SLS/R197/C197 AMG: Owner Review
02-21-2014, 03:03 AM
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AMG SLS
Owner Review
(Author's Note: for the past few years, I've written reviews of various cars I own. The following is a comparison I wrote matching my new Black Series against my Ford GT for another enthusiast forum. I thought the readers of this forum might find it interesting.)
About a year ago, I bought a Mercedes SLS. I was impressed with that car, and through an interesting stroke of happenstance, my local dealer offered me the state’s one and only allocation of an SLS Black Series. The catch was that I would have to wait the better part of a year for it to arrive. I snapped up the opportunity, chose the specification (it had to be silver, as any good German car should be) and commenced waiting. Having been through this drill with my previous Ferrari orders, it was both familiar and frustrating.
The car arrived just before Christmas, and it sat in my garage sheltered from the inclement winter weather and salty roads for the better part of a month. I finally ran out of patience, loaded the car in my trailer, and winged south to the warmth of the desert. I’ve been enjoying it here in the toasty southwest ever since, while some of you have been basking in the polar vortex.
In my previous reviews, I’ve gone through a brief introduction of both the challenger and the Ford GT. I’m going to skip a lengthy description of the GT, since I am quite confident that in the last 8 years, most car guys have become basically familiar with the car.
THE SLS BLACK SERIES
The SLS is a two passenger, front engine, rear drive car and is the first vehicle designed and built entirely by AMG. It is powered by a normally aspirated , overhead cam V8, displacing about 379 cubic inches. The Black Series is a super limited production version of the car, featuring wider body panels, fatter tires, more horsepower (622 vs. 583) and various carbon and titanium parts to reduce weight by about 150 pounds under the standard car. It also has massive carbon brakes.
Having owned and driven both the standard SLS and the Black Series, I am at pains to emphasize the enormous difference between the two cars. This has become the most surprising and pleasing aspects of the Black for me. By far, the most significant improvement is the glorous reprogramming they’ve done to the transmission.
The SLS uses a dual clutch manu-matic built by Getrag. In the standard car, the shift action was a bit of disappointment. Not terrible, maybe on par with discovering on the honeymoon that your spouse was not the gender you had anticipated. My primary gripe was not that the car shifted slowly, which it did not. The physical change of gears is blink quick, and in auto mode, it is world class. The problem was that when switched to manual, the delay between the input of paddle and the response of the transmission was lethargic. It seemed to me that the delay was the equivalent of a normal slush box driven with paddles, like my S550. Since I always drive my manumatics in manual mode as a matter of principle, this was a big let down. Especially compared to the 458 I had owned.
The tranny in the Black has been transformed. It cracks off shifts with same thrilling urgency of the 458, but coupled with the torque of the monster V8, the effect brings a smile to the face of even the most ardent 3-peddle fan. There is no denying that a properly tuned DCT is simply a faster, more efficient way to change gears than a true manual. If you doubt this, look at virtually every race car built in last five years. (Be that as it may, I still prefer a true manual for street use).
Other differences in the Black are just what you would expect. Super quick steering, super responsive throttle in relation to throttle travel. The gear ratios of the Black are tighter, resulting in more fierce acceleration in all gears. And my gracious, the noise, men, the NOISE! The Black features an ultra light titanium exhaust system which sounds like a communion between Nascar and Mozart. I’ve never heard anything like it, and when you are slapping gears at redline, the effect is the equivalent of a conjugal visit with the mechanical mistress known as Ms. Rumblestein. I revved it next to a Corvette the other day at a red light, and I swear I could hear that poor car draining its crankcase onto the pavement right there in public. Of course the grand irony is that it’s a highfalutin European car that is making all those distinctly American noises. Trust those German engineers to take it to a whole nuva leval.
