The new Mercedes-AMG GT4 completed its first racing laps on Nürburgring-Nordschleife at last weekend’s VLN endurance race. The customer racing car has yet been rated for the GT4 category hence it competed in the SPX class. Two GT4s joined the rainy race and team Uwe Alzen Automotive, consisting of Mercedes-AMG test and development driver Thomas Jaeger, Fabian Hamprecht and Mike Stursberg, took first place in the SPX class and 16th place overall among the 168 participants. Unfortunately the second car driven by Mercedes-AMG Testteam Black Falcon had to quit mid way due to minor complications.

As the purpose of joining the race was to gain further insight for fine-tuning the GT4’s performance before delivering it to the customer racing teams at the end of 2017, the rainy weather and poor conditions did more good than harm by making areas needing improvement very obvious. The GT4 is based on the GT R road car but features a larger rear wing and new aerodynamic tweaks. Its 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbo engine can deliver up to 510 hp and 600 Nm of torque, which pushes the car easily over the 250 km/h mark.