This Mercedes-AMG GT Concept celebrates the 50th anniversary of Mercedes' partnership with AMG

It’s the 87th annual Geneva International Motor Show this year, but 2017 is a rather special year for Mercedes as it prepares to celebrate its 5oth anniversary of its partnership with AMG. While the launch of the Mercedes-AMG hypercar at the Frankfurt Motor Show will be the true celebration, the Geneva Motor Show did have something special, in the form of the Mercedes-AMG GT Concept, one that is expected to be a preview of the upcoming hypercar, one that’s already been sold out 2 years before its launch.    The Mercedes-AMG GT Concept does come with a couple of firsts. It is the first car in the AMG GT line up to feature four doors and it also happens to be the first Mercedes-AMG vehicle to feature a hybrid powertrain. While it’s still a concept it is also the first car to bear the EQ Power+ designation, one that Mercedes will apply to its performance hybrid lineup in the near future. While it may not look like a radical concept car that you would expect from an auto manufacturer like Mercedes, the good stuff and references to the upcoming hypercar are actually on the inside.  The highlight of the Mercedes-AMG GT Concept is indeed its hybrid powertrain. It features a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 petrol engine that is linked to a 4Matic AWD system along with a high-performance electric motor at the rear to power just the rear wheels. The combination delivers up to 816 PS of power and according to Mercedes-AMG will get this GT going from 0-100kmph in just 3 seconds. It also gets torque vectoring. In more ways than one its the electrical system that is sort of a reference design with what Mercedes-AMG will put on the road in its upcoming hypercar.  It functions in a way similar to Formula 1 cars with batteries getting charged when the vehicle is on the move. The car can even run on either the motor or the engine alone. This is similar to what we have heard about the hypercar. It was recently confirmed that the hypercar will utilize a formula one 1.6-litre V6 engine, replete with electric motors and split-turbo systems. However, the engine idling will be more civilized and street-legal at 4,000 rpm. [caption id=“attachment_359214” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Concept art of the AMG hypercar by Piesert Design[/caption] Power is said to be in the 1000 bhp range and the same will be derived from an F1 1.6-litre engine combined with electric motors. And it’s not just the engine from an F1 car that will make it in this hypercar, but everything else including the transmission, the MGU-H system that uses heat from the exhaust to create electrical energy and much more. One thing’s for sure, it will definitely not carry the bulk we see on the Mercedes-AMG Concept.