COMPARISONS
Engine
This part makes for a fascinating comparison, since both cars use a similar power plant; V-8, 32 valves, overhead cams, dry sump, all the proper features of a true high tech torque master. Not a push rod to be found. The significant difference is that the GT is supercharged, while the Black is not. If you were to therefore presume that the throttle response of the Black would be more crisp, and you would be right. In stock form, the Black allegedly makes nearly 70 more horsepower than the GT without the inherent compromises of the supercharger. The result is that the Black has that razor sharp, immediate response from any rpm. The Black also enjoys the benefits of 8 years of advancements in engine management technology that make the comparison a bit unfair. I should also add that the Black has much shorter gearing than the GT and a hair trigger throttle, both of which can be deceiving when comparing engine responsiveness. But, you can’t argue with physics, and an unboosted engine is just going to feel more urgent than its blown or turboed equivalent.
The GT engine is no slouch, however, and driven in isolation it remains one of my favorite engines of all time. It surpasses the Black in stock torque, and is oh so easy to modify. However, on cold, lonely nights, I like to imagine what the GT would feel like with the Black V-8 bolted between its frame rails. I would miss those blue cam covers, however….
Styling
The Black has a humongous hood. You could probably land a Piper Cub on in and still have to taxi for awhile to fall off. On the Black, they have molded two long runners into the length carbon fiber hood, and added a negative pressure inlet in exposed fiber that really makes it more attractive, but it is still a huge surface. A couple of bystanders have asked whether it has a v-12 in it, based on the size of its front end. Not only does it NOT have a V-12, the V8 it does have is tucked tight against (and under) the firewall, leaving lots and lots of space in the engine compartment. Viewed from the front and back, the Black appears quite wide and flat, a surprise for a European car. Suffice it to say that the SLS will not be touring the ancient cobblestone “roads” of the traditional medieval European walled cities. This is an autobahn car, if ever there was one.
After giving all the emphasis to the hood, the cab looks tiny, and the back end just sort of falls off. On the Black, they have added a honkin’ rear wing. While it may be anything but subtle, I like it and think it adds a satisfying gravitas and balance to the backside of the car. The wider body panels and fat rubber make the car look significantly more menacing than the standard car; if the SLS is an Imperial Stormtrooper, then the Black is Darth Vader. Viewed from the side, the Black is all about horizontal lines, long hood, long rockers, long doors. Its cool looking and the carbon wings and spoilers give it a swagger than is completely absent in the standard car. In some ways, it’s a Marvel Comic version of the original SLS.
The GT, by comparison, makes the Black look boxy and almost conventional. For all the visual interest the Black generates, put it next to the GT and it’s like comparing a hopped-up Cessna with a Gulfstream. The GT just telegraphs its mission more convincingly. Interestingly, both cars are based upon historic themes, the Black on the Gullwing from the 50s (a touring car) and the GT on the Mulsanne dominating race cars of Le Mans. Predictably, the Black is an obvious attempt to make an existing design (the SLS) more racy, while the GT was and has, always been a race car at heart. This is one of the things that I think makes the Ford GT so darn special and desirable.
DRIVING
The Black has a firm suspension, but it is not harsh. I’ve read a couple of magazine reviews of the car, and both seemed to think that the ride was overly stiff. I strongly disagree, and since I have spent more seat time in the Black than a magazine writer, I’m quite resoundingly right. The ride is certainly firm in comparison to my S550, but very refined and never sharp edged. I think its perfect for a high performance road car of this nature.
Despite the huge hood, the car actually feels smaller when driven. On my favorite mountain road, the only time I feel its girth is when the guardrail is on the passenger side. In those cases, I feel a little caution creep in because I’m not sure exactly where that big nose stops and body damage begins. On the more open confines of a track, I can emphatically predict that I would have no difficulty tossing the car around with abandon. Its feels track hungry in the same way my Viper ACR did. And with that engine/transmission/suspension combo, holy cow what a beast it must be…
MY ADVENTURES WITH RACE START
The Black has a feature called “Race Start” which is known as launch control in other cars. I have only recently been able to test this, as AMG is quite strict in their break-in instructions. I was quite religious in not exceeding 4500 rpm for the first 1000 miles, and it seemed to take forever. Turns out it takes a long time to put 1000 miles on a car. (Heck, some Ferrari owner I know would be looking for a tall cliff to jump off if they put 1000 miles on thier car during the entire 18 months of ownership). Once the babying was done, I decided to give it a test. The result was astounding.
