"Coupe" or Sedan? AMG GT63 S vs. CT5 Blackwing (POV Drive Comparison)

You just get there. You get there faster than you thought you could with a huge grin on your face to pursue the extent of this car's performance faculties. I've got the keys to that 23 Mercedes AMG GT63S 4-door coupe, quite a mouthful, and my 23 Cadillac CT5V Blackwing, and today we're going to compare them. Now, I know what you're thinking. Well, those two aren't direct competitors, and yes, if you look at a price sheet, this one is more than $80,000 more expensive than my Blackwing, but if you think of this more as a 4-door coupe versus 4-door sedan comparison, then the similarities are getting interesting because they're both forced induction, V8 powered, they're both making some attempts at family friendliness, and both make over 600 horsepower, so let's take it from here. Starting with the AMG, we've got that slotted grille with a giant tri-star in the center beneath another tri-star up on the hood. Here we have projector LED headlights with LED DRLs and turn signals above lots of functional ventilation, including active grille shutters. This one is painted in a cashmere matte white color, and I think it looks great with these black accents like these 21-inch forged alloy wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, 275 section front and 315 at the rear. Within those wheels are some prodigious drilled and slotted steel brakes. There's your V8 by Turbo badge, optional carbon fiber mirror caps, and stepping back to look at the profile, here's where that 4-door coupe design language comes through with a gentle taper to the roofline into the decklid. At the back, we find an optional carbon fiber fixed rear wing, slender LED taillights and turn signals, and a prominent gloss black diffuser with four trapezoidal exhaust ports. Moving over to the Blackwing now, one thing that might surprise you is that both of these vehicles share a wheelbase length of 116 inches, and the GT is about four inches longer overall, but it's not a massive size delta, and I didn't expect that coming into this. The Blackwing is in a much less subtle electric blue color that gets me excited every time I see it in the garage. There's a V badge on the side. Unlike the 21-inch wheels of the AMG, we've got 19s here in a satin graphite color. They're wrapped also in Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, 275 section front and 305 at the rear. Within those wheels are dark red painted carbon ceramic brakes, unlike the steel brakes of the AMG. There's some carbon fiber for the lower sill, gloss black for the mirror caps and window trim. Getting to the back, we find vertically oriented LED taillights in darkened taillight housings with a carbon fiber rear spoiler and a carbon fiber diffuser with four trapezoidal exhaust ports like the AMG GT. Another thing that might surprise you, the roofline taper of the Blackwing is pretty similar to the AMG GT. It's gentle in its slope, a little more aggressive than the coupe design of the GT, but not as aggressive as some other sedans. At the front, we find also vertical LED daytime running lights with LED reflector headlights. Wish those were projectors. You do get a jutting front splitter in carbon fiber and carbon fiber for the grille surround with loads of functional ventilation for the Blackwing. And I know the AMG GT 63 has this prestige, this gravitas, that can't be matched by the Blackwing. And I know that parked in front of the same fancy restaurant, this one is going to draw a crowd and this one will just draw a few interested enthusiasts. But my question for you is which is the better overall design, the AMG GT 63 S or the CT5B Blackwing? Let me know in the comments and let's check out the interior of the AMG. Opening up and looking inside at this exclusive black Nappa leather interior with two sunroofs and a suede wrapped headliner, yellow seat stitching, suede inserts and individual buckets for two rear passengers with no middle seat. On the doors, more yellow stitching, leather all the way down the panel, suede insert, gloss carbon fiber, rear seat heating and a Burmester 3D sound system. Stepping in behind my own seat at six feet tall, I've got plenty of knee room. The seat back is in plastic. The foot pockets are very, very narrow and that hurts the thigh support. Headroom is good. Head is just grazing against the roof with my head back in that headrest. Gets the thumbs up from me. There are air vents in the middle. You get a USB-A port down here and a DC outlet in addition to two more USB-A ports here, plus two cupholders and some storage. Let's check out the front next. Now, we do have soft closed doors, so there's no real need to slam them, but if you wanted to just hear, it's a pretty solid thud. We've got smart keyless