2022 Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance review: First international drive

This mighty plug-in hybrid doesn't give a about the environment. Instead, the 2022 Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S uses its 152kW electric motor almost exclusively to boost power and torque to record heights.

629 kilowatts, wow, thazzebissnis! And 1470 Nm of King Kong muscle to boot, fuelled by five-star juice at a rate of 25 litres per 100km, give or take some, meaning at long last the household petrol and electricity bills can finally match.

Expected to cost around 400 big ones without extras – of which there are many – you'll need about five rich aunts to finance it, not only one.

But with the aftermath of COVID still looming large, Putin's war killing thousands every day, the global economy in the doldrums and yet another famine raging across Africa, AMG could not have picked a worse time to launch this ultra-high-performance four-door coupe. Yet here it is.

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Although dubious social acceptance is at least in Europe fast stifling the luxury goods market, the overtly aggressive AMG GT 63 S still succeeds in massaging all the glands that matter to the rich enthusiast, ticks all the relevant boxes, opens the grand cru adrenalin floodgates and still stirs more old-fashioned emotions than the greenest 1000bhp-plus electric supercar.

It hits our mental sweet spot like a drug, as every old-fashioned hardcore Freude-durch-Kraft-Wagen should.

Open door, filter in, close door, then marvel at the quilted leather landscape that injects a Maybach touch of class to the suddenly sumptuous world of AMG. The level of craftsmanship astonishes, and so does the complexity of the operation that suggests that the post-Playstation generation is already in the market for this superpower CLS/S-class hybrid.

Just about the only task the latest polytech-certified MMI system cannot perform is fry eggs or serve a cup of tea. It will however display the car's propulsion antics in animated widescreen technicolour depth, run different kinds of go-faster scenarios past you, and access more submenus than a NASA mainframe computer from the late nineties.

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Truly annoying is the five-spoke steering wheel, which harbours the shift paddles, two large rotary controls and an overkill selection of tiny capacitive touch, slide and push areas. In a nutshell, this cockpit answers too many questions only very few users would ask, and it complicates simple tasks by prioritising the full digital monty over an intuitive direct-access approach.

Starting the engine summons the Affalterbach Big Band, the Mercedes Works Orchestra and the Brixton Synthesiser All-Stars. The unmistakable soundtrack is as tightly knit as an ancient kelim carpet but after a while, one learns to filter out the leading soloists like the turbo and wastegate quartet, the bluesy intake choir and the bass & drum formation in charge of the on-off-on exhaust blat-blat and wah-wah.

Spine-tingling stuff, this, especially when combined with the full-throttle forward thrust that grabs you by the throat while bolting the neck to the head restraint. The 2.9sec 0-100km/h acceleration time puts the GT-S E-Performance firmly in high-end Porsche and Ferrari territory, but there is more to come.

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Like the ten-second overboost afterburner effect, which summons maximum power and torque. Only ten seconds? Find a straight that is long enough to fully explore the extra pedal-to-the-metal grunt, then we talk again.

By the way: the maximum output of 629kW and 1470Nm is exclusively available in this brief fangs-bared mode. At all other times, the 4.0-litre V8 peaks at 558kW and 1150Nm which is still very impressive but no longer totally hyper-mega-wild.

The car always starts up in Comfort aka Efficiency. There are six more steps to climb on the AMG stairway to heaven: Electric, Winter, Sport, Sport+, Race and Individual. Lock the drivetrain in Sport+ for inspiring throttle response and shift action, or try Sport for a wide middle ground in terms of chassis competence and steering action.

The AMG Dynamics programme shines brightest in the Master setting which can be accessed only in Sport Handling or ESP off mode. Sounds complicated, but the result is worth the effort. Next, take your pick between two different sound patterns labelled Balanced and Powerful, which is AMG speak for being that close to voiding the type approval.

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The final calibration measure to consider concerns the energy regeneration, which can be whipped up in four steps from zero to max, the latter better known as one-pedal feel. Electric drive is active up to 130km/h, but only very briefly.

In real life, the claimed zero-emission range of 12km is barely sufficient for a silent early morning tip-toe out of the gated community where a run-of-the-mill 11kW wallbox should have charged the briefcase-size battery pack overnight.

