Two things come to mind when you read a press release that says ‘To mark the end of the 2022 Formula 1 season, Mercedes-AMG is presenting a special model of the SL 63 4MATIC+’. The first thought is, wouldn’t the ONE be a more appropriate celebration of the 2022 F1 season? After all, that started badly but appears to have come good, eventually, and it had a proper 1.6-litre V6 hybrid F1 engine powering it. Secondly, why celebrate 2022 at all? It was one of the team’s worst seasons in its modern-day F1 programme. As mentioned, though, from a woefully low baseline the team did turn things around to such an extent that it won a race on merit. That's one heck of an achievement, to be fair.
Anyway, the ‘Motorsport Collectors Edition’ SL 63. The relationship to the W12 F1 car is not its engine, which is the venerable 4.0-litre bi-turbo V8 – an engine, thankfully, as far removed from a modern-day F1 engine as it’s possible to be. It’s mostly in the ‘colour graduation from high-tech silver metallic to obsidian black metallic’ that’s ‘ inspired by the model from the top class of motorsport’.
It also includes the multiple three-pointed star symbols of the racing car around this SL's rump. There are Petronas-coloured highlights, too. They feature above the front splitter and rear diffuser, the side skirts and the wheel rims. The wheels are a pretty set of 21-inch, 10-twin-spoke forged rims in, you guessed it, matt black.
Some of the changes are implied to be performance-enhancing, although the wording around this is a little vague. Those changes include bigger flics on the front and rear aprons and a larger diffuser. What they achieve is to, ‘improve the aerodynamic properties. The same applies to the downforce and aerodynamic drag’. Presumably what that means is more downforce and less drag, but who knows when it comes to marketing speak.
Regardless, the new model is fitted with the AMG Night package, which adds gloss black to most of the black plastic bits, such as the mirror caps and front and rear aprons, while the AMG Night package II finishes the grille and a few other parts in black chrome. It also comes with darker inserts for the headlights and black calipers for the composite brakes. Inside the seats are trimmed in black nappa leather and faux suede, with either red or yellow stitching There’s a lot of carbon-fibre trim, too.
Just 100 will be made, all coming with an AMG customised and breathable indoor car cover. Obviously it would be widely optimistic to expect this MCE to be cheap. Not when an off-the-shelf SL 55 is already £147,000. We don’t have a number - Mercedes-AMG probably doesn't feel obliged to provide one when it's confident of shifting the lot - but think of a big one, double it, add 10, and you'll probably still be too low.
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