Mercedes-Benz SL (2013)- Super Car

Powerful and agile, the 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL 550 is not quite a sports automotive. per its creators, it's "the S-Class of sporty cars," and that is a keen distinction during a category of $100,000 two-doors that vary from sleek machines just like the} Jaguar XKR to raging performance addicts like the Chevy Corvette Z06 and also the brand-new Porsche 911.

And though it's grown a lot of intense, and even a lot of dynamically capable during this generation, the SL's additionally become more leisurely and impossibly, a lot of luxurious. Same because it ever was, it is the epitome of the one p.c, even whereas it is the one p.c of sporty cars that declines the sportscar badge outright.

Priced from $106,375, the SL 550 brings a replacement look that is operating its manner back gradually to the glory days of Mercedes two-seaters. If you never cared for the bank vaults penned by Benz within the early Nineteen Nineties, the exuberantly wide, brash new SL appearance crisper, and a lot of masculine. It's emphatic from the front, charming with the highest down, alittle of a mismatch from the rear where the slim rear finish and taillamps appear to return from another automotive, another studio entirely. The cockpit? It's executed with precision, drilled with aviation-style vents and implanted with an enormous LCD brain.

 A gutsy twin-turbocharged, 4.7-liter V-8 takes over for the previous normally-aspirated base V-8, and it is a snappy, responsive, torqueaholic engine rated at 429 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. It trounces the last SL 550 to sixty mph by nearly a second, hitting the magic range in four.5 seconds, and Mercedes is estimating the downsized engine, seven-speed automatic, and stop/start tech wedding them along can internet a 30-percent improvement in gas mileage. high speed's set at a relaxed a hundred thirty mph.

There's lots of acceleration accessible, and what appears like a lot of grip. Still, we're happier with the SL's base two-mode suspension, with or while not the game wheels and brakes, than with the exotic and expensive Active Body management upgrade. A composed tourer with a "sport" mode that feels a lot of like "comfort," the stock SL handles wide sweepers with grace, and a good quantity of body roll. The SL's electrical power steering does not supply up abundant within the manner of feedback, and quickens the additional it moves off-center, that makes for a few uneven transitions. Human brains will handle that abundant information, however adding on the active suspension appears like overload. The ride flattens out as promised, however adds another advanced handling dimension that is not as linear or as predictable as a a lot of standard setup.

The SL's cabin has nice space and fine fittings. The chairs are wide, and for a shocking vary of body varieties, they will be fitted snugly, because of 12-way changes, the foremost helpful of which can be the seat extender. there is a lot of shoulder and elbow space, however less space currently behind the seats themselves, simply enough for a slim briefcase. The trunk holds a roll-on bag or 2 with the roof raised, or solely soft-sided baggage when it's lowered, though a trunk button powers the roof panels
up and out of the manner for slightly easier cargo loading.


As usual, neither safety agency has crashed an SL roadster, however all the most recent safety tech is offered, everything from Bluetooth to knee airbags to adaptive cruise management. Attention Assist--the digital coffee-cup warning--is customary, and for over a hundy, we predict the rearview camera ought to be moreover. It's bundled during a safety possibility package beside parking sensors and parking assist, that dials the SL into a good spot for you, whereas you manage solely the brake.
The new SL's alternative spectacular creature comforts embody Airscarf neck vents and also the folding hardtop, and new this year, Magic Sky management, that turns the roof's glass panel dark sort of a combine of expensive sunglasses. A Bang & Olufsen sound system will replace the quality Harman/Kardon setup, however we're not sold on its bass response or its huge value tag. All SL models additionally accompany Mercedes’ COMAND infotainment system, which has a 7-inch visual display unit, a DVD changer, net browsing with Google search functionality, and navigation.

The SL 550 are going to be joined additional down the track by the high-performance SL63 AMG and SL65 AMG roadsters. Those machines are destined to slice through higher levels of the performance and pricing atmosphere, whereas we've additionally heard rumors of a real sub-SL sportscar coming back to the Mercedes lineup. To us, that simply clarifies what the SL is and what it will higher than all alternative comers: ancient luxury, with a breeze at its back.