We suspected it was coming and now, after Mercedes-AMG boss, Tobias Moers, confirmed the launch of a GT Roadster earlier this week, a camouflaged tester of the open-top supercar was spied on the German Autobahn.

The person who nabbed the AMG GT Roadster says it was travelling together with the 911 Convertible seen in front, which if true, means Mercedes was benchmarking it against the Porsche.

From what we can decipher from the pictures, there’s no SL-style trick folding hardtop here, just a traditional canvas roof, which aside from helping further distance the two cars from each other, should also help keep the weight down, which is essential to a pure sports car like the AMG GT. The Roadster also gets a newly designed boot lid that incorporates a third brake light.

We should see the Roadster retaining the GT and GT S’ 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine producing 456hp and 503hp respectively, but we wouldn’t rule out a more extreme version based on one of the upcoming models AMG has in store for us such as a Black Edition with a more hardcore chassis setup and extra power.

Speaking at the launch of the extreme AMG GT R, Moers said that there’s a chance we could see the Roadster model unveiled as early as the end of this year, which would place the production launch sometime in 2017.

Photos Mert Yildirim / CarPix

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