2019 Mercedes-AMG GT53 4-Door is a muscle car in fancy pants

You might wonder how the GT 4-Door can live alongside the CLS-Class without the two stepping on one another's metaphorical toes, but Mercedes makes it work.

The CLS-Class now stops with the Mercedes-AMG CLS53, which it's also turned into the starting point for the GT 4-Door.

And while it might look like a base model on paper, it's anything but, taking everything good about the two-door GT and stretching the canvas.

Its powertrain is properly potent: Like all 53-badged AMG models, my tester wields a 3.0-liter, turbocharged inline-6 good for 429 horsepower and 384 pound-feet of torque.

Mercedes hooks this up to a 48-volt mild-hybrid system that adds another 21 hp and 184 lb-ft as necessary.

The electric motor does a great job filling in torque gaps in the rev band, pushing me along in a way that feels like I'm tapping into a seemingly endless well of miles per hour.

But it can also act in a perfectly sedate manner, humming along quietly enough between home and the office.

The GT53 can ramp up or tamp down its aggression as the situation demands, thanks to vehicle modes that truly do change the character of the car.

The $1,850 performance exhaust system is at its best with the engine set to Dynamic, its sportiest setting, where it pops and crackles and barks during upshifts, downshifts and whenever the throttle is lifted.

Keep scrolling or clicking to check out even more pictures of the 2019 Mercedes-AMG GT53 4-Door.