At This Point The 2020 Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series Is Pointless

Allow me to be picky here for just a second. Yesterday, a new video of the purported 2020 Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series appeared, showing the green mule testing at the Nürburgring. It sounds guttural and mean as all hell, but what exactly is the point of it? None. There is no point.

Just to refresh your memory, the upcoming Black Series-ified GT will slot above the already track-tuned GT R with a supposed 603 horsepower from its familiar 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8. It'll probably have improved aerodynamics, weight loss and a racier suspension. It will be invariably quite expensive.

It's true that the last Black Series model we saw was the SLS AMG Black Series back in 2013, but it's not exactly like the current GT lineup is missing anything special. The GT R already does everything a Black Series philosophically would have done, it just has less power and doesn't say "Black Series" anywhere on it.

And if I really wanted to get cranky, I'd say that the GT lineup doesn't need a Black Series at all. The fact that a lineup exists in the first place (GT, GT C, GT R and the roadsters) already tells me that things have already been diluted too much for a GT Black Series to be that special.

Because that's what a Black Series was supposed to be: special. To achieve that, you need exclusivity. There were no other varying models of the SLK55, CLK63, SL65, C63 (I don't count the 507 or DTM Editions) and SLS AMG. Maybe there was a roadster flavor, but by and large, there was only the normal AMG version and then the Black Series version.

There is little doubt in my mind that I will love this car when it comes out because the AMG GTs are wonderful cars, both in sound and to drive, but this upcoming Black Series still smells like Mercedes' recent habit of sticking a badge on everything and calling it special.

Just like how there are AMG and AMG S models. I'm not about it.