Thanks to all-wheel drive, sticky 265/40 and 295/35ZR20 tyres, the low centre of gravity and neatly balanced weight distribution, grip and traction cannot possibly be an issue for this four-door, four-seat 2.38-tonner. True – except when you feel like riding a radical impromptu torque attack on a winding wet or dust-coated road with ESP not paying full attention.

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Unbuckling the torque belt is guaranteed to generate the same exuberant tail-happiness we last experienced fully wrapped in goose pimples at the wheel of a 527kW Dodge Charger. Like its two-door stablemates, the new AMG GT 63 S is sufficiently bling-loaded to exude more than a whiff of that drug baron gang-style.

An extended electric range might have helped to close the yawning social acceptance gap, but it's too late now for such a fundamental change, and the third model generation currently under development will be exclusively battery-powered anyway, so if it wasn't for the embarrassing fuel economy (the test car averaged 27.4L/100km) one should perhaps simply enjoy one of the old world's finest pieces of kit before a litre of petrol costs more than a bottle of top-notch claret.

We have driven plenty of fine AMG products over time – think CLK DTM, 500E 6.0 or GT-R Black Series, but there were also several duffers clouding the picture like the first E55, SLK55 and S63. As far as the four-door models go, the W124-based so-called Hammer available only in the US was a truly outstanding effort, but at the end of the day, nothing comes close to the red overachiever featured here.

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It musters more bottom-end grunt, mid-range urge and high-rpm explosivity than any of its rivals, its expertly honed suspension enhances the ride quality without sacrificing any dynamic strength, the handling is entertaining yet quite benign on a high level, and the advanced software makes extreme speeds a lot safer and thus more accessible.

Any nose-heavy rear-wheel-drive tyre-eater can play Smokey the Bandit all day long, but very few top-league entrants fuse two souls, sportscar and GT, with random instant access to both talents, either individually or in sync. This two-in-one DNA is particularly stunning in the 120-200km/h range when the two-speed transmission summons a taller final drive ratio at around 130km/h, that's 13,500rpm in e-motor numericals, for a massive second-wave energy boost.

This is 2022, and we're in Central European heartland where the automobile is currently undergoing a dramatic change of image and perception. But what the heck – let's cover the badge on the boot with a strip of black gaffa tape, zero the fuel consumption readout, put on the biggest dark glasses, and enjoy the drive.

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In more ways than one, this Benz feels as unreal as one of those six-figure SUV behemoths converted by AMG, BMW M, Audi Sport or JLR's SVO division. The huge weight is at all times an obvious issue, but despite the massive bulk the AMG GT 63 S does not understeer like a dachshund pup, roll like a grizzly in heat or fight for grip like a cat on an ice rink.

The multi-talented steering does not just give vague instructions, it plots the course, clearly and precisely, period. The carbon-ceramic brakes don't simply shorten the distance between now and not too late, they actually destroy kinetic energy with a physical force that makes the mind boggle and the eyes rotate in their sockets.

And the interaction of the adjustable dampers, rear-wheel steering and triple-chamber air springs does not merely keep all four wheels on the ground at all times but has compliance written all over its high-tech hardware and the software that masterminds it.

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The battery pack weighs only 89kg, but in combination with the two-speed gearbox, the side-to-side diff lock and the elaborate 14-litre cooling system that washes round each of the 560 cells to keep the working temperature at a cosy 45 degrees C, the boot size shrinks to a paltry 335 litres. The payload is incidentally limited to a matching 380kg.

The morale of the nine-speed automatic varies from laissez-faire in Electric over velvety but firm in Sport to punchy in Race. Although the regeneration system will in stage four feed up to 100kW of excess energy back to the batteries, the one pedal mode is an acquired taste even in stop-and-go traffic.

On the autobahn, the theoretical top speed of 320km/h keeps clashing with reality now that soaring petrol prices have slowed down the flow for good. But as soon as a gap opens between groups of traffic, the red AMG coupe will challenge and conquer it like the new grandmaster of absolute speed, relative distances and the driver's seventh sense.

There is no doubt about it: the brawniest AMG model ever deserves a place of honour on every petrolhead's motherboard.