entry for the rear and front doors. The front seats are these nicely aggressive buckets with pass-throughs for a racing harness. You get your AMG crest up on the headrest. They're heated, not ventilated or massaging. AMG floor mats, aluminum foot pedals, AMG illuminated tread plates. The front doors look similar to the back. We add power adjusting and power folding door mirrors, plus three position memory for your seats and a release for the hatch. Inside, we find 16 cubic feet of space and because of the hatch design, it's very easy to access that space. Unfortunately, there's no way to fold down the rear seats, so this is kind of what you've got in terms of practicality. There's a power close and lock button on the hatch, and then to get in the driver's seat, be careful to avoid the tall lower bolsters. We'll soft close up the door. Looking at this impressive steering wheel with leather wrapping and perforations at nine and three, a flat bottom. It's super thickly padded. There are large aluminum paddles on the back of the wheel. We've got reconfigurable drive selections on the left, drive mode dial off touch sensitive controls on the wheel. On the left, they control the digital instrument cluster. On the right, they control your infotainment. Both are 12.3-inch screens within a single piece of glass. The infotainment is nice and responsive and has wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Around the screen is stitched leather with a head-up display. You get tons of carbon fiber across the dashboard, plus these turbine-style air vents with ambient lighting that shows up even during the day. Suede wrapping beneath that, physical climate inputs, press forward on the carbon fiber to find two cup holders, two USB-C ports, and a DC outlet. There's a trackpad here to control the infotainment if you don't want to touch the screen, and then eight individual drive modules in the shape of a V, like the V8 found under the hood. I love that. Leather is on the console, and inside is a wireless charging pad, USB-C port, but not much storage. Visibility is just kind of okay with a blind spot at that back pillar. Thankfully, you've got standard blind spot monitoring with rear cross traffic. This cabin is something else. These four individual bucket seats, all the carbon fiber, leather, suede, an impressive technology. It's an expensive car, but it kind of feels it. The Cadillac is going to have to bring it to beat this. Opening the Blackwing now, and looking inside at this black, semi-aniline leather interior with a suede-wrapped headliner, no sunroofs, red and white accents on the seat, and red seat belts. On the doors, we find leather up top, gloss carbon fiber, suede inserts, leather padding for your arm, and very hard plastics down low. There's an AKG sound system. Stepping in behind my own seat once again at six feet, I've got a good amount of knee room behind the beautiful carbon bucket seats. The foot pockets are good size to slide my feet under, and so that helps with thigh support. Headroom isn't as rosy a picture. Head is pressed against the roof. Can't even make it back to that headrest. It's gonna be a thumbs down from me. There are air vents in the middle, one USB-C port, and a DC outlet. The driveshaft dump is big, and you'd have to get over it to get into this middle seat. There's an armrest that comes down with two cup holders and leather padding. Let's check out the front now. No soft close for the Blackwing. Let's listen to the door close noise. It's such a well-built thud. I love it. Smart keyless entry is just for the front two doors. The front seats are attractive and aggressive with a stitched pattern, pass-throughs for your racing harness, V-badge on the headrest. They're heated, ventilated, and have a lumbar massage with power adjusting side bolsters. There are V-badges on the floor mats, aluminum accents on the foot pedals, and for the tread plates. The front doors look similar to the back, adding power adjusting and power folding door mirrors. There's a button to release the trunk lid. It does come all the way up, but it's not power operated. Inside, we find 12 cubic feet of space, not as much as the AMG, and the opening to access that space isn't as convenient as the hatch. However, you can fold down the rear seats for more space. There's a built-in handle to close the trunk lid, and don't mind that rattle. It's just my license plate cover. To get in the driver's seat, I'm also going to lower myself slowly, but the lower bolsters are not as high as the AMG, and I will have to fully close the door myself. Doing so does prompt a very cool animation on the TFT and infotainment system, which I'm going to bypass to put the car in accessory mode. There's a suede-wrapped steering wheel with some carbon fiber and a VIN