In order to make this work, you come to a stop after the car is fully warmed up. Rotate the transmission selection knob past manual, to RS. With foot on the brake, you confirm that yes, you really do want to scare yourself to death, by pulling the shift paddle to acknowledge the warning on the dash. You put your right foot on the gas and floor it while your foot is still firmly on the brake. (I can’t tell you how hard this was for me to do – my brain kept telling me to get my cotton pickin left foot off the break while my right foot was on the gas). The computer caps the revs at about 3500 rpm with a staccato rev limiter, and when you release the brake, you learn just what 0-60 in 3 seconds feels like without any worries about wheel spin and wild oversteer into the barrow ditch.
And since we are on the topic of wheel spin, allow me to digress for a moment. In the GT, wheelspin is the constant enemy of the conscientious owner who wants to make sure the bodylines of the car remain in the arrangement intended by Monsieur Pardo. How many times have you heard of the GT being prodded on its hockey puck Goodyears with the result either being smoking standstills (at best) and wild, careening orversteer into an unyielding object (worst). Because of this, I don’t think I’ve ever been able to confidently utilize the enormous power of my GT in first gear. Yes, I’ve driven it to 210 (officially certified and irrefutably verified at 210.1, in case you don’t remember) but I’ve always been timid of really nailing it in first gear. The same goes, perhaps even more so, for my Porsche Carrera GT. So, my experience with raw, brutal, drag strip-like first gear acceleration has been almost nonexistent, despite all the cool cars I’ve owned.
Back to “the Launch”. The first time I tried race control, the Black exploded out of the hole with such an alarming ferocity that I instinctively released the throttle after just a moment. I could almost hear the car laughing at me, ridiculing me in German, as if I had asked, it delivered, and I couldn’t handle the truth. “Dis ist the beeg leegs, now mein friend”. I laughed at myself, regrouped, then tried it again. This time, with my foot clamped to the floor and my jaw set, I repeated the preflight protocol. I matted the throttle, the engine note came up to its pre set limiter, and I released the brake. The pipes snarled, and this time I kept my foot down. The tires scrubbed on the edge of adhesion but did not spin, and I was violently daft-blasted into the trunk of the car. We accelerated so hard that for only the second time in my memory, I experienced g-induced vertigo. (I’m no Doctor, but I posit that hard acceleration messes with the inner ear. The only other time I have felt this was as a passenger experiencing a first gear romp in a Mclaren 12c). I’m telling you, if you ever get the chance to feel just how hard a computer can launch a 600 horsepower, short geared car, you gotta take it. I now know what 0-60 in 3.2 seconds feels like. Its faaaaast.
THE GT
The GT ride is bit more compliant than the Black, and the power delivery feels a lot less manic. A big part of this is the fact that the GT does not have such hair trigger reflexes, including taller gears, which is ironically a nice thing. I like it when a wee bit of throttle travel is necessary to make a car move. In the Black, if you hiccup while your foot is on the gas, you will likely find yourself in the wrong zip code. The GT is much more realistic in its motion-to-result ratio, but you can still spin the rear tires at will if you want to (you don’t). The steering in both cars is superb and direct, with the Black having a bit more feel and feedback. The GT has a more confidence-inspiring outward view of the road, and I feel more agile and sure when placing it on a canyon curve than I do the Black. And while both cars are stupendous open road speeders, the GT is still the clear favorite when it comes to flat out, warp speed touring. After having driven both cars at speed, if you told me I had to escape from a Zombie piloted helicopter by fleeing on the deserted interstates of America, I would walk straight past every car I own, or have ever owned, and lower myself directly into the waiting seat of my…Ford GT. Until I test it against a Veyron at 200 mph, I’m declaring the GT to be the world’s most stable road car at speed. Period.
