It’s 5.30 on Friday evening, and a good time to drool with mouth open wide at the new Mercedes-Benz AMG SL. Hell yes, and and it should be available here next spring. Who cares that prices are not yet available? It’s day-dream time.
The Mercedes-Benz SL first arrived on the scene as the 300SL roadster in 1954 – a model inspired by a Grand Prix racing car built two years earlier.
Reborn, according to Mercedes-Benz, as “an icon for the modern era”, the new SL emerges as the Mercedes-AMG SL offering what it calls “performance luxury” with a 2+2 seats configuration (the first since 1989 ) and a “revolutionary interior experience” that combines analogue geometry with the digital world – a combination reflected in a fully digital instrument cluster integrated into a three-dimensional, high-tech visor.
Elsewhere within a package that Mercedes-Benz says “combines the highest levels of comfort and quality in its interior, with just the right amount of sportiness” is an “aviation-inspired” instrument panel, a centre console with adjustable touchscreen, sculptured seats with integrated headrests, heated ‘airscarf’ feature and a wide choice of sports or performance trim and leather coverings. From S-Class, a second-generation MBUX system is fitted supplemented with AMG-specific content.
It will be launched in several performance variants with two 4.0-litre V8 biturbo engines available initially with 476 or 585hp, top speeds from 295km/h and 0 to 100km/h in under four seconds in each case. A Formula 1 inspired E Performance hybrid with an electric power unit at the rear axle will follow. Fully variable 4Matic+ all-wheel drive is standard.
Described to me earlier by Mercedes-Benz passenger car sales manager Ciaran Allen as a “true legend for the future”, the new SL comes in a soft-top version which Allen says “can be opened and closed at speeds up to 60 kilometres per hour”.