number at the bottom. There's leather topping the airbag. It's the perfect thickness of my hands. Red center mark up here. The TFT display is reconfigurable. There's a head-up display, stitched leather on the dashboard, some carbon fiber on the passenger side, and here's a 10-inch touchscreen. Not as big as the AMG and not as impressive of a layout, but it's very responsive, and it does have wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Beneath the screen is a volume knob and tuner, physical climate inputs, wireless charging pad, carbon fiber surrounding the key slot cup holders, and your suede-wrapped 6-speed manual gear selector. On the console is leather. Inside isn't much storage, but you do have one USB-A, one USB-C port, and a DC outlet. The rearview mirror is digital when the car is on to improve visibility, which isn't bad on its own, and you've got standard blind spot monitoring with rear cross traffic. I like this cabin, but I don't think it's disputable. The AMG GT 63 S has the much more special and luxurious interior with better technology. Let's now see if the Blackwing can claw back some respect with the way it drives. We are going to start behind the wheel of the AMG first, and you can start this vehicle in two different ways. Either you just hit the start-stop button, or you hold in a paddle while doing so, and it's more exciting because of the pops of overrun. I love that. AC is going to come in strong, so I'll turn that down, and our drive mode here is going to be comfort to get things going. Pull up on the stock to go into reverse. That brings up a high-resolution camera system with a backup view and trajectory lines, a bird's eye view, wide angle rear, overhead side view, front angle rear, and some parking assist. Let's choose this one, go down into drive, and begin with a turning radius test. So, wheel fully cranked, turns around really nice and tight thanks to the rear wheel steering system. Turn signal sound is a gentle tap. World-famous horn test now. Yields a solid but not otherwise noteworthy horn. The powertrain though, that's pretty noteworthy. We have a 4-liter twin-turbocharged V8 tuned to produce 630 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque in the S version of the GT63. The brake pedal can be a little grabby, but you can learn to adjust it so that you can smoothly come to a stop. The gearbox paired with that 4-liter V8 is a 9-speed dual-clutch automatic, and sometimes with dual clutches they can be a little clunky at lower speeds. So, let's see here. Wow, I mean you just have a touch of sway between the gear changes, but it's almost as smooth in its transitions as a torque converter automatic. So unusual for a dual-clutch, and that power is routed to an active all-wheel drive system. Getting up to speed is a smooth operation. Ride quality on this adaptive damper setup with air springs is compliant and comfortable. Good dampening force here. Occasionally, over certain very harsh bumps, there will be a crashing or booming resonance into the cabin, and that is a bit disruptive. Otherwise, you're pleasantly commuting. The seat comfort is decent. The shape of the seat is ergonomic. The padding, however, is a little on the firm side, and you can't adjust these side bolsters. As the speeds pick up, let's listen for the NVH level. It's a lot of tire noise. At least on certain road surfaces, that tire noise does penetrate the column of your drive, because the wind noise is low. That's not a factor here, and only, as I said, when you go over a really harsh bump, do you hear the crash of the suspension, but that tire hum is ever-present. Even the V8 in comfort is just a low murmur, and when you slacken off the throttle, cylinder deactivation comes into play. Here, we're running on four cylinders and then goes back to eight without you even noticing. Saving you fuel that could be better used on a better road like this one, at a better time like right now. So, let's go to the race drive mode and unleash the fury. What a monster! The bark of the V8, the vicious acceleration, the pops of overrun. Yes! There's so much character and obscene power, and then let's try manual mode. The large aluminum paddles feel great to operate. The tach is working on the right-hand side. Lets you pull it all the way out to red line. The shifts are quick. Oh my gosh! The speeds you can achieve would be way too much for so many other cars, and in the AMG it just feels so normal, so expected. It inhales road. You just get there. You get there faster than you thought you could with a huge grin on your face. How quickly will you get there, Miles? Well, to find out, we've got our race box set up here, and we're going to do a real world zero to 60 test. In race mode, to do launch control, just hold your foot on the brake, pin