exit2Ek

SLKV12TT,

dude totally agree with you. i love mb/amg cars but over the years these cars have gotten faster but but that doesn't mean it's gotten sportier. the old gullwings(which i havn't been fortunate enough to work on) was never intended to be a cruiser. it was mb's sports car at the time. unfortunately technology is a double edged sword. the cars have gotten better but at the same time it has a negative effect on driving skill. it has taken away the alot of meaning from the word sport. nowadays most people(that are not on this board) buy amgs not because its a sports car but because its more expensive than the 500 or 600. because amg's are a dime a dozen nowadays they aren't going to be classic(like you said) like the gullwing. just my two cents....

lovem5wantm6

The Automatic is faster 0-60 which will give it a slight edge in the 1/4 mile. Look at the ring times for the cars and see how many seconds faster the stick shift is. Part of the definition of a sports car is great handling and porsche were build to handle, the best porsche is and has always been a stick shift. You dont see any GT2's or GT3's in automatic now do you?

SLKV12TT

exit2Ek you have it right.

Folks, the point is not "which is faster" but which is a sports car, e.g. "sport".

I remember driving a hopped up little 60s british roadster with skinny tires, wire wheels and dual side draft webers. Thing FELT fast and it was TONS OF FUN. Was it fast compared to most contemporary four door sedans? No. But it was a sports car.

Question: What's the fastest any of us has ever gone? What, something just over 500 mph. Sitting on a plane! Speed does not equal sport. Ride a TVG at 200mph. It ain't sport.

I'm not a hunter (and will probably offend the hunters on this post) but I think give the hunter a knife and let him hunt a bear. Now that would be sport! Give him an AK47 or a snipers rifle with a laser and to me, no longer sport.

My $0.02.

NSM

Three days tracking an elk to put a 460 yard shot through the heart is most definitely sport. Knife vs anything wild is stupid. Not offended, just a reality check.

As far as sport in a car goes, if it's fun to drive fast it's a "sports car". Everyone's definition will be a little different...

AdamG@NorCal

Bingo!

The SL is a cruiser, its a looker, its attractive and AMG has done a good job to create a V12 engine that is so smooth.

0700700

this was rated as one of the 10 WORST cars of all time by EVO

Tuskir

What AMG needs is a clutchless manual (F1, SMG, DSG, etc) transmission... why the heck aren't they making one? They aren't even any rumors and when porsche finally releases its DSG, Mercedes will be the only euro sports car maker without a clutchless manual. Ferrari, Lambo, BMW, Audi, VW, Porsche, even Lexus all have them...

eLTURCOamg

they do, its called touchshift ha

RW C55

The clutchless manual i tried lately is an M6 SMG 3, and its nowhere as comfortable as a real automatic. Remember, Mercedes built comfortable luxury cruisers, not some fast track cars. If i were in the market of a 55's 63's and 65's and after a test drive, its as "shaky" as the M-series SMGs, no way its gonna sell.

Tuskir

I've owned an E46 M3 for 3 years and found the SMG to behave just like a regular automatic on the smoothest setting. Same thing with the new SMG3, If I didn't know anything about the car and drove it on these settings, I would've thought it was an automatic. You can pretty much adjust how fast and smooth you want it to shift, maybe the M6 you drove was on the sportiest setting?

RW C55

in fact I always set it to D1, the softest.. yet its still not as comfortable as my C55. Maybe there's something wrong with my SMