This German wonder car is already confirmed with the soaring pricetag beyond half-million US dollar and now Mercedes SLS has been revealed to be road-ready.
The obvious highlight is the upward-opening ‘gullwing’ doors that – like the front-end styling – take their inspiration from the classic Mercedes SLS coupe of the 1950s. But the 21st century gullwing is a very popular modern machine with an aluminum space-frame body, a 420 kilowatts V8 engine set just in front of the 2-seater cabin, 19-inch front, and 20-inch rear alloys, and AMG’s first seven-speed dual clutch semi-automatic transmission.
Much of the early talk about the gullwing — no-one seriously expects it to be called the SLS – is about the styling, from the unique doors to the fifties-inspired air intakes and the muscular way the body is wrapped around the wheels. But the GLS is an AMG road rocket and that means it is a genuine supercar with a top speed which has to be held back to 317km/h and a 0-100km/h sprint time of 3.8 seconds. In some ways the Mercedes SLS AMG is a successor to the Mercedes-McLaren SLR, but it is around one third of the price and is a full-on Benz manufacturing, not a collaboration with its F1 partner.
Clients are already lined up in Australia for their first glance at the gullwings, which are expected to land in the first quarter of 2010 and to be featured at the exclusive AMG drive day held at the Albert Park on the Australian Grand Prix circuit. “Yes, we are holding sizeable deposits on the car. We have several orders for five cars this early and we perceive that the huge problem will have to be the allocation will be big enough,”McCarthy says. “We do not have the final tab yet but it will definitely be a very competitive among its class. Companies similar to Ferrrari and others make a wonder car, but we are talking of a production run of around 1200 cars and that is pretty serious figure.”
Mercedes SLS spent a lot of time ensuring the gullwing is both fast and refined, a major criticism of the track-tuned SLR. It still weighs 1620 kilograms and the seats are only 369mm above the road, but the seat backs are made from magnesium, there is a useable glovebox and a Bang&Olufsen surround sound system. It is definitely a Mercedes. There is an awful lot of 300SL in the design, but it is not a copy. It is a homage, but it moves the history along,” says McCarthy.
“When we specified the cars there were two items we’ve made standard – the fitted car cover and the trickle charger. It means the car can definitely sit in the garage and be ready for instant and any action.”
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