SPLENDID S-CLASS
Jim Kenzie previews the first S-Class Cabriolet in almost 40 years,
NICE, FRANCE— You don’t have to be a fan of professional basketball to appreciate, even admire, how agile some of these leviathans are.
Seven feet tall, 300 pounds, and they’re leaping around like Nureyev.
This image popped into my mind while driving the Mercedes-Benz SClass Cabriolet through the winding roads and narrow streets of the French Riviera.
The S-Class is big, no doubt, with an overall length just over five metres and weight tipping the scales at 2,100 kilograms.
Especially in this cloistered environment, it feels very big.
But as long as you don’t knock Pierre off his bicyclette, with his baguettes sticking out in all directions, or bounce those shiny alloys off the curbs, you’ll soon find out this is a remarkably nimble car. And with the top down in the lovely spring weather, well, it only gets better.
This is the first convertible in the S-Class family for 44 years, joining the coupe and sedan, both of which are available in several guises.
In mid-July, we will get the S-Class Cabriolet in two flavours: “normal” and AMG.
The rest of the world (RoW) calls the normal model the S 500.
Not that the 500 stands for anything anymore, but for reasons which must mean something to somebody somewhere, in North America this will be badged S 550. It starts at $164,300.
A 4.7-litre twin-turbo V8, producing a healthy 449 horsepower, drives the rear wheels through a ninespeed automatic.
The AMG version carries the equally irrelevant S 63 AMG designation. At least the North American label is no more inexplicable than that used elsewhere. Base list is $193,600.
The 5.5-litre twin-turbo V8, built by a single technician who autographs each engine, pumps out a stonking 577 horses through a seven-speed automatic into Mercedes’s 4Matic four-wheel drive system, whose front-to-rear torque split is rear-biased for sportier handling.
The S 63 also gets fully automatic adaptable air suspension, larger wheels and tires, composite brake rotors and a host of exterior and interior mods to reflect its sportier nature.
I’m seldom one to turn down more power, but I actually thought the base car reflected the spirit of a cabriolet better than the AMG.
It is fast enough: 0-100 km/h in 4.6 seconds, just 0.7 seconds slower than the AMG.
And it seems to me — again, perhaps this is down to the environment I was in — that wafting rather than apex-strafing is what a car like this is all about.
While most convertibles weigh considerably more than the coupes upon which they are typically based, additional weight-saving measures, such as increased use of aluminum in the rear floor pan, have kept this penalty to about 115 kilograms in the S-Class Cab.
And while cutting the top off a shoebox always detracts from its stiffness, the S-Class Cabriolet remains remarkably rigid.
Still, if ultimate speed is what you’re after, this might not be the S-Class for you. Getting back to wafting . . . The S-Class Cab borrows Aircap, the clever deployable windshield header device, from its smaller sibling, the E-Class Cabriolet.
Normally, in any top-down car, air flowing up the windshield curls back around and blows back into the cabin from behind, creating uncomfortable drafts. Never mind what it does to your or milady’s coiffure.
In the Mercs, a touch of a button causes the top surface of the header to rise up seven centimetres, creating an air dam which directs this air flow higher so it bounces off the trunk lid, reducing in-cabin turbulence by a noticeable, if not dramatic, degree.
Combined with the pop-up mesh wind blocker behind the rear seats which also helps reduce back drafts, and the Airscarf, a heated element in each of the front seat backs with a fan that directs heated air up and through a vent at the base of the
headrest then down over your shoulders, this helps extend your topdown opportunities not only later in the day, but earlier and later in the season.
On top of all that, the Thermotronic air conditioning system automatically compensates for whether the top is up or down.
That’s all particularly valuable in Canada, where summer is defined as two weeks of bad skiing.
If this isn’t enough, you can erect the multi-layer top at the touch of another button, and about17 seconds later, you’re as snug as that proverbial bug.
Top up or down can be done at road speeds up to 50 km/h, but I wouldn’t really recommend it because for about 16 of those 17 seconds, your visibility to the rear will be approximately zero. Best to just pull over.
Top apart, the S-Class Cabriolet is pretty much the S-Class, which means the very top level of safety, ride comfort, technology and durability.
By expanding that lineup to three body styles, with a host of variations within each, it’s safe to say that a luxury big-car buyer will find an SClass to suit his or her wants and needs. Jim Kenzie is a regular contributor to Toronto Star Wheels. To reach him, email wheels@thestar.ca and put his name in the subject line.