Small drop-top a big surprise
The SLC is the cheapest and oldest open-top car in the Merc range. But it might be the most fun, says Damien O’carroll.
Recently Mercedes-benz New Zealand felt the need to remind the local motoring press that it has a rather extensive range of topless cars in its lineup.
Being the middle of winter, this would seem to be an odd time to do it, but then it is probably the time of year you would most need reminding of a distinctly summery genre of motor vehicle.
As it turned out, the particular winter day M-B chose to show off its drop-top range was somehow better than your average summer’s day in Auckland, managing not only to be rain-free, but also be impressively sunny.
M-B’S current line up of convertibles, roadsters and cabriolets consists of the SLC, SL, C-class cabriolet and S-class cabriolet, with the mighty AMG GT roadster, E-class cabriolet and a single (already sold) example of the opulent Mercedes-maybach S 650 cabriolet arriving later this year, making it easily the most extensive topless range in NZ.
All the vehicles currently on sale were present at the drive programme, with a C 200, SLC 300, S 500 and a mighty SL 63 AMG representing their respective models.
The first example of the AMG GT roadster put in a guest appearance, but, sadly, wasn’t there for driving.
While the C 200 felt pretty much exactly like a C 200 sedan (beautifully presented and built, highly equipped and incredibly capable, but with a rather dull engine), the S 500 was huge in size, hugely opulent and somewhat tasteless and the SL 63 was a brilliantly belligerent rocketpowered jackhammer of a machine, the most delightfully surprising car of the day was the most unlikely. And the oldest: the SLC 300.
While M-B renamed the SLC a while back, it is still very much the R172 SLK that first appeared back in 2011. This means it still looks like an SLK, which does work against it in terms of your initial impressions.
The SLK was never really the most loved M-B model, with the German company’s answer to the Mazda MX-5 being initially underpowered and quickly attracting the dreaded ‘‘hairdresser’s car’’ label. The soft, cutesy styling of the first-gen R170 didn’t help there either.
The second generation R171 attempted to up the aggression with ‘‘F1 inspired’’ styling that just looked weird. Things settled down with the R172’s more traditional styling, but this still leaves us with a car that is starting to look somewhat dated today, despite a facelift and the name change to SLC in 2015.
While the SLC 300 feels and certainly looks like quite an old car, Mercedes has tried its best to obscure this fact by offering quite a bit of modern tech like the latest driver-assistance technology and phone mirroring in the form of Apple Carplay. However, small niggles like this soon pale into insignificance when you point the SLC at a corner, as the chassis is an eager and responsive delight, while the hydraulically assisted power steering is a wonderful reminder of how much we really lost with the wholesale move to electrically-assisted steering.
The steering is beautifully weighted and responds to your inputs in the most wonderfully tactile way, while the car is nicely grippy. The rear can be playful if you want it to be, with the brilliant little 180kw/370nm 2.0-litre inline four-cylinder petrol turbo engine providing more than enough grunt to take advantage of that playfulness.
The engine is a strong and torquey unit that loves a rev, while the nine-speed automatic transmission is spectacularly good. The SLC may be old, but it seems that it is still a wonderfully capable car that can be immense fun on a winding road. While the blaring roar and indecent aggression of the SL 63 was certainly one of the highlights of the Mercedes drop top range, the