the throttle, race start is ready, let it go. 2.91 seconds to 60. Take my breath away, and it doesn't stop with straight line speed either, because the GT can handle its nearly 4,700 pounds shockingly well. The steering is well weighted and quick. The PS4S tires provide excellent grip in corners. The rear wheel steering system tucks the back end through a curve. The brakes have some good bite up front, but after having run this vehicle for a while, there's some heat-related fade to their performance, and I can only imagine on a track that's going to become much more of an issue than here on a canyon road. You can option carbon ceramics, but don't you think they should be standard in a vehicle that is as tested? $202,000? Two more quibbles with the performance. One, very quick changes of direction. The GT63 has difficulty disguising its weight as it sloshes side to side or back and forth under hard braking and prompt acceleration, and for the entire time I've been talking to you while in race mode, this seat belt's pre-tensioners have been attempting to squeeze the life out of me for some unknown reason. There are a number of highs, but a couple lows to the way the GT63S drives at ease and in anger, so let's hop in the Blackwing now to compare it. All right, let's fire it up in the Blackwing now. It's a deep bellow from that V8 to start things off. Our drive mode, selected here, will be Tour to begin. With everything except for the engine response and the engine sound in the mildest configuration, those two are up one level. To go in reverse, push over, and up, that brings up a very high resolution camera system, bird's-eye view off to the left, rear-facing view with trajectory lines on the right, or front-facing, or overhead front or back, or wheel shots. We have the digital rearview mirror going, and let's get out of here. As with the AMG GT, we'll do a turning radius test, but unlike the GT, we don't have rear-wheel steering, and the turning radius in the Blackwing is not great. Turn signal sound is perhaps even more gentle than the GT. World-famous horn test surprises me every single time. It's so sensitive to touch, just breathe against it. The horn sound is fine, though. Power train in the Blackwing. It's a 6.2-liter supercharged V8, making 668 horsepower and 659 pound-feet of torque. That is routed through your choice of a 10-speed automatic or, as we have here, a Tremec six-speed manual, and there's only rear-wheel drive. That's the only way the Moseying about town is an effortless endeavor. The Tremec is such a great gearbox. I want to say underrated. I've driven a lot of different manuals, but the engagement and release point of this clutch could not be easier to negotiate, and the throws are super clean and crisp. The engagement points with each cog cannot be missed, not easily at least, and it's just more than anything not a chore to daily drive this car with the manual. Power delivery is nice and linear. The brake pedal is so easy to modulate. You can creep up to that stop, and ride quality is so good. These magnetic ride control adaptive dampers are just the best, and I like them each time I drive something else with great ride quality. I get behind the wheel of this car, and I just go, this is it. Now, for the Blackwing, having the thicker sidewalls with the 19-inch wheels compared to the skinnier sidewalls of the AMG GT's 21-inch wheels does help, but it doesn't answer every question. This thing just rides sublimely. It dampens you, insulates you from the road imperfections flawlessly, and as the speeds pick up on this same bad road surface that the GT just went on, you still hear tire noise, but it's not as pervasive, and the wind and road noise are kept just as low as the GT. There's never a crash of the suspension, and the seat comfort is even better here, having the ability to adjust the side bolsters, and with a little extra padding that we have in these seats, it's a better daily driver. I'm more comfortable. I'm more at ease, and while your co-workers will probably be more impressed if you show up to work in the AMG GT 63 compared to the Blackwing, you may be able to win them over with a spirited drive to lunch. So, you hit the V-mode button, instantly things get a little crazier, and we see what happens with the no-lift shift, and supremely exhilarating acceleration. Oh, this car just sits back on its haunches and unloads. The sound is great, the acceleration is intoxicating. No-lift shifting never gets old. This, this, that. Now, I do have to acknowledge that the greatness of this gearbox and engine combination can't distract me quite enough from the fact that the punch in the Blackwing, though it's great, and though on paper this car makes more power than that GT 63 S, it doesn't feel quite as fast. I have to wonder