Buy This $1.1 Million Mercedes-AMG Race Car, Get Flame-Resistant Underpants Free
Want to drive the same AMG GT race car the pros do, but with even more performance? Good luck getting (or affording) one.
With Pebble Beach events and Monterey Car Week 2024 in full swing, Mercedes-AMG is using it in part as an opportunity to reveal itself as the latest carmaker to offer its extremely wealthy, extremely exclusive customers an uncorked race car. In other words, a race car not limited by the same rules as the car the German manufacturer builds for pro competition and one that’s available for “regular” people’s personal enjoyment during track days and whatever other closed-course scenarios suit their fancy.
0:00 / 0:00
By “regular,” we mean a fortunate 13 (that’s how many cars Mercedes-AMG will create) people who can afford the approximate $1,134,000 (officially €1,030,000) starting price. This all means the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Edition 130Y Motorsport isn’t exactly relevant to pretty much the entire global population, but as far as dreams go, it’s worthy of inclusion at the top of every driving enthusiast’s fantasies. And for the record, all 13 copies are not yet sold.
What It Is
Bad ass and simple in concept, really. Similar to what Porsche did late last year when it created the 911 GT3 R Rennsport, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Edition 130Y Motorsport is built from the company’s FIA-homologated GT3 race car. But since it isn’t intended for officially sanctioned racing series, the GT3 130Y Motorsport need not comply with the FIA’s standard performance-restricting regulations or any BoP (balance of performance) handicaps. This means the fortunate 13 buyers of the cars and anyone who drives them will have access to even greater on-track capability than pro GT racing drivers do—assuming they are capable of extracting that performance. And assuming, of course, they use them as intended and don’t lock them away as investments or put them on display as mere showpieces.
Either way, the 13 examples of the GT3 130Y make it even rarer than the road-legal CLK GTR Straßenversion homologation special of the late 1990s of which Mercedes made only 25. So if you’re not attending Monterey Car Week right now, don’t count on seeing one any time soon, unless Mercedes displays an example at other upcoming auto shows.
The Hardware
The Mercedes-AMG GT3 130Y (thus named to celebrate the mothership’s 130 years of racing history, dating back to what most recognize as the first-ever auto race, held from Paris to Rouen, France, on July 22, 1894) is the final AMG GT3 race car that will be fitted with a naturally aspirated engine, another bit of trivia certain to make it a financial speculator’s pick.
Mercedes describes the car’s ethos as “modern motorsport technology meets traditional design elements of the legendary race cars from the 1950s.” Its 6.3-liter V-8 engine makes 671 hp and 538 lb-ft of torque, thanks to not having to use an FIA air restrictor and benefitting from a bespoke exhaust. For context, the horsepower figure is a significant jump beyond the typical 500–550 hp of an FIA-homologated GT3 racer, though not as extreme as what Ford is doing with its upcoming Mustang GTD. A six-speed sequential racing-spec transaxle gearbox with different gear ratios helps to transfer that power to the racetrack.
Truly extreme modern-day track performance is, however, as much about aerodynamics as it is about big engine output. To that end, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Edition 130Y Motorsport produces a claimed 15 percent more peak downforce than the official race car, owing to a new front splitter, fender louvres, and revised side skirts and underbody and rear diffusers. A wider rear wing features a drag reduction system (DRS) that’s illegal in GT3 racing series, activated by a button on the steering wheel. Also illegal in the pro ranks but featured here are active aero elements on the front underbody. The active aero tech, Mercedes-AMG says, enables the GT3 130Y to reach a top speed of 196 mph despite its notably increased downforce.
And Even More Hardware
Other bits that really matter included a carbon-fiber driver-safety cell and a full package of top-flight racing-safety items like a roll cage, fire extinguisher, and racing-spec adjustable traction control and antilock-brake settings. The brakes include carbon discs in place of the steel items mandated in GT3 racing. At a claimed 2,811 pounds, Mercedes-AMG says the car is lighter than the official race car, though we don’t know by how much.
