Mercedes calls in AMG to give the new SL a shot in the arm
AMG HAS BEEN drafted in to lead development of the next Mercedes-benz SL. Its brief is to inject a more sporting character to the seventhgeneration luxury drop-top.
Although it is not an exclusive AMG project like the four-door GT, the SL will benefit from AMG engineering and know-how to make it the fastest, most agile version yet.
It will also be the most practical SL thanks to the addition of two small rear seats to give the car a 2+2 layout. AMG boss Tobias Moers told Autocar it “would make sense” because it would offer a “bit more space”.
The car, pictured here in test mule guise wearing a modified S-class Coupé body, will be built on Mercedes’ MSA (modularen sportwagen architektur) platform, which has been developed using various solutions from the MRA underpinnings that make up the four-door GT. The new car will also ditch its predecessor’s folding metal roof for a fabric one, the first time the SL has had a soft-top since 2001.
The bulk of the next SL range will use a turbocharged 3.0-litre in-line six-cylinder petrol unit in various states of tune, offering up to 435bhp in the SL400. A 4.0-litre V8 will be used in the SL500 with around 455bhp.
The range will be crowned with two AMG models. The first, the SL63, will run AMG’S twinturbo 4.0-litre V8 and could produce more than 550bhp. The second, the range-topping SL65, will use a twin-turbo 6.0-litre V12 with 621bhp.
Mercedes has remained tight-lipped on the car’s arrival date, but sources say it’s on course to be launched in 2019.