Words: Richard Edwards
Published 14 August 2026
Mercedes-AMG is preparing a new GT Black Series, a road-going twin of its next-generation GT3 race car and the most extreme machine in its future line-up.
The supercar is expected to be revealed next year ahead of a 2028 on-sale date, and is likely to use a heavily worked version of AMG’s new flat-plane-crank V8. Its most obvious conceptual rival is Toyota’s track-focused GR GT.
Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius, speaking to UK publication Autocar, says the project is a case of letting the engineers off the leash, describing the result as “insane” and promising something completely different from what anyone expects. autocar
AMG has not confirmed outputs, but says the car will comfortably exceed the 450kW and 850Nm of the current GT 63 Pro.
The Black Series badge is reserved for AMG’s most hardcore road cars. It first appeared in 2006 on an extreme version of the SLK 55 AMG, and was most recently applied to the previous-generation GT, which briefly held the Nürburgring production car lap record.
Källenius points to the new flat-plane V8 as central to the firm’s ongoing investment in combustion engineering, saying the powertrain will be needed for years to come, particularly in sports cars. He owns a V8-powered SL himself.
The decision to fit the mild-hybrid V8 across AMG models in place of plug-in hybrid systems marks a shift in strategy, though Källenius says PHEV development continues where it suits, whether for efficiency or outright performance. He acknowledges enthusiast demand for lighter, non-hybrid models remains strong.
He also draws a line from the coming Black Series back to the AMG One hypercar, which brought the V6 turbo hybrid powertrain from the brand’s 2015 championship-winning Formula 1 car to the road, describing that project as an impossible task the engineers found a way to deliver.
New Zealand pricing and timing are yet to be confirmed, though the current AMG GT range is sold here through Mercedes-Benz NZ, and previous Black Series models have reached our market in very limited numbers.
