Bye-bye SLS: PH Blog

Time to shed a tear for the passing of AMG's gullwinged hot rod

As you read this I'll be on a plane to Affalterbach to drive the Mercedes SLS AMG Final Edition. There are worse ways to kick a week off, admittedly.

Bloodline to original Gullwing maintained

Clue's in the title of this one but I can't quite believe we've reached the end of the line for the SLS, it being a car I've had felt a personal connection with from the first rumours of its existence. At the time I was working for Mercedes Enthusiast magazine (again, clue's in the title of that one) and spending an enviable amount of time around old Mercs. It was on an event with the Mercedes Classic guys that my PR pal there dropped the first hints of what was to come and why I should be excited.

I'm lucky enough to have had a fair bit of experience of the original 300SL Gullwing too and the parallels between the pair go beyond the novelty doors. Before I'd ridden in a Gullwing I'd had them down as an iconic car but a bit like modern SLs - nice but a bit of a boulevardier. My first experience was therefore a surprising one. This was a proper, gritty sports car with more than a bit of the racer about it. Whining gears, guttural engine note, exposed tubular frame chassis poking through the interior trim and proper speed for a car of the mid 50s. With a frisson of widow maker notoriety about it too, thanks to the donated swing axle rear suspension from the Ponton saloon.

Herr Schneider, your next victim awaits...

I was lucky enough to attend the original launch event for the SLS back in 2009 and it remains one of the stand-out trips I've ever been on. Obviously the car was mega but the chance to drive on Laguna Seca remains an all-time high. Immediately the SLS's genetic link to the 300SL was clear too. In image it appeared a bit of a cruiser. Engine in the front? Can't be a proper supercar, surely just a jumped-up GT. On paper it just sounded like a bit of an unreconstructed muscle car too; exactly what you'd have expected of AMG's first ground-up project.

Thing is, it turned out to be all of the above. A comfy GT. A slightly uncouth and old fashioned V8 hot rod. And a proper supercar, all in one. Just like the 300SL it hid a surprisingly hardcore character beneath its crowd pleasing exterior and it took just a couple of laps of Laguna Seca to reveal it.

Dan, blissfully unaware of what's to come

I remember sitting in the SLS in the pit lane, gullwing door open and trying to be casual about the fact I was about to lap a circuit embedded in my head in pixellated form but about to be made real. In a sodding SLS! In the car launch tradition we were going out ducks and drakes style behind an instructor car and I'd bagged the car behind the black lead car. Then I saw Bernd Schneider walking past. "Wow, there's Bernd Schneider!" I thought. "Wow, he's putting his helmet on ... wait a minute, he's getting into the instructor car ... oh."

Ducks and drakes for most car launches is about cooling the boots of wannabe hotshot hacks and controlling the pace. Ducks and drakes AMG style is putting a uber-steely multiple champion of one of the hardest fought and extreme touring car series in existence and having people in way above their heads try and keep up around one of the world's most challenging and dangerous circuits. A recipe for disaster that ended with one Russian hack so deeply embedded in the gravel escape lane before the Corkscrew it took them two hours to dig the car out.

Gullwings galore; will we see another like it?

The video below of me desperately over-driving the SLS in an attempt to keep Bernd in sight offers a hint of what it was like, shaky quality or not. I can't remember what camera I shot it on but it obviously wasn't an especially good one. Still, the sound works. And that's about all you need.

And now I'm off to drive the last of the breed. A poignant farewell then for a car that, for me, is every much as big a hero as the 300SL that inspired it. Christ, I even had one as my wedding car. For those with the means the classifieds are but a click away! Anyone got a spare £100K they can give me?

Dan

Laguna Seca in the SLS

[Sources: MotoringResearch, via YouTube]

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Veeayt

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