FIT AND FINISH
Both cars are stellar in this department. Because the body panels on the Black are mostly plastic or carbon composite, they are not quite as wave-free as the GT’s fine aluminum. However, they can’t be dented either. Paint on both cars is great, and panel fit is tight and uniform. The Bang and Olufsen stereo in the Black is awesome and, I think one speaker has more sound fidelity than all the speakers combined in my last Ferrari 458. It’s also loud enough that you can actually drown out the pipes and road noise to some vintage Van Halen if you like bleeding ears.
CONCLUSION: THE EXOTIC FACTOR
The more cars I’ve owned, the more convinced I am that what makes a car truly special is hard to pinpoint, especially when it comes to some form of predictability of how the whole package will come together. It’s the old phenomenon of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. We can probably all agree that the Camry you rented last week from Enterprise was boring. We can all probably agree that the Pontiac Aztec is an absurd affront to all things that are right and good in this world. But what about your average six figure exotic? What makes one special and the other a turd?
Allow me a simple anology: exotic cars are like movies. I see a ton of movies. Once in awhile, a film comes along that just blows me away. I remember a few years back, walking out of “Saving Private Ryan” and my wife asked me what I thought of it. I was speechless, and my only response was to shake my head, wipe away the tears from the previous two hours, and mutter, “I don’t have the words.” I mean, it moved me. It was a combination of many different things that made that movie resonate with me. Many critics agree that it is one of THE seminal war films. I’m sure that most Hollywood producers and directors, while they are making a movie, are trying to give it all they have. They want to engage their audience, they want to communicate, to share ideas. The results, however, are all over the board. Moreover, where one movie may be really special to one person, another person may walk out half way through shaking their heads. (I loved the Terrence Malick’s the Tree of Life. I think I was only person in the theater who did).
Exotic cars, which are really just expensive toys, are the same way. Sometimes, a car comes together with such serendipity that it can be neither explained nor duplicated. The McLaren F1, the Carrera GT, the Ferrari F40, the Honda NSX, the Ford GT. Great cars, maybe greater than their creators ever imagined they would be. On the other hand, you have resounding flops, like the Ferrari 348, the 612, and don’t forget the Vector W2. (Did that car really even exist?).
Is the SLS Black Series destined to be great one? The car magazines seem to think so, but only time will tell. From where I stand right now, I can’t think of a car that fills the niche that the Black Series does, or does it as well. I don’t even know what to call that niche. It is a one-off, a sort of super German Corvette that isn’t a Corvette at all, a finely honed and polished work of front-engined muscle car engineering that the Viper would aspire to, if it had a century of development work lavished upon it. It is a great driver’s cars, and the mighty, normally aspirated V8 is the last of its breed from Mercedes. Is it the greatest V8 of all time? It may very well be. It is a very, very special car, but it was built is so few numbers that I’m not sure how many people will ever be able to enjoy it. I can say for sure that if you love Mercedes and its historic role as the standard bearer of the automotive world, you must have an SLS Black in your collection.
IF YOU COULD HAVE ONLY ONE…
No surprise here. It would have to be the ballistic Ford GT. It does so many goods things, and all at the same time. Well built, torsionally rigid, fast, beautiful, handles nicely, completely unique, great history, mid engine design, and masterfully American. It will bite you if you don’t respect it, but it takes no more skill to drive rationally on the street than a V8 Mustang. It’s simply unique, and its only real peer is the original. Yea, the original that dominated Le Mans for four straight years. On a Deuce-inspired grudge, no less. I can't think of a modern supercar with a similar resume.
About a year ago, I bought a Mercedes SLS. I was impressed with that car, and through an interesting stroke of happenstance, my local dealer offered me the state’s one and only allocation of an SLS Black Series. The catch was that I would have to wait the better part of a year for it to arrive. I snapped up the opportunity, chose the specification (it had to be silver, as any good German car should be) and commenced waiting. Having been through this drill with my previous Ferrari orders, it was both familiar and frustrating.
