Before the redline regresses towards the middle of the tachometer, restarting its rabid climb to the top while sending its power to a new gear, you hear a concerto of snaps coming from the exhaust-the flames all being sent into the turbochargers mounted in the V of the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8. But the AMG GT-R isn't a car based solely on emotion even though it's got plenty of it. From the start, it's designed to bring hell to the Porsche 911.

As the hottest AMG GT that Mercedes builds, it must be able to fight the best Porsche 911 that Stuttgart can muster, the GT3. Neither car is a grand tourer, which is why when Autocar driver Dan Prosser finds the suspension to be too stiff for the UK's B-roads. Because comfort doesn't rank as high on the GT-R's list of demands, we can temporarily excuse it.

This, after all, is meant to be a race car and therefore it behaves like a snooty machine accustomed to the smooth tarmac of a track when taken to the same roads inhabited by more pedestrian vehicles. On the other hand, the sophisticated nine-mode traction control system has the ability to juggle all 577 horsepower even in the middle of a rain-slicked British road. Upping the level of control the driver has over the car was a progressive pursuit for the AMG team, with this version of the AMG GT featuring more responsive steering than models that came before it. Is all this enough to make the AMG GT-R better than the 911 GT3? That's a question that'll have to be answered on the track.