Will Mercedes-AMG Take on the Porsche Cayman with a Stand-Alone Compact Sports Car?

TopSpeed

By Robert Moore

Published Apr 14, 2018

Watch out, Porsche… AMG is coming for you!

Mercedes-AMG has stepped into something big with the release of the AMG GT. After all, that car has spawned a handful of different models including the most recent GT 4-door Coupe. Now, it looks like Mercedes may have the Porsche Cayman in its sights, and it’ll take it on with a stand-alone small sports car.

The Next Mercedes-AMG Model

Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves – Mercedes hasn’t exactly confirmed a small sports car quite yet, but logic dictates it will be next. Just recently, AMG boss, Tobias Moers, ruled out an SUV as it would cannibalize other AMG derivatives of current Mercedes Models, but he did say that the 4-Door coupe wouldn’t be the last. And, it was made clear the reasoning behind the 4-door coupe was the sheer fact that there was space in the market for it:

“There was a clear space in the market for the four-door GT,” he said, “but we already have many excellent AMG SUV derivatives, and it makes no sense to steal from them just so we can make our own car.”

With that said, the Porsche Cayman is in dire need of a true and proper competitor and what better than a true-to-life all-AMG model to give it hell? It would be more affordable than something like the CLS-based 4-door GT or the AMG GT and, when you consider the fact that the Mercedes SLC just can’t dish out the pain, a smaller AMG sports car makes complete sense.

Final Thoughts

I was one of the first to criticize the 4-door GT because it really is nothing more than a slightly revamped CLS with some extra power. At the same time, however, I must admit that it's very cool to see AMG doing things on its own instead of applying the same treatment to cars already on the market. One could argue that it’s pretty much what it did to the CLS to make the 4-Door, but the AMG GT was an all-AMG model. With any hope, that’s exactly what AMG will do with a smaller sports car. Of course, AMG could just do the same thing it did with the 4-door and revamp the current-gen Mercedes C-Class so I wouldn’t hold my breath for a truly bespoke model just yet. Only time will tell, folks, but one thing is for sure – whether AMG designs an all-new car or piggybacks off of the C-Class, someone over at Porsche will stroke out when the big debut day comes.