Mercedes-AMG GT R Pro 2019 UK first drive

However, in what I could at least see was a mid-range suspension setting leaving room to both stiffen and soften should you wish, the GT R Pro deals with normal roads and everyday driving encouragingly well. It feels at once more rigid and all-of-a-piece than other GTs and also more settled and composed over bumps. That new suspension has dialed out much of the restive pitch-sensitivity and aggressive firmness from the GT’s close body control.

The car’s ride has that noisy-yet-ever-taut, expensively engineered feel that’ll be familiar to the owners of Porsche RS cars and track-intended Lotuses among others. It thumps a bit over Catseyes and sharp edges, and it bristles over high-frequency inputs and at town speeds – and in neither case would you call the upshot entirely comfortable. It’s the rear axle that’s the noisier of the two, mostly because the car’s standard half-cage bridges the rear suspension towers and it allows every input a direct audible route into the cabin. But then roll-cages do that.

There’s some suppleness to proceedings over longer-wave undulations taken at decent ground-covering speed, thankfully, and first-rate initial damper response so that, despite looking so short-on-travel given how well those lightweight forged rims fill the arches, the car’s axles don’t seem so most of the time. I spent a while wondering, in fact, whether the GT R Pro might even be the best-riding GT I’ve driven. In some ways, not least because it’s not a particularly high bar, it might be.

If the car doesn’t quite qualify as a bona fide world-class track car, then, it’s not for the want of dynamic composure or body control. The car’s powertrain isn’t short on dramatic charm or any-rpm speed and response. You can wind up the V8’s crank to the far side of 5000 and marvel at its angry theatrical fervour; or – unlike in some smaller-engined rivals – you can leave it in a high gear and pick up speed easily from low revs. Either way, this is a very fast car with a bit of multi-faceted character about it. The transaxle gearbox can engage a little abruptly at low speeds if you use the sportier driving modes, but left in Comfort it can be smooth and predictable, and always shifts quickly in manual mode.

It’s the slightly hyperactive feel of the car’s handling – specifically, the steering – that might provide the dynamic stumbling block. Like all GTs, the GT R Pro sits you a long way from the front axle, and tries to make up for that with the added off-centre agility conjured by the car’s variable-ratio steering box and active four-wheel steering. The trouble is, the trickery doesn’t help – and so the notional distance imposed by those often-unpredictable systems ends up being as much of a problem as the physical distance between your backside and the front of the car.

You just never quite feel entirely comfortable or fully in tune with the car’s handling responses – something the added lateral purchase and agility possessed by the GT R Pro’s chassis probably exacerbates a little. Every time you venture beyond a quarter turn of lock, around a roundabout or T-junction, the rate of gain in the steering gear somehow takes you by surprise. There’s useful weight and feel to the rack initially, but it begins to go missing in some dynamic modes as you add speed and lateral load.

And what it all amounts to is that, in the sorts of moments and scenarios where the character of the very best driver’s cars tends to crystallise and their abilities begin to shine, the GT R Pro remains a handful. It’s a more competent car up to a point, but still a hard one to predict at times, and to fully put your faith in.