the judging panel for PCOTY, I find myself in a strangely qualified position to comment.
It wouldn’t have struggled to lay down a decent lap time, that’s for sure. The Porsche scorched to a 1:49.7 mark around the GP circuit, making it the quickest production car MOTOR has ever tested there. Only the Porsche 918 Spyder hypercar has registered a quicker time.
Look at other tracks that are comparable to Phillip Island, such as Hockenheim GP, and the Black Series (328kW/tonne) easily eclipses the 992 GT3 (258kW/tonne) in that instance by 2.5 seconds. It’s 2.5 seconds quicker at Sachsenring and four seconds quicker around Bilster Berg.
Even allowing for an unfavourable engine position for sprinting off the line when compared to the Porsche, the AMG is also just quicker over the standing quarter.
So the stats says so and the seat of the pants also tells me that the AMG would have the Porsche’s measure on track. Taking away that absolute measure of superiority at PCOTY would indeed have dented the 992 GT3’s aura of invincibility somewhat, but the Porsche would have aced the AMG in terms of excitement and tactility.
The discordant blare of the AMG’s flat-plane crank V8 contrasts wildly with the naturally-aspirated shriek of the 911’s 4.0-litre as it approaches redline, and the AMG is a much harder car to rapidly gel with. Given time you learn to trust it, but the GT3 engenders so much confidence so quickly that you never feel intimidated by it.
The acoustics of the Black Series are such that given the choice, I’d rather be in the GT R Pro that won PCOTY 2021. That was a car with a genuinely charismatic engine note and it wasn’t exactly slow, easily leaving the 992 Turbo S in its wake at Winton. One thing I haven’t been able to do is drive the AMG GT Black Series on road, so I can only speculate how it would have fared.
There’s no doubt that the Black feels more special and more like a race car, with its exotic engineering and serious mien. But at PCOTY that focus can occasionally work against a contender. Liveability and value are scoring criteria and the Porsche would have probably have beaten the AMG on those scores.
So while I can’t make a definitive call because the two cars weren’t there at the same time and in the same conditions, my gut tells me that the 911 GT3 would still have prevailed by some margin. The GT3 and the GT R Pro against one another?
PCOTY champs head to head would be a real battle for the ages. We know Porsche would be up for it, but tracking down one of the 15 GT R Pros that are now with their owners would be tough. Do get in touch if you own a GT R Pro and want to find out first-hand how it stacks up against the GT3.
COMMENTS
Keyword: Would the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series have won PCOTY 2022?