Forgive us if this is all a little tedious now, but seeing new cars hurled around the Nordschleife by Christian Gebhardt in seven minutes something still holds considerable appeal. Particularly when said car shouldn't really be there, like
a Mercedes estate
Yes, of course a lot of work has been put into ensuring the E63 can hold its own on a circuit; it's still hard to imagine, however, many buyers tackling a track day in their £100K family estate. The AMG GT R that Sport Auto recently tested, yes; the AMG wagon rather less probable.
Which makes watching the lap all the more fascinating. This is a two-tonne car, after all, and there's no way something so heavy should be capable of lapping the Nurburgring in 7:45. But it certainly does, in a captivating display of V8 blare and tyre squeal.
Actually, that's harsh on the AMG, because it does a laudable job of containing its mass and seems to turn in pretty well. Let's just say it makes up time lost in the slower bends by annihilating the following straights. Sometimes it looks like a Legoland version of the track, the straights seemingly shrunken to child size by that mighty 4.0-litre V8.
A couple of points to note before you consume the vid. See how driver Gebhardt seldom uses the gearshift paddles, preferring to rely predominantly on the most aggressive automatic setting. And as for a top speed, 270km/h shows on the run to Schwedenkreuz but sadly the GPS recorder throws a wobbly after Pflanzgarten so we're not sure about the Dottinger-Hohe; how about another attempt lads?
here
