RE: New Mercedes SL63 AMG - official details
Discussion
Would be interesting to hear how much the performance package costs, because that is a LOT of extra bang for a single spec-sheet tickbox!
In all honesty, it does seem to resemble a rather grotesque cartoon character. Having said that, I've always had a bit of a thing for Tank Girl, so I'm sure it'll be a grower...
In all honesty, it does seem to resemble a rather grotesque cartoon character. Having said that, I've always had a bit of a thing for Tank Girl, so I'm sure it'll be a grower...
I was lucky enough to be at the unveiling of the last gen SL at Frankfurt and remember thinking how stunning it was. Really a car where you knew the designer went home knowing he'd just had a really good day when he penned that!!
But almost instantly a very attractive young blonde who was on the arm of the one of the big cheeses rushed over and got in to try it for size and all my views on the car changed from "Wow what a sportscar" to "Second wife movement device".
So no matter how much power they give it, nor frankly how much they try to give the car a more masculine frontal aspect (yep I'm guessing but I can imagine the mood boards they used) I just can't get out of my head the feeling that this is a car for happy blondes to drive around in.
A lovely car and one I'd love to own even so.
But almost instantly a very attractive young blonde who was on the arm of the one of the big cheeses rushed over and got in to try it for size and all my views on the car changed from "Wow what a sportscar" to "Second wife movement device".
So no matter how much power they give it, nor frankly how much they try to give the car a more masculine frontal aspect (yep I'm guessing but I can imagine the mood boards they used) I just can't get out of my head the feeling that this is a car for happy blondes to drive around in.
A lovely car and one I'd love to own even so.
Itsallicanafford said:
...The SL in my mind is fine if your a 60+ male who lives in a gated community in florida and drives around in it to the golf course with his wife wearing one of those funny golf visors thing...but as a 37 year old male in the Uk, i think i would feel like an idiot driving one of these, especailly with the top down...IMO of course...
I agree amd I am a 60+ with an SL55. But it is a bit of a hairdressers car with the top down.Rat_Fink_67 said:
I love how everyone on this site is a design and engineering guru; "too heavy, too slow, too ugly blah blah blah". Chances are if they relaunched one of the old ones that everyone looks back at so misty eyed about, that'd get slagged off too. It's a 2 door roadster with over 500bhp AND does nearly 30mpg, and despite the "slow" claims probably has enough midrange grunt to rearrange your innards (accompanied by a nice V8 bellow)and people are complaining??? I'd love to see or drive some of the cars you lot would come up with.
+1"Don't like the rear lights / wheels / front end / chrome thing...." "Too slow /thirsty / big /small...." "Why has the Toyota GT85 ONLY got 200bhp / pathetic.."
Go back to your bedrooms boys and play with your whatsit station, Y box or whatever you have next to the box of tissues....
How did they make something which has historically been a beautiful, desirable thing to have (a Mercedes SL, even the previous AMG variants) and made it look hideous. I can't pinpoint it (other than the headlights which look plain stupid with those strange 'eyebrow' light things that are probably DRLs - or maybe not when you look at the bumper) but the proportions seem a bit 'wrong', it could be a trick of the eye, unfortunate camera angles etc, I don't know - it might look better in the flesh, but I'm not convinced.
"comfort-oriented"....come on guys, use English.
"Don't like the rear lights / wheels / front end / chrome thing...." "Too slow /thirsty / big /small...." "Why has the Toyota GT85 ONLY got 200bhp / pathetic.."
Go back to your bedrooms boys and play with your whatsit station, Y box or whatever you have next to the box of tissues....I agree.
V8 FOU said:
Rat_Fink_67 said:
I love how everyone on this site is a design and engineering guru; "too heavy, too slow, too ugly blah blah blah". Chances are if they relaunched one of the old ones that everyone looks back at so misty eyed about, that'd get slagged off too. It's a 2 door roadster with over 500bhp AND does nearly 30mpg, and despite the "slow" claims probably has enough midrange grunt to rearrange your innards (accompanied by a nice V8 bellow)and people are complaining??? I'd love to see or drive some of the cars you lot would come up with.
+1"Don't like the rear lights / wheels / front end / chrome thing...." "Too slow /thirsty / big /small...." "Why has the Toyota GT85 ONLY got 200bhp / pathetic.."
Go back to your bedrooms boys and play with your whatsit station, Y box or whatever you have next to the box of tissues....
Carfolio said:
There are various versions of the R8 though. The R8 GT has 552 bhp and weighs 1525 kg at the kerb.
Thanks for the Info on a limited edition V10 R8... I was comparing it too his car...anyone who thinks this will be slow has never be in an AMG sl..this is a fast car once up and moving...how often do you launch from the lights? 0-60 is a meaningless figure for a GT..50-100mph is where these things excel and more a measure of real world GT car performance.....even the R230 model SL 55 is a very fast car once up and moving when the weight is less of an issue
Edited by Dagnut on Wednesday 22 February 11:54
The only place where 500 odd bhp is not enough is in GT5 or Forza, the same place where 4.3 seconds is slow to reach 60 mph from a standstill, remember that this is RWD and still fairly heavy as it is still a luxury car and 0-60 is probably not its strong suit, put your foot full down at say 40 mph and see how "slow" it feels, it will gain speed as quickly as anyone can possibly ever need for the road.
Looks ok, bit of a gin palace perhaps but probably a fantastic car to drive, plus wont there be an even dafter version after this.
I reckon the fuel economy will be impossible to achieve for most people, 500 plus bhp is too tempting to give a toss about MPG.
I think really though, for most owners the 350 engine will do all they need for a Golf club cruiser unless they simply must have the most expensive, I would imagine younger and/or those looking for a more focused sports car will look elsewhere every time.
Looks ok, bit of a gin palace perhaps but probably a fantastic car to drive, plus wont there be an even dafter version after this.
I reckon the fuel economy will be impossible to achieve for most people, 500 plus bhp is too tempting to give a toss about MPG.
I think really though, for most owners the 350 engine will do all they need for a Golf club cruiser unless they simply must have the most expensive, I would imagine younger and/or those looking for a more focused sports car will look elsewhere every time.
king mind-reader. I could only respond to what you'd typed, not what you were thinking.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff