The 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG is all-new.Normally a Mercedes-Benz isn't a car you get excited about. Inspired by the classic Mercedes 300SL (known as the "Gullwing") of the 1950s, the new SLS shares the iconic SL's proportions with its long hood and short rear deck as well as the SL's unique upward-opening doors. The SLS is meant to be Mercedes-Benz's ultimate automobile, but it's also meant to be more affordable and practical to drive than the now-discontinued Mercedes SLR McLaren.
Throw a few options on the 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and you're looking at a $200,000-plus sports car.
It weighs 8.8 pounds. “The SLS is a serious super sports car,” says AMG chief of development Tobias Moers before taking a shot at The 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG is all-new.
Normally a Mercedes-Benz isn't a car you get excited about. Inspired by the classic Mercedes 300SL (known as the "Gullwing") of the 1950s, the new SLS shares the iconic SL's proportions with its long hood and short rear deck as well as the SL's unique upward-opening doors. The SLS is meant to be Mercedes-Benz's ultimate automobile, but it's also meant to be more affordable and practical to drive than the now-discontinued Mercedes SLR McLaren.
Throw a few options on the 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and you're looking at a $200,000-plus sports car.
the SLR, a carbon-fiber-bodied car that still managed to weigh in at 3858 pounds. “Our SLS weighs only 3572 pounds,” he says, nearly 300 pounds lighter than the McMerc. The aluminum structure weighs just 531 pounds, Mercedes says.
For one thing, the SLS is the first automobile built entirely from scratch by Mercedes-Benz's Affalterbach-based performance division, AMG. The SLS is also the first production Mercedes crafted entirely in aluminum (excepting an extremely small number of custom-ordered 300SLs). Each corner of the SLS is suspended by dual control arms ("double wishbones") -- another Benz first. Unlike some competitors -- say, the Ferrari 599 -- the SLS uses no electronics to control ride motions (similarly, the rear-differential is a conventional limited slip). Standard brakes are steel (six-piston calipers in front; four-piston at the rear), with carbon-ceramics optional. AMG claims the SLS can stop from 60 mph in less than 100 feet. Continental and Michelin each developed tires especially for the SLS. AMG chassis engineers haven't yet decided which compound they prefer; Mercedes will likely offer both.
Of course, given the SLS's "superstar" status, AMG has further tweaked this megamotor for Gullwing duty. The rear-mounted shift unit couples to the engine via a torque tube. Inside the tube rotates a carbon-fiber driveshaft, a design proven on AMG's C-Class racer in the German Touring Car (DTM) series. I'm not sure how I expected the SLS to drive; perhaps, I thought, it would feel like a smaller, nimbler version of Mercedes' other exotic, the McLaren-bred-and-built SLR. The SLS feels like . . . well, a race car with manners.
Don't let the retro-year gentility of the gullwing styling deceive you: The SLS is a purebred athlete -- a true sports car -- that simply hungers to run.
Given the SLS's long hood/short deck profile, I expected lots of understeer with lurking snap oversteer, but I got neither.
As for speed . . . oh, yes, the SLS has gobs of that. AMG claims a 0 to 62 mph of just 3.8 seconds, and on the Ring's two-mile-long back straight my SLS was hurtling past 180 mph with breath to spare (top speed is electronically limited to 196 mph).
The prototype I drove sported ceramic brakes (in three high-speed, 13-mile laps they never lost a dollop of stopping power) and the performance suspension option. "Yes, we are still fine-tuning that," said Volker Mornhinweg, Chairman of Mercedes-AMG GmbH. "Upshifts are easy -- Bam, Bam, Bam! Mornhinweg, like the rest of the SLS team, is obviously proud of what AMG has accomplished with this clean-sheet machine.
AMG apparently considered power-closing doors, then rejected the notion because the motors would've added some 110 pounds of weight. As for how much the SLS will cost when it arrives next spring, for now Mornhinweg is mum.
