The new Mercedes-AMG GT3 now has its official name and is running at the Nordschleife of Nürburgring. Mercedes-AMG has confirmed that the Concept GT Track Sport, the prototype that has been testing under camouflage for months, becomes the successor to the GT3 Evo, set to compete starting in 2027 in the WEC, IMSA, and the rest of the major GT series.

Affalterbach Racing produces its first race car

The project is the first to emerge from Affalterbach Racing GmbH, the subsidiary Mercedes-AMG created in 2024 by acquiring HWA. That technical team built the original GT3 in 2016, the Evo evolution in 2020, and all of Mercedes' DTM cars over the past two decades, so the accumulated experience was not lost with the change in corporate structure. What did change is that Affalterbach Racing now operates with direct resources from Mercedes-AMG and a shorter decision-making chain.

Photo By Mercedes Benz

GT3 regulations require that each race car be based on a production model, meaning a road car that can be purchased. Mercedes-AMG's problem is that the two-seat GT on which the original GT3 was built, the C190, ceased production when the range switched to a four-seat format in 2023. The Evo continues to compete with that discontinued architecture, but to develop a successor, it was first necessary to create a new road car that met the requirement. The GT Black Series exists for that purpose. Michael Schiebe, chairman of Mercedes-AMG, said the goal is to build "the most extreme Black Series" in history alongside a GT3 that will be "the next record-breaking car" in Customer Racing.

The new GT3 is already running at the Nürburgring

The prototype has been running at Bilster Berg, Portimão, Monteblanco, and the company's own facilities at Immendingen since October 2025. The news, besides the confirmation of names, is that the program has now reached the Nordschleife at Nürburgring. Christoph Sagemüller, head of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport, said the data obtained so far is valuable and that upcoming sessions will take place on circuits from the international GT3 calendar.

Winward Racing won the IMSA GTD teams' championship in 2025 with the GT3 Evo, Iron Lynx maintains an active program in WEC LMGT3, four cars compete in the 2026 DTM, and the platform has a presence in multiple GT and endurance series around the world through customer teams. Altogether, the platform has accumulated nine years and no longer has a current production car as a homologation reference, a situation that affects all those teams as much as it does Mercedes-AMG.

Photo By Mercedes Benz

2027 and the GT3 generational shift

Toyota Gazoo Racing is also preparing a new GT3 for the same window, the GR GT3, as confirmed by Toyota and ACO documents. The WEC adopted the LMGT3 category in 2024, and the consolidation of that class is accelerating the renewal cycles among manufacturers. In IMSA, the GTD and GTD Pro categories require teams to operate homologated, competitive cars, which puts pressure on not stretching platforms beyond what is reasonable.