Not for the first time, the pinnacle product of an AMG supercar line – the one that should have you quaking in your boots – is the one that turns out to be not just the fastest but also, by some margin, the easiest to drive. When the GT S took part in our annual competition to find Britain’s Best Driver's Car in 2015, its edgy handling came as a something of a disappointment.

But just as the Black Series SLS was by some distance the most forgiving SLS, so its AMG GT R descendant has pulled the same trick again. It’s no pussycat and remains more challenging on the limit than a lot of mid-engined exotica such as the Ferrari 488 GTB and McLaren 570S, but the crucial difference with the GT R relative to the GT S is that the effort required to drive it really fast is more than matched by the reward.

And it is really fast. Eye-poppingly so. The response from the tuned V8 is little short of brutal, almost regardless of the revs on the clock, as is the sound. Indeed, one way the GT R can be best enjoyed is to put the transmission into manual, hook a high gear at really low revs and see just how flexible the engine really is and hear just how fabulous its barrel-chested growl is at such revs. Good though the Ferrari and McLaren are, with their flat-plane cranks, they can’t do this.

The GT R's problem is that while Mercedes-AMG has provided it with the iron-fisted body control such a car clearly needs, it has not been able to do so while retaining the at times eerily good ride quality of its mid-engined rivals. AMG proudly states that most of the car’s development has taken place on the Nurburgring and, frankly, that’s how it feels. Even in comfort mode, the suspension was firm enough on the roads of the Algarve to make me wonder how it might fare in the probably more challenging environment back home.

Find a smooth stretch, however, and the GT R proves it has all the grip, the turn-in immediacy and traction of those that put their engine behind the driver. You learn to apply the power earlier and earlier in corners, barely believing how much the rear axle will transmit to the road without complaint.