The car arrived just before Christmas, and it sat in my garage sheltered from the inclement winter weather and salty roads for the better part of a month. I finally ran out of patience, loaded the car in my trailer, and winged south to the warmth of the desert. I’ve been enjoying it here in the toasty southwest ever since, while some of you have been basking in the polar vortex.
In my previous reviews, I’ve gone through a brief introduction of both the challenger and the Ford GT. I’m going to skip a lengthy description of the GT, since I am quite confident that in the last 8 years, most car guys have become basically familiar with the car.
THE SLS BLACK SERIES
The SLS is a two passenger, front engine, rear drive car and is the first vehicle designed and built entirely by AMG. It is powered by a normally aspirated , overhead cam V8, displacing about 379 cubic inches. The Black Series is a super limited production version of the car, featuring wider body panels, fatter tires, more horsepower (622 vs. 583) and various carbon and titanium parts to reduce weight by about 150 pounds under the standard car. It also has massive carbon brakes.
Having owned and driven both the standard SLS and the Black Series, I am at pains to emphasize the enormous difference between the two cars. This has become the most surprising and pleasing aspects of the Black for me. By far, the most significant improvement is the glorous reprogramming they’ve done to the transmission.
The SLS uses a dual clutch manu-matic built by Getrag. In the standard car, the shift action was a bit of disappointment. Not terrible, maybe on par with discovering on the honeymoon that your spouse was not the gender you had anticipated. My primary gripe was not that the car shifted slowly, which it did not. The physical change of gears is blink quick, and in auto mode, it is world class. The problem was that when switched to manual, the delay between the input of paddle and the response of the transmission was lethargic. It seemed to me that the delay was the equivalent of a normal slush box driven with paddles, like my S550. Since I always drive my manumatics in manual mode as a matter of principle, this was a big let down. Especially compared to the 458 I had owned.
The tranny in the Black has been transformed. It cracks off shifts with same thrilling urgency of the 458, but coupled with the torque of the monster V8, the effect brings a smile to the face of even the most ardent 3-peddle fan. There is no denying that a properly tuned DCT is simply a faster, more efficient way to change gears than a true manual. If you doubt this, look at virtually every race car built in last five years. (Be that as it may, I still prefer a true manual for street use).
Other differences in the Black are just what you would expect. Super quick steering, super responsive throttle in relation to throttle travel. The gear ratios of the Black are tighter, resulting in more fierce acceleration in all gears. And my gracious, the noise, men, the NOISE! The Black features an ultra light titanium exhaust system which sounds like a communion between Nascar and Mozart. I’ve never heard anything like it, and when you are slapping gears at redline, the effect is the equivalent of a conjugal visit with the mechanical mistress known as Ms. Rumblestein. I revved it next to a Corvette the other day at a red light, and I swear I could hear that poor car draining its crankcase onto the pavement right there in public. Of course the grand irony is that it’s a highfalutin European car that is making all those distinctly American noises. Trust those German engineers to take it to a whole nuva leval.
COMPARISONS
Engine
This part makes for a fascinating comparison, since both cars use a similar power plant; V-8, 32 valves, overhead cams, dry sump, all the proper features of a true high tech torque master. Not a push rod to be found. The significant difference is that the GT is supercharged, while the Black is not. If you were to therefore presume that the throttle response of the Black would be more crisp, and you would be right. In stock form, the Black allegedly makes nearly 70 more horsepower than the GT without the inherent compromises of the supercharger. The result is that the Black has that razor sharp, immediate response from any rpm. The Black also enjoys the benefits of 8 years of advancements in engine management technology that make the comparison a bit unfair. I should also add that the Black has much shorter gearing than the GT and a hair trigger throttle, both of which can be deceiving when comparing engine responsiveness. But, you can’t argue with physics, and an unboosted engine is just going to feel more urgent than its blown or turboed equivalent.
The GT engine is no slouch, however, and driven in isolation it remains one of my favorite engines of all time. It surpasses the Black in stock torque, and is oh so easy to modify. However, on cold, lonely nights, I like to imagine what the GT would feel like with the Black V-8 bolted between its frame rails. I would miss those blue cam covers, however….
