The Mercedes-AMG GT 4 Door Just Nabbed A Niche 'Ring Record From The Porsche Panamera

The wording of Nurburgring records is becoming increasingly important. With Porsche having claimed what it called the “fastest executive car” lap record with the new Panamera Turbo S, Mercedes has gone two seconds faster with the AMG GT 4 Door.

With this 7min 27.8 effort from AMG development engineer Demian Schaffert, Mercedes is calling dibs on ostensibly the same thing, although it’s referred to by the company as the best “luxury class” time. Previously, the GT 4 Door was said to be the “fastest four-seater”.

The reason for all the wordplay shenanigans? That pesky Jaguar XE SV Project 8. Mercedes can’t lay claim to having the fastest four-door or saloon car record, and not just because the GT ‘4 Door’ is technically a five-door hatch, but because the Jag is significantly faster around the Nordschleife. In two-seater Track Pack guise, the car improved upon its already blisteringly fast time by 2.9 seconds last year, going around in 7min 18.361sec.

Semantics aside, the GT 4 door’s feat is an impressive one, particularly given the conditions at the time of the run, which are described as “anything but optimal”. The ambient temperature was seven degrees Celsius, with the tarmac only a few degrees warmer. There were even damp patches dotted around the track, something that wouldn’t have gone together all that well with the car’s dry-biased Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres. The lap was timed by a German company called Wige Solutions, and certified by an “independent notary,” Mercedes says.

It also looks to have been filmed very late in the day, and sure enough, in an analysis by Nurburgring local Misha Charoudin (above), we’re told the lap was set just after 16:00 on 4 November, within an hour of sunset. Given the less than ideal setting for the attempt, he reckons the car could easily go a few seconds faster.

We’re expecting this to be something of a warm-up for the main event - a new production car lap record set by the AMG GT Black Series, which Charoudin estimated to have set a 6min 43sec lap.

Watch this space.