Regardless, and to prove its capability, the company reports that pro driver and multi-time Bathurst 12 Hour winner Jules Gounon six months ago drove a prototype of the GT3 130Y to set a lap of 1 minute, 56.605 seconds on Australia’s famed Mount Panorama Circuit, beating the track record for GT race cars by 2.074 seconds. Mount Panorama is home of the Bathurst endurance race he won in 2020, 2022, and 2023, so you can bet Gounon knows it about as well as anyone and was able to pull the maximum from the AMG.
Other fun bits include a car livery inspired by the 1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL W 194 racer. It features special silver paint and blue accents on the front fenders and radiator grille surround. Inside, the cockpit nods to the past using blue checkered fabric on the single seat, brown leather headrests and door loops, and a racing steering wheel that features wood hand grips—stylistic flashes not found in normal modern race cars.
Special Delivery
Whoever the 13 individuals are who secure ownership of each Mercedes-AMG GT3 Edition 130Y Motorsport, they will also receive a 1:8-scale model of the car, a custom car cover, and Mercedes-AMG-/Puma-designed and personalized racing suit, gloves, shoes, and flame-resistant underwear. Oh, and a Bell Racing helmet and a personalized, blue-checkered interior-matching bag to carry it all in. Whether or not the entire million-plus package sounds worth it to you, we won’t be remotely surprised if all 13 examples are sold by the time you read this, and certainly not by the time Monday rolls around and Monterey Car Week 2024 is over.
I’m not sure if this is bizarre, amusing, interesting, or none of those, but I remember picking up the inaugural issue of Automobile from the magazine rack at a Meijer grocery store in metro Detroit. At 9 years old in 1986, I was already a devoted consumer of car magazines, and this new one with the funky font on the cover caught my eye immediately. Longtime Automobile editor and present-day contributor Michael Jordan despises this story, but I once used his original review of Ferrari’s F40 as source material for a fifth-grade research project. I still have the handwritten report on a shelf at home. Sometimes I text MJ pictures of it — just to brighten his day. I’ve always been a car fan, but I never had any grand dreams, schemes, or plans of making it onto this publication’s masthead. I did earn a journalism degree from Michigan State University but at the time never planned to use it for its intended purpose. Law school made more sense to me for some reason. And then, thankfully, it didn’t. I blame two dates for this: May 1 and May 29, 1994. The former was the day Formula 1 star Ayrton Senna died. As a kid, I’d seen him race years earlier on the streets of Detroit, and though I didn’t follow F1 especially closely, the news of his demise shocked me. It’s the only story I remember following in the ensuing weeks, which just happened to lead right into the latter date. By pure chance, I had earlier accepted a friend’s invitation to accompany him and his father to the Indy 500. You’ve probably heard people say nothing prepares you for the sight of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, especially in real life on race day, with more than 250,000 spectators on the ground. It sounds like clichéd hyperbole, but it’s true. And along with my renewed interest in F1 in the wake of Senna’s death, that first encounter with Indy ignited a passion for motorsports I never expected to find. Without charting the entire course here, the upshot is that it led me to a brief stint working at a racing school, and then to Autoweek, where I worked as a full-time staffer for 13 years, the majority of them as motorsports editor. I was also a tester and reviewer of road cars, a fleet manager, and just about everything in between that is commonplace at automotive enthusiast outlets. Eventually, my work there led me to Automobile in early 2015 — almost 29 years to the day that I first picked up that funky new car mag as my mom checked-off her grocery list. What else do you probably not want to know? I — along with three other people, I’m told frequently — am an avid NBA fan, evidenced by a disturbingly large number of Nikes taking up almost all of my closet space. I enjoy racing/driving video games and simulators, though for me they’ll never replace the real thing. Road cars are cool, race cars are better. I’ve seen the original “Point Break” at least 147 times start to finish. I’ve seen “Top Gun” even more. The millennials on our staff think my favorite decade is the ’80s. They’re wrong. It’s the ’90s. I always have too many books to read and no time to do so. Despite the present histrionics, I do not believe fully autonomous cars will dominate our roads any time soon, probably not for decades. I used to think anyone who didn’t drive a manual transmission wasn’t a real driver, but I was wrong. I wish I could disinvent social media, or at least somehow ensure it is used only for good. And I appreciate being part of Automobile’s proud history, enjoying the ride alongside all of you.
Read More