if an independent dyno test wouldn't show that the GT 63 was actually making more power at the wheels than this car. And that's just in the mid-range. From a dig, we can probably guess how this is going to go, but I am going to do launch control. I've got my race box up once more. I will activate the performance traction management to enable launch control with my foot in on the clutch and in first gear, pinning the throttle, holding revs, letting go of the clutch, and doing as quick a shift as possible, getting to 60 in 3.95 seconds. Yes, that means that, surprise, surprise, the rear-drive manual Blackwing is slower to 60 than the automatic all-wheel-drive GT 63 S. But that's not the end of the conversation, because as it relates to handling, the Blackwing has two great assets compared to the GT. For one, it weighs more than 600 pounds less. And two, its rear limited-slip differential is the stuff of sorcery. I do not understand how it gets the power down so well out of corners. The steering as well is perfectly weighted, building up in resistance in a very communicative way. The platform talks to you, the brakes bite and do not fade. You're just encouraged to pursue the extent of this car's performance faculties and know that they are extensive indeed. Look, if this drive comparison was purely about finding the better driver's car, I'd already have my answer. The Blackwing is more engaging, it's more precise, it's more playful than the AMG GT, but there's more to it than that. So let's go over top speed, fuel economy, and pricing before reaching an official verdict. Since we're in it, let's start with the Blackwing. The fuel economy is 13 mpg in the city, 21 on the highway, and 15 combined. The top speed is 205 miles per hour. The starting price is around $93,000. This anniversary edition with a lot of options is priced around 125 grand. Think that's a lot of money? Just wait. The Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S has fuel economy ratings of 17 in, sorry, 15 in the city, 21 on the highway, and 17 combined. The top speed is 195 miles per hour, and the starting figure is $171,500. The one we were driving, a little under 202 grand. Putting that price aside for just a second, some of my favorite things about the AMG GT 63 S. For one, the curb appeal. It's got this wow factor that may not be quite worth as much as the price they're asking for, but it's worth a lot. Like, people are going to give you some attention and respect if you pull up in that, and the interior continues that story. It just takes a nice warm dookie all over this cab. This just, it can't even compare. And that motor and the transmission, the combination of the two is chef's kiss. It's just, it's spectacular. Furthermore, in the real world as we find ourselves right now, that AMG GT 63 is going to be quicker just about everywhere. From light to light, making a pass on the highway, it will just leave the Blackwing for dead, especially the manual version of this car. And when you're running errands, the hatch practicality pays dividends compared to a conventional trunk. And the Blackwing's answer to all of that is better ride quality, day in and day out, and a more engaging drive whatever the environment you find yourself. Oh, and the fact that it's about $80,000 less to start. Are people actually going to cross shop these two vehicles? I'm not entirely sure. The same person who is attracted to the pizzazz and even the price point of the AMG GT 63 S for its exclusivity is probably not going to be the same person who's attracted to the engagement factor and the manual gearbox and the lower price point of the CT5E Blackwing. But if they are the same person, here's my verdict for you. I'd pit my favorite two models of each segment against one another. We've got four-door coupe, my favorite is that AMG GT 63 S, and my favorite four-door sedan is this CT5E Blackwing. What I learned is that when a sedan is as good as this one, I'll take it over a four-door coupe any day of the week for the money. Because here's the caveat, if someone was just to dangle both keys in front of me and say, hey, you don't have to pay for either of them, I'll just give one of them to you. The AMG's cabin is so nice and the exterior has such an impact, the motor sounds so good and it's a little extra practical, I'd probably take that one. But if they later said, ah, you know what, I'm going to send you a bill for it, I would laugh my entire way through the burnout I would take away from them in the Blackwing. Which would you guys choose though, Blackwing or AMG GT 63 S? Please let me know in the comments and I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, please like, comment, and share it. Subscribe to the channel, hit that bell to get notified, and I'll see you next time.