Town Tourer

FUN FACT

Maximilian Edwin Hoffman was an Austrian- born, New York- based importer of luxury European automobiles into the United States during the 1950s. Besides the 300 SL, he was also responsible for importing other successes like the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider and the Porsche 356.

you across town in the quickest way possible and will get you from nothing to 100 km/ h in just 4.9 seconds. The SL 63 may be the wilder, quicker and louder beast, but this does question the existence of the SL 500. In Dubai, where you constantly accelerate between 40 and 140 km/ h, the SL has proved to be a competent cruiser and friends who frequent the autobahn in Germany will tell you that travelling at the electronically limited top speed of 250km/ h is a matter of ease for the SL. On the other side of the spectrum, even the ventilated disc brakes with authority.

The SL comes with five different drive modes, and with each mode comes variation in the drivetrain… the engine gets energised, the steering gets heftier, the chassis gets tauter etc. So whether you’re playing relaxed driver on date night or driving hurriedly to the office, you can pick the drive mode to suit your mood.

FEATURES & FUNCTIONALITY

As a 2- seater roadster, there isn’t much you can expect from it in terms of functionality, yet the SL 400 manages well. Besides cup- holders and door pockets, you also have space behind the front seats to keep your handbag or briefcase, which would have landed on the lap on the passenger if it was the SLC.

There is plenty of space for a full- size suitcase in the boot, but the retractable roof and mechanisms do eat up some of the cargo space when the top is folded. Musical indulgence can be of a high standard, thanks to the $ 1,200- dollar Harman Kardon ® Logic7 ® surround sound system, but, then, if money is no concern, option it with the $ 5,000 Bang & Olufsen Beosound AMG sound system and its many shiny metallic speakers; 10 GB of the internal hard drive can be used to save your favourite songs and you can rip them from the USB pen drive or CD.

While the dual- zone air conditioner works efficiently, there is also added comfort in the form of seat heaters/ coolers. The SL has almost every safety feature conceived like brake assist, lane departure warning, blind sport warning and active cruise control. But we think the stand- out feature is the ISOFIX mounts for a child seat in the front seat, so if you are a single parent and you want to own an SL… you can!

VERDICT

The 2017 Mercedes- Benz SL 400 is a competent 2- seater grand tourer with a big 3- pointed badge upfront that everyone knows would cost a house to own. It runs like the wind and rides like a cloud… especially for a coupe. In short, it provides a big slice of luxury, but, somehow, somewhere along the SL’S evolution, it’s lost some of that magic — glimpses of which we see in the other 2- door coupes like the AMG GT. And it is justified of us to ask greatness — and not just goodness — from a car that wears the SL nameplate.

wknd@ khaleejtimes. com