Not long ago, Mercedes-Benz moved its North American headquarters to Atlanta, a very reasonable 170-mile journey to Robbinsville, and they had just the right weapon to slay a dragon, our AMG GT 63 S E PERFORMANCE. This luxurious coupe-like, four-door sedan possesses a remarkable Jekyll and Hyde personality. Touring up to our destination in the “Comfort” mode, with Burmester Surround Sound entertainment and Distronic adaptive cruise control was effortless. But when asked to behave with alacrity when needed, the answer was instant.

Our GT 63 sedan is quite a unique product, beginning with an E-Class chassis reworked by the AMG folks with its hand-built, twin-turbo V8 up front aided by a 400 volt electric motor and 6.1 kWh battery in back. This remarkable scheme is based on Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team’s high-performance hybrid racing system and it’s amazingly quick. Mercedes press materials imply “accelerating out of corners with great agility”. That should win an award for understatement.

Car & Driver measured the sedan’s 0-to-60 acceleration is just 2.4-seconds. That’s what a circus performer might experience when shot from a cannon and when you apply this velocity to a corner exit on the Tail, you’re just moments from the next turn. And there’s more than the instant 1,032 pound feet of torque at work, there’s the 50-50 weight distribution, a bit of rear steering and advanced AMG chassis programming to make any driver confident. I certainly felt pretty good after our quick corner carving and my co-pilot Kathleen remained quite stoic strapped in her deeply bolstered Napa leather seat. For stereo, we let the powertrain provide sonic entertainment.

So how often do the Tail of the Dragon turns occur? Some right behind the other and a couple of stretches a bit longer than a city block that I encountered during our quick 11-mile journey. In those brief events, the AMG could rocket to 90 MPH or so before engaging the carbon ceramic brakes and battery regen system. We were not on a race track so keeping in the right lane was the absolute rule but during our early hour of “Tail” driving we didn’t encounter another motorist. 

Sport sedans and SUVs with serious athletic ability are pretty widely available from automakers and range from Honda, Hyundai, Toyota and VW offerings to Aston Martin, Bentley and Ferrari among others at the pinnacle price points. The rather direct challengers to our AMG include the Audi RS 7 along with BMW’s new M5 and the Porsche Panamera Turbo S E, both also plug-in hybrids. And Cadillac’s CT5 V Blackwing is a dark horse in this derby, but so far none quite measure up to the AMG.