AMG builds its first complete car and, despite the retro looks, the SLS gives a 21st-century performance, writes Kyle Fortune
IF YOU’VE ever wondered what the stars of the 50s would look like if they were reincarnated then take a look at the new Mercedes-Benz SLS. They’d be more chiselled and fitter, a JLo today to a 1950s Marilyn. The SLS is the most interesting car to come from Mercedes in a long time. Not because it looks so similar to the original 300 SL – though that in itself is a talking point as it’s gorgeous. The real interest with the SLS is the AMG lettering that follows its name.
The SLS might wear a Mercedes-Benz star on its perfectly proportioned, retro-styled snout, but it’s technically an AMG. That’s significant as Mercedes’ in-housing tuning unit has been waiting a long time to build its own car. Usually AMG simply re-engineers Mercedes’ road cars to turn them into tyre-tearing dragsters; it has been waiting 40 years for the chance to build its own clean-sheet car has. It’s also a matter of professional pride, because AMG resented McLaren being drafted in to build Mercedes’ last supercar – the SLR.
It has to be good then. But raw figures held up against that SLR suggest that AMG has missed its target. The big Mac delivers more power and torque: 617bhp and 780Nm play 563bhp and 650Nm but the SLS’s 0-100km/h time is the same 3.8 seconds as McLaren’s, which is partly due to AMG’s fastidious efforts to keep weight down – the SLS is built almost entirely from aluminium and weighs 200kg less than the carbon fibre SLR.
That the SLR is ultimately faster is academic, with its 334km/h top speed bettering the SLS’s 317km/h – though cheekily AMG claims that the SLS’s figure is electronically limited. Yet what really counts here is that the SLS costs around half the price of the silly-money SLR – the €177,000 German price is the only one Mercedes-Benz has announced – which makes it look like something of a bargain. AMG itself has more expensive models in its line-up.
Forget all the comparisons with the SLR though. The SLS is a very different car. It is a real event. From its retro-modern lines – with the squat rear, long vented bonnet and sculpted flanks – to the joy of pressing the key to unlock it and seeing the handles pop out low down in the door. Reach for that handle, pull gently and the light door arcs up towards the sky. Open both and it’s easy to see why its 300SL predecessor was called ‘gullwing’. Those doors were a necessity on the original car due to its skeletal construction; on the SLS they’re purely aesthetic.
A handful of the SLS’s 300SL relatives were sold with all-aluminium skins in the 50s, though the new car is the first genuine all-aluminium vehicle by Mercedes. That makes it light, which means AMG’s high-revving 6.2-litre engine has very little bulk to shift. Impressive as the numbers are for AMG’s hand-built 6.2-litre car, it was never going to feature in the SLS in standard guise. It’s now dry-sumped, allowing it to sit lower in the chassis to achieve a lower a centre of gravity. There are new pistons (also lighter), aluminium rather than steel bolts (lighter again) and a revised intake and exhaust system (both lighter and louder). The result is an additional 45bhp and a 20Nm increase of torque, from the standard 518bhp and 630Nm that the same capacity V8 develops in the E 63 AMG.
Open the bonnet of the SLS and the 6.2-litre powerhouse is way behind the front axle, helping the SLS to deliver a weight distribution of 47/53 front to rear; the transaxle arrangement of the seven-speed, dual-clutch automatic transmission aiding the SLS’s balance further. The drive is distributed to that gearbox via a carbon fibre driveshaft housed in a cast aluminium torque tube. It’s difficult to comprehend that the mighty forces of the SLS V8 create are transmitted via a woven tube that weighs only 4.7kg.
To experience those forces first you have to get into the car. This requires practice to do with dignity because of the high sills and narrow opening.
After the dramatic exterior the inside is a little disappointing. There are some highlights – the cool instruments and smart circular air vents are unique – but there are lots of parts you’ll find in Mercedes models costing fractions of the SLS. Space is tight too – headroom in particular being limited because of those fancy doors.
I forgive that when the engine rouses with a flare, then settles into a fantastically purposeful idle. Choosing the means of selecting gears is achieved via the AMG dial, which gives the choice of fully automated Comfort, Sport and Sport+ modes, that increase in speed and intensity as you go through them, and a fully manual option where gears are selected by paddles behind the steering wheel.
Slot into Drive and the first thing that strikes me is this car’s civility: the SLS pulls away with little fuss. There’s no need to push the accelerator either, it moves off easily with a tiny flex of the right foot. Push that foot to the floor and the SLS gathers speed with forceful urgency, its pace increasing with sustained intensity until my nerve runs out.
It doesn’t feel as fearsomely raw as cars like Ferrari’s 599 GTB Fiorano, though that’s got everything to do with the smoothness of the AMG’s gear changes and nothing to do with a lack of actual pace. That gearbox works best in fully automatic mode, as it sometimes gets a bit flustered and second-guesses input when you choose to shift ratios yourself.
For all its power and pace though it’s the SLS’s steering that really surprises. It’s beautifully weighted, extremely quick and even delivers some feel through its chunky Alcantara-clad rim. Turn the wheel and the response is instant, the nose exactly follows your input, the front tyres are seemingly utterly resistant to understeer. The rear driven wheels follow faithfully and the SLS exhibits fantastic balance and excellent control. The suspension is understandably firm – with some trade off in low speed ride quality – but the control it gives the SLS is worth the sacrifice.
Leave all the electronic controls on and the SLS drives with all the ease of any Mercedes, although if you find a track and switch the ESP (electronic stability programme) to ESP Sport the SLS allows you a bit more control. Such is AMG’s confidence that we did exactly that with it at Laguna Seca, the tight twists, turns and bucking undulation of the famous American circuit revealing the SLS to be a seriously effective, enormously enjoyable and exploitable supercar. That’s something you could never say about its predecessor. The SLS has serious talent to back up its stunning looks. It might have been 40 years in the making, but it’s been well worth the wait.
