Mercedes GT3 review: It’s as fast as it is brutal

Joshua Dowling squeezes into the driver’s seat of the Mercedes GT3 race car to get the full race

2016 Mercedes-Benz AMG GT.

I’VE figured out why the world’s best race drivers are rake-thin.

Inside the cabin is as hot as a sauna — but they wear triple layer fireproof race suits.

They also need to be tiny to squeeze into the damn things.

Their bony backsides sit in a plastic seat with no padding. And the steering wheel isn’t so much a wheel as a rectangle with a handle at each end.

The steering wheel of the 2016 Mercedes-Benz AMG GT race car.

I learn this after clambering into the new Mercedes GT3 race car, one of only two in Australia, 16 in the world and priced at a neat $1 million.

Incredibly, Mercedes handed the keys — figuratively speaking, as there is no key or lock for this $1 million car — to a handful of motoring hacks at Sydney Motorsport Park this week.

“Oh and please don’t crash it,” says the instructor. “We’re racing this exact car 10 days from now.”

No pressure then.

2016 Mercedes-Benz AMG GT race car.

Because the Mercedes GT3 has bigger wings than V8 Supercars, wider tyres and a more powerful engine, it can lap this circuit five seconds quicker than the fastest Holden and Ford heroes. Five seconds doesn’t sound like much but most of the Top 10 V8 Supercars are within 0.3 second of each other. So five seconds is just about a decade in race car terms.

The only thing this car has in common with its road-going cousin are the headlights and tail-lights.

The roof has an access hole; it’s not big enough for a driver to crawl through but it is wide enough for a paramedic to reach in and treat the driver after a crash. Talk about a sobering thought. I was already nervous enough.

Oh, and it’s left-hand drive. And there’s only enough room to brake with your left foot, accelerate with your right.

2016 Mercedes-Benz AMG GT race car.

And with that, we’re off for three frightening laps — for me and the instructor sitting alongside.

The acceleration is so brutal it slams my head back into the seat. The steering is sharper than a computer mouse on its most sensitive setting. A slight input amounts almost to a U-turn.

The brakes squeal, not in pain but with sheer force. Shedding speed is almost as impressive as the acceleration.

I got nowhere near reaching the limit of the sticky tyres; it feels as if they’re made of velcro.

This car is so easy to drive (although hard to see out of) that mere mortals are getting behind the wheel.

If you’re rich enough ($1m for the car plus $800,000 for a season of racing) you too can be a pretend race driver.

Some of that cost is to hire staff to help you climb out of the claustrophobic cabin. It takes three crew to extricate me.

Unsurprisingly, at the end of this test drive there are no contracts waved at me.

2016 Mercedes-Benz AMG GT race car.