Once upon a time Mercedes-AMG launched a supercar called the Mercedes-AMG GT and for a while all was clear. There were just two versions, a standard car with 461bhp and an S version with 503bhp. And all the world was happy because this was easy for our small brains to understand.

But then Mercedes decided to chop its head off to create two new models and had they just been to standard GT and GT S specification, we’d have understood that too. But though there was a GT roadster, its engine was mildly tweaked to 469bhp and while there was a faster version it wasn’t an ‘S’, it was a GT C. The GT C roadster had 549bhp.

However before they could hit the road, Mercedes dropped the GT R on us which has 577bhp. But it’s available only as a coupe. And it announced the GT C would be available in coupe form too.

Then, realising things were perhaps getting a little complicated, Mercedes decided to up the power of the GT coupe to the same 469bhp as its roadster sibling but then spoiled it all by announcing that the GT S would now have 515bhp, but remember you can only have this engine if you don’t mind having a roof over your head.

Related articles

So I count six different power outputs for a supercar that has not yet been on sale for two years.

If I try to boil all this down and simplify where things stand today, it seems you can have a coupe version of any AMG GT you like, but roadsters only in GT and GT C specification. Having decided it was definitely not going to do a GT R roadster, I understand that view has now been modified to ‘undecided’ and while no one will talk on the record about a GT S roadster, off the record it’s regarded as somewhat inevitable.

Are we done yet? Yes, but only for now. We know there is at least one more piece of the puzzle to come, and the smart money is that it will be a Black Series which, if it mirrors the SLS, will only be available as a coupe. But there is also the looming presence of another AMG, said to rival the Porsche Panamera, which would likely have to be built on the GT platform if it were to be a truly standalone AMG model and is slated to break cover as early as the Geneva motor show in March. How many engine outputs that car will be available with is not yet clear…