Styling
The Black has a humongous hood. You could probably land a Piper Cub on in and still have to taxi for awhile to fall off. On the Black, they have molded two long runners into the length carbon fiber hood, and added a negative pressure inlet in exposed fiber that really makes it more attractive, but it is still a huge surface. A couple of bystanders have asked whether it has a v-12 in it, based on the size of its front end. Not only does it NOT have a V-12, the V8 it does have is tucked tight against (and under) the firewall, leaving lots and lots of space in the engine compartment. Viewed from the front and back, the Black appears quite wide and flat, a surprise for a European car. Suffice it to say that the SLS will not be touring the ancient cobblestone “roads” of the traditional medieval European walled cities. This is an autobahn car, if ever there was one.
After giving all the emphasis to the hood, the cab looks tiny, and the back end just sort of falls off. On the Black, they have added a honkin’ rear wing. While it may be anything but subtle, I like it and think it adds a satisfying gravitas and balance to the backside of the car. The wider body panels and fat rubber make the car look significantly more menacing than the standard car; if the SLS is an Imperial Stormtrooper, then the Black is Darth Vader. Viewed from the side, the Black is all about horizontal lines, long hood, long rockers, long doors. Its cool looking and the carbon wings and spoilers give it a swagger than is completely absent in the standard car. In some ways, it’s a Marvel Comic version of the original SLS.
The GT, by comparison, makes the Black look boxy and almost conventional. For all the visual interest the Black generates, put it next to the GT and it’s like comparing a hopped-up Cessna with a Gulfstream. The GT just telegraphs its mission more convincingly. Interestingly, both cars are based upon historic themes, the Black on the Gullwing from the 50s (a touring car) and the GT on the Mulsanne dominating race cars of Le Mans. Predictably, the Black is an obvious attempt to make an existing design (the SLS) more racy, while the GT was and has, always been a race car at heart. This is one of the things that I think makes the Ford GT so darn special and desirable.
DRIVING
The Black has a firm suspension, but it is not harsh. I’ve read a couple of magazine reviews of the car, and both seemed to think that the ride was overly stiff. I strongly disagree, and since I have spent more seat time in the Black than a magazine writer, I’m quite resoundingly right. The ride is certainly firm in comparison to my S550, but very refined and never sharp edged. I think its perfect for a high performance road car of this nature.
Despite the huge hood, the car actually feels smaller when driven. On my favorite mountain road, the only time I feel its girth is when the guardrail is on the passenger side. In those cases, I feel a little caution creep in because I’m not sure exactly where that big nose stops and body damage begins. On the more open confines of a track, I can emphatically predict that I would have no difficulty tossing the car around with abandon. Its feels track hungry in the same way my Viper ACR did. And with that engine/transmission/suspension combo, holy cow what a beast it must be…
MY ADVENTURES WITH RACE START
The Black has a feature called “Race Start” which is known as launch control in other cars. I have only recently been able to test this, as AMG is quite strict in their break-in instructions. I was quite religious in not exceeding 4500 rpm for the first 1000 miles, and it seemed to take forever. Turns out it takes a long time to put 1000 miles on a car. (Heck, some Ferrari owner I know would be looking for a tall cliff to jump off if they put 1000 miles on thier car during the entire 18 months of ownership). Once the babying was done, I decided to give it a test. The result was astounding.
In order to make this work, you come to a stop after the car is fully warmed up. Rotate the transmission selection knob past manual, to RS. With foot on the brake, you confirm that yes, you really do want to scare yourself to death, by pulling the shift paddle to acknowledge the warning on the dash. You put your right foot on the gas and floor it while your foot is still firmly on the brake. (I can’t tell you how hard this was for me to do – my brain kept telling me to get my cotton pickin left foot off the break while my right foot was on the gas). The computer caps the revs at about 3500 rpm with a staccato rev limiter, and when you release the brake, you learn just what 0-60 in 3 seconds feels like without any worries about wheel spin and wild oversteer into the barrow ditch.
