I'm barely three turns into my first lap, and already my brain has automatically activated its auxiliary data logger, the one reserved for "extra-special events." I don't want to forget a nanosecond of this. Partly, it's a result of the venue. For the first time in my career, I'm driving on Germany's 13-mile-long Nurburgring Nordschleife, a.k.a. "The Green Hell," the most fearsome, challenging, and dangerous racetrack in the world. But my highly elevated pulse is also due in large measure to the screaming, whirling vehicle at hand. I don't entirely know what it looks like -- the prototype's bodywork is still masked by tape and cardboard camouflage -- but if these first few blitzkrieg corners are any indication, the all-new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG "Gullwing" is going to disrupt the supercar pantheon when it hits American roads next spring.
We journalists love "firsts," because via benefit of a good "first" or two the copy flows easily, the headlines write big, and in no time our report is posted and we're headed to the bar, job done. Alas, no wood-paneled celebratory saloon for me -- I'm writing this at 37,000 feet -- but as "firsts" go, the new SLS boasts so many I should be finished writing this piece before the next spellbinding serving of warm mixed nuts.
For one thing, the SLS is the first automobile built entirely from scratch by Mercedes-Benz's Affalterbach-based performance division, AMG. As such, it shares its platform with no other Benz; it's a clean-sheet, just-as-we-want-it effort from the team that's been hyper-tuning regular Benzes for decades. The SLS is also the first production Mercedes crafted entirely in aluminum (excepting an extremely small number of custom-ordered 300SLs). The curvaceous aluminum body panels wrap around an all-alloy spaceframe. And, as you'd expect, the SLS presses down upon the earth with a commensurately feathery footprint, just over 3500 pounds by AMG claims.Each corner of the SLS is suspended by dual control arms ("double wishbones") -- another Benz first. Two suspensions will be offered: a normal setup and a performance version with stiffer springs and shocks. Unlike some competitors -- say, the Ferrari 599 -- the SLS uses no electronics to control ride motions (similarly, the rear-differential is a conventional limited slip). Standard brakes are steel (six-piston calipers in front; four-piston at the rear), with carbon-ceramics optional. AMG claims the SLS can stop from 60 mph in less than 100 feet. The wheels are lightweight 19-inch alloys up front, 20-inchers in back. Continental and Michelin each developed tires especially for the SLS. AMG chassis engineers haven't yet decided which compound they prefer; Mercedes will likely offer both.
Under the hood lies essentially the same AMG-built, naturally aspirated, DOHC, 6208cc V-8 I sampled barely over a week ago in the new 2010 E63 AMG sedan. Of course, given the SLS's "superstar" status, AMG has further tweaked this megamotor for Gullwing duty. Among some 120 changes are forged pistons, modded cams, a new exhaust system, and, perhaps most important, a new dry sump system that helps lower the car's center of gravity (no oil pan is needed). Power climbs from 518 horsepower (in the E63) to a thundering 571 hp at 6800 rpm in the SLS (torque checks in at 479 pound-feet at 4750 rpm).
Mated to the hand-built V-8, and still another "first" for Mercedes, is a new 7-speed dual-clutch rear transaxle. The box offers four increasingly aggressive modes: Controlled Efficiency (i.e., "normal"), Sport, Sport-Plus, and Manual (the latter allowing full driver control using the shift paddles behind the wheel). In Manual, shifts bang off 50 percent quicker than in C mode; less than 100 milliseconds. The rear-mounted shift unit couples to the engine via a torque tube. Inside the tube rotates a carbon-fiber driveshaft, a design proven on AMG's C-Class racer in the German Touring Car (DTM) series. The engine itself is mounted aft of the front axle; in concert with the transaxle, this powertrain balancing act results in 47/53-percent front/rear weight distribution, remarkable for a long-hooded two-seater with a hulking V-8 up front.
I'm not sure how I expected the SLS to drive; perhaps, I thought, it would feel like a smaller, nimbler version of Mercedes' other exotic, the McLaren-bred-and-built SLR. In those first few flying corners of the Ring, though, I realized any SLR-like expectations were entirely wrong. The SLS feels nothing like the SLR -- and, given how little fondness most of us have for the admittedly fast but hulking and numb McLaren, that's a very good thing indeed.
The SLS feels like . . . well, a race car with manners. After I'd cracked off a few thunderclap shifts, listened to a couple of full-throttle crescendos from the unbridled V-8, and experienced the bite and poise of the AMG-bred chassis through two or three bends, any and all SLR comparisons were long forgotten. Don't let the retro-year gentility of the gullwing styling deceive you: The SLS is a purebred athlete -- a true sports car -- that simply hungers to run.
Following behind AMG development boss Tobias Moers (he in an SL65 AMG), I was able to concentrate almost entirely on the SLS without having to guess which way the Ring was going to bend or unfurl next. The new Gullwing feels light, nimble, alive in your hands. Steering feel (ratio is fixed at 13.1:1, with speed-sensitive variable effort) is brilliant, the front tires nibbling just what your hands wish to feed them, while cornering forces transmit usefully to signal your approach to the tires' limits. Given the SLS's long hood/short deck profile, I expected lots of understeer with lurking snap oversteer, but I got neither.
The SLS digs in with almost no understeer at all, while the rear end almost refuses to step out (unless you switch off all stability controls and really provoke it). Believe me: The hellish Nordschliefe hides myriad pitfalls -- including several corners where the road arcs just as the car goes light cresting a hill -- but never did the SLS come unglued. As for speed . . . oh, yes, the SLS has gobs of that. AMG claims a 0 to 62 mph of just 3.8 seconds, and on the Ring's two-mile-long back straight my SLS was hurtling past 180 mph with breath to spare (top speed is electronically limited to 196 mph).
To ratchet up the Ring/SLS experience, I also took to the passenger seat for a full-tilt hot lap with five-time DTM champion Bernd Schneider at the helm. Thrilling? Imagine riding inside a Cuisinart set to "pummel." Yet even at 10/10ths the SLS remained thoroughly well-behaved.
The prototype I drove sported ceramic brakes (in three high-speed, 13-mile laps they never lost a dollop of stopping power) and the performance suspension option. Even so, it didn't beat me up over the track's rougher stretches. During a pitlane chat with Bernd Schneider, though, the racer offered that the standard suspension is plenty competent and more than enough for anything but regular track use. "It's the setup I'd buy," he said.
The prototypes aren't fully finalized, as I found out when the transmission software hiccupped during a few attempted downshifts. "Yes, we are still fine-tuning that," said Volker Mornhinweg, Chairman of Mercedes-AMG GmbH. "Upshifts are easy -- Bam, Bam, Bam! But downshifts . . . the computer has to know what you want to do. Are you, say, downshifting early to carry more speed out of a corner you could actually take in a higher gear? The software needs to be smart enough to have the right gear ready for whatever you want to do. That's one of the things we'll be refining before we sign off on the SLS in January."
[source:MotorTrend]
