BMW M Models vs Mercedes-Benz AMG GT

What's the difference?

To say the BMW M4 CS is a hot ticket in Australia is something of an understatement.

Consider this. There is an even more expensive one, the M4 CS Edition VR46 – at a cool $346,900 – and it sold out in less than an hour. Now, granted, Australia only got four examples, but still, demand was running hot.

That car makes this one, the regular M4 CS, seem like an absolute steal. It's only $254,900 (yes, the word 'only' is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence), and it shares the same upgrades, and makes the same monstrous power, as the VR46 – for Valentino Rossi’s 46th birthday – only it does it for around $100K less.

See? A bargain. At least, that's how I'd be justifying it to myself if I had a quarter of a million burning a hole in my pocket.

So, this or a Porsche 911? Read on.

Once upon a time, people would dream about owning a Mercedes-Benz 450SLC – the C107 sports/luxury coupe flagship of the 1970s.

Sexy, stylish, secure and incredibly solid, it embodied the brand’s ‘Engineered Like No Other Car' mantra of the era.

Today’s all-new, second-generation, C192 AMG GT Coupe is something of an indirect descendant of this sort of thinking, changing tack from its supercar-esque 2014 C190 predecessor, with more space, more seats, more sensibility and, conversely, even more steak and sizzle from its glorious V8.

A modern-day SLC? The Porsche 911, Aston Martin DB12, Maserati GranTurismo and Bentley Continental GT’s worst nightmare? Or something else entirely?

These questions and more are answered below.