And since we are on the topic of wheel spin, allow me to digress for a moment. In the GT, wheelspin is the constant enemy of the conscientious owner who wants to make sure the bodylines of the car remain in the arrangement intended by Monsieur Pardo. How many times have you heard of the GT being prodded on its hockey puck Goodyears with the result either being smoking standstills (at best) and wild, careening orversteer into an unyielding object (worst). Because of this, I don’t think I’ve ever been able to confidently utilize the enormous power of my GT in first gear. Yes, I’ve driven it to 210 (officially certified and irrefutably verified at 210.1, in case you don’t remember) but I’ve always been timid of really nailing it in first gear. The same goes, perhaps even more so, for my Porsche Carrera GT. So, my experience with raw, brutal, drag strip-like first gear acceleration has been almost nonexistent, despite all the cool cars I’ve owned.
Back to “the Launch”. The first time I tried race control, the Black exploded out of the hole with such an alarming ferocity that I instinctively released the throttle after just a moment. I could almost hear the car laughing at me, ridiculing me in German, as if I had asked, it delivered, and I couldn’t handle the truth. “Dis ist the beeg leegs, now mein friend”. I laughed at myself, regrouped, then tried it again. This time, with my foot clamped to the floor and my jaw set, I repeated the preflight protocol. I matted the throttle, the engine note came up to its pre set limiter, and I released the brake. The pipes snarled, and this time I kept my foot down. The tires scrubbed on the edge of adhesion but did not spin, and I was violently daft-blasted into the trunk of the car. We accelerated so hard that for only the second time in my memory, I experienced g-induced vertigo. (I’m no Doctor, but I posit that hard acceleration messes with the inner ear. The only other time I have felt this was as a passenger experiencing a first gear romp in a Mclaren 12c). I’m telling you, if you ever get the chance to feel just how hard a computer can launch a 600 horsepower, short geared car, you gotta take it. I now know what 0-60 in 3.2 seconds feels like. Its faaaaast.
THE GT
The GT ride is bit more compliant than the Black, and the power delivery feels a lot less manic. A big part of this is the fact that the GT does not have such hair trigger reflexes, including taller gears, which is ironically a nice thing. I like it when a wee bit of throttle travel is necessary to make a car move. In the Black, if you hiccup while your foot is on the gas, you will likely find yourself in the wrong zip code. The GT is much more realistic in its motion-to-result ratio, but you can still spin the rear tires at will if you want to (you don’t). The steering in both cars is superb and direct, with the Black having a bit more feel and feedback. The GT has a more confidence-inspiring outward view of the road, and I feel more agile and sure when placing it on a canyon curve than I do the Black. And while both cars are stupendous open road speeders, the GT is still the clear favorite when it comes to flat out, warp speed touring. After having driven both cars at speed, if you told me I had to escape from a Zombie piloted helicopter by fleeing on the deserted interstates of America, I would walk straight past every car I own, or have ever owned, and lower myself directly into the waiting seat of my…Ford GT. Until I test it against a Veyron at 200 mph, I’m declaring the GT to be the world’s most stable road car at speed. Period.
FIT AND FINISH
Both cars are stellar in this department. Because the body panels on the Black are mostly plastic or carbon composite, they are not quite as wave-free as the GT’s fine aluminum. However, they can’t be dented either. Paint on both cars is great, and panel fit is tight and uniform. The Bang and Olufsen stereo in the Black is awesome and, I think one speaker has more sound fidelity than all the speakers combined in my last Ferrari 458. It’s also loud enough that you can actually drown out the pipes and road noise to some vintage Van Halen if you like bleeding ears.
CONCLUSION: THE EXOTIC FACTOR
The more cars I’ve owned, the more convinced I am that what makes a car truly special is hard to pinpoint, especially when it comes to some form of predictability of how the whole package will come together. It’s the old phenomenon of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. We can probably all agree that the Camry you rented last week from Enterprise was boring. We can all probably agree that the Pontiac Aztec is an absurd affront to all things that are right and good in this world. But what about your average six figure exotic? What makes one special and the other a turd?
