New Mercedes-AMG GT63 S claims executive car 'Ring record

Mercedes-AMG has reclaimed the honour of building the fastest “executive” car to lap the Nurburgring Nordschleife, after unleashing its new GT63 S around the circuit in record time.

The updated GT63 S tore around the full 20.832km-long track in 7min and 27.8sec, smashing the executive category record set in the hands of Porsche with a Panamera Turbo S by 2.11sec.

According to Nurburgring GmbH "executive car" is defined by the German Federal Transport Authority (KBA) and includes examples like the Audi A8, A7 and Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

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Given Porsche reset the record lap earlier this year, factory AMG driver Demian Schaffert would have found extra delight in lowering the benchmark time given he piloted the GT63 S that set the first record lap in 2018.

Underlining that there’s no love lost between the two high-performance brands, AMG in its own press release explicitly states the lap record left their grasp for only three months.

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And where did the GT63 S find this new pace? Equipped with the optional-for-Europe Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres and aero package, AMG says the record setting car was otherwise completely standard save for some suspension fine tuning for the new model year version.

But it does admit a luxury bucket seat and race harnesses were fitted for safety – two items that would not affect performance.

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Updates to the GT63 S exist only within the cabin. Inside it welcomes the brand’s well-known and highly intuitive MBUX infotainment program with AMG specific displays, along with a wide-screen cockpit – a large sweeping digital dash screen – on German variants.

Granted, all this luxury weighs down the GT63 S’s mighty twin-turbo V8. But its carried-over 470kW and 900Nm still promises to accelerate the four-dour liftback to 100km/h from rest in 3.2 seconds, thanks to all-wheel drive.

Both the new GT63 S and the Porsche Panamera Turbo S it crushed have also proved quicker around the track than Porsche’s previous generation 911 GT2 – a stripped-out twin-turbo super sports car with two seats.

Back over to you, Porsche.