Smooth operator
FOR Exemplary ride and handling, magnificent interior, charismatic powertrain
AGAINST Fuel consumption, expensive options
In the Steve Martin film LA Story, his character Harris Telemacher’s existential crisis is amplified by his job: he’s a TV weatherman in a city in which the weather is always the same, warm and sunny. Well this is Harris’s lucky day, for LA’s famous palm trees are being bent double by a mighty storm, the rain is bouncing off the freeway, and the sky is apocalyptically gloomy.
Good for Harris, not so much the new Mercedes SL. This seventh generation of the company’s signature sports car reintroduces a classic soft-top roof after a 20-year dalliance with a bulky folding hard-top. It’s done wonders for the SL’s looks but it’s staying firmly in place for now, as I make my way up the Ortega Highway that connects Southern California’s Orange County with Riverside. Apparently this is one of the deadliest roads in the US, a 28-mile long stretch that’s part of an old Native American trail and said to be haunted. Bikers love it. It’s currently strewn with rubble and rocks dislodged from the surrounding scenery, adding a frisson to a road that’s already doing its best to spook me. The outgoing SL might not have fancied this so much; the new one immediately feels like a much sharper instrument. Faster steering, superior body control, far more agile.
This is a big reset for a model whose roots lie in the race-bred Fifties original and came to epitomise a slinky Hollywood elegance. Clark Gable, Bobby Ewing and Richard Gere’s American Gigolo all favoured the SL, car as pop culture barometer. But lately it had mislaid its mojo which is why this new AMG-developed model features a clean-sheet-of-paper chassis that borrows nothing from any existing Mercedes. It imports the latest MBUX user interface from the S-Class but with some SL-specific twists, including a central display that tilts to avoid reflections. Won’t be an issue today.
It looks terrific, don’t you think? It has short-ish overhangs, slim ‘digital’ headlights, a long bonnet/short tail silhouette, sharply
raked windscreen, and also fashionably reductive surfacing.
“This is the first SL I’ve designed despite being at Mercedes for so long,” design vice president Gorden Wagener tells TopGear. “The 300 SL Gullwing is the blueprint, the car I had in mind when we worked on the new car. That was a UFO when it first hit the market, you know? We started with a blank sheet of paper so we were able define everything. The SL was always a mirror of the decade it existed in, and this one is the SL of the digital age, an age of transformation. It was important to pick up on the heritage but also make it very technical and forward looking.”
But no electrification, not yet anyway. Instead, the new SL arrives armed with two versions of Mercedes’ terrific 4.0-litre ‘hot V’ V8 twin-turbo. The SL55 makes 469bhp, delivers 516lb ft of torque, gets to 62mph in 3.9 seconds and can do 183mph. The SL63 has 577bhp, 590lb ft, takes just 3.6 seconds to dispatch 62mph and tops out at 195mph. Alas, the 63 isn’t coming to the UK. A plug-in hybrid and fully electric version are incoming although there will be no EQ-badged SL.
Various modifications have been made to the engine for duty here: there’s a new oil pan, repositioned intercoolers, active crankcase ventilation and reworked intake and exhaust. It also benefits from liquid-filled active engine mounts to isolate unwanted vibrations. The SL’s cooling system has three tiers to manage the engine, turbos, intercoolers, transmission and engine oil. AMG’s nine-speed MCT gearbox now has a wet clutch rather than a torque converter, which reduces weight and has lower inertia to deliver faster shift times.
“THIS IS A BIG RESET FOR A MODEL WHOSE ROOTS CAME TO EPITOMISE A SLINKY HOLLYWOOD ELEGANCE”
Mercedes has also pilfered from Formula One so there are various aero widgets to improve stability, reduce drag, and optimise cooling. The front apron contains a wing and splitter to reduce lift and target airflow, there are aero-optimised brake ducts, while a two-piece active aero Air Panel uses electronically actuated louvres to hustle air either into cutting drag or into maximum cooling mode. At the rear there’s an active rear spoiler which can adopt five different positions. An optional aerodynamics package is available for even greater showing off and there’s a choice of aero optimised 20- or 21-inch alloy wheels.
The chassis mixes aluminium, steel, magnesium and carbon-fibre composites, to promote greater rigidity while keeping things (relatively) light. The windscreen uses high strength, hot-formed tubular steel for maximum rollover protection. The SL’s transverse rigidity is 50 per cent higher than on the AMG GT, which is no mean feat. Overall, the bodyshell weighs 270kg, although the 63 is still a far-from-lithe 1,970kg.
Clearly, there’s much to digest, not least where this thing sits relative to its AMG GT sibling. First impressions are that the V8 in the SL55 is such a charismatic engine it threatens to overwhelm the whole car, especially in Sport mode. It’s impossible not to revel in that burbling, sonorous and egocentric exhaust note. But before long you realise that the SL is a much less frantic and frenetic machine, a whole lot more compliant without being remotely sloppy. The 55 uses a revised version of AMG’s ‘ride control’ steel suspension with adaptive damping and new lightweight coil springs; the 63 gains active anti-roll stabilisation with hydraulically connected dampers. There’s also a new five link front axle to improve kinematics,
with a similar set-up at the rear and the key components are made of forged aluminium. There’s a palpable commitment to ride comfort and a relaxed demeanour is the SL’s default MO.
Although it’s still highly configurable. The transmission’s Dynamic Select has no fewer than six different modes: Slippery, Comfort, Sport, Sport+, Individual, and Race (the latter is an option on the SL55 but standard on the 63). Mercedes has also added its version of side slip control in the form of AMG Dynamics, which has Basic, Advanced, Pro and Master settings to deliver what Mercedes calls “agilising interventions”. An electronically controlled limited-slip rear differential is standard on the SL63, and available on the 55 as part of the AMG Dynamic Plus Package.
Both 55 and 63 use steel composite brake discs with a diameter of 390mm and six-piston calipers at the front, 360mm discs with single-piston floating calipers at the rear. Ceramic composite brakes are an option. There’s also the same bewildering suite of driver assistance programmes as you’ll find on other high-end Mercs, although the lane assist is much less intrusive than elsewhere.
Inside, it’s AMG GT meets new S-Class. Aviation influences abound, with a wing-like structural concept bolstered by four galvanised turbine nozzle air vents. The 12.3in display ahead of the driver has a clever cut-out section at the top of it, the display itself featuring some bespoke graphics and read-outs. AMG’s Track Pace data logger is standard on the 63: it can record more than 80 data parameters, and you can add your own circuits to sit alongside those already stored in the system. The good news is that this is an SL that won’t embarrass itself on a track day.
The cabin is dominated by the 11.9in portrait central touchscreen, which can be electrically adjusted from 12˚ to 32˚ to avoid reflections when the roof is lowered. The display is mercifully easy to use and lovely to look at. The door panels are cleverly layered and it looks particularly good at night, although the capacitive door mirror buttons had a wobble when they got wet. The seats are sculpted to appear lighter than they actually are with a headrest that’s integrated into the backrest. They’re fabulously comfortable. Note also that the new SL returns the car to a 2+2 seating configuration for the first time since 1989’s R129 model, although I’m unsure who’s meant to fit in there. Someone small or masochistic, perhaps a small masochist.
Those upfront are certainly well looked after, though. The SL is a car of impressive bandwidth, intelligently engineered but not unemotional. It’s a phenomenally comfortable GT that’s happy to get down and dirty should the mood take you.
“THE 11.9IN CENTRAL TOUCHSCREEN CAN BE ADJUSTED FROM 12° TO 32° TO AVOID REFLECTIONS”