Allow me a simple anology: exotic cars are like movies. I see a ton of movies. Once in awhile, a film comes along that just blows me away. I remember a few years back, walking out of “Saving Private Ryan” and my wife asked me what I thought of it. I was speechless, and my only response was to shake my head, wipe away the tears from the previous two hours, and mutter, “I don’t have the words.” I mean, it moved me. It was a combination of many different things that made that movie resonate with me. Many critics agree that it is one of THE seminal war films. I’m sure that most Hollywood producers and directors, while they are making a movie, are trying to give it all they have. They want to engage their audience, they want to communicate, to share ideas. The results, however, are all over the board. Moreover, where one movie may be really special to one person, another person may walk out half way through shaking their heads. (I loved the Terrence Malick’s the Tree of Life. I think I was only person in the theater who did).
Exotic cars, which are really just expensive toys, are the same way. Sometimes, a car comes together with such serendipity that it can be neither explained nor duplicated. The McLaren F1, the Carrera GT, the Ferrari F40, the Honda NSX, the Ford GT. Great cars, maybe greater than their creators ever imagined they would be. On the other hand, you have resounding flops, like the Ferrari 348, the 612, and don’t forget the Vector W2. (Did that car really even exist?).
Is the SLS Black Series destined to be great one? The car magazines seem to think so, but only time will tell. From where I stand right now, I can’t think of a car that fills the niche that the Black Series does, or does it as well. I don’t even know what to call that niche. It is a one-off, a sort of super German Corvette that isn’t a Corvette at all, a finely honed and polished work of front-engined muscle car engineering that the Viper would aspire to, if it had a century of development work lavished upon it. It is a great driver’s cars, and the mighty, normally aspirated V8 is the last of its breed from Mercedes. Is it the greatest V8 of all time? It may very well be. It is a very, very special car, but it was built is so few numbers that I’m not sure how many people will ever be able to enjoy it. I can say for sure that if you love Mercedes and its historic role as the standard bearer of the automotive world, you must have an SLS Black in your collection.
IF YOU COULD HAVE ONLY ONE…
No surprise here. It would have to be the ballistic Ford GT. It does so many goods things, and all at the same time. Well built, torsionally rigid, fast, beautiful, handles nicely, completely unique, great history, mid engine design, and masterfully American. It will bite you if you don’t respect it, but it takes no more skill to drive rationally on the street than a V8 Mustang. It’s simply unique, and its only real peer is the original. Yea, the original that dominated Le Mans for four straight years. On a Deuce-inspired grudge, no less. I can't think of a modern supercar with a similar resume.
04-22-2014, 11:12 AM
#2
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2005 SL500 BLK/Charcoal Sport, Porsche 2013 Turbo Cayenne
Totally entertaining review! Loved it. 
Your silver BS is an absolutely stunning masterpiece.
I love the part about the car ridiculing you in German “Dis ist the beeg leegs, now mein friend”
- Awesome write up
Your silver BS is an absolutely stunning masterpiece.
I love the part about the car ridiculing you in German “Dis ist the beeg leegs, now mein friend”
- Awesome write up
04-26-2014, 07:55 AM
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sls gullwing, sls roadster, panoz esperante gtlm
Great review ....
Thanks for the review ... I own 2 SLS's (both 2013 ... one a roadster and one a gullwing). They are both our everyday drivers. We are retired and are not worried about back seats. I looked at a yellow black series in the MB show room in Sarasota and it was really impressive. I think the SLS is both exotic and drivable. Get review ... and nice car.
05-23-2014, 07:00 PM
#6
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One of the best reviews I've read, period!, enjoyed it you have a gift my friend!
Congrats on the car, its on my list of cars to get.......one day
Congrats on the car, its on my list of cars to get.......one day
06-03-2014, 02:35 PM
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2012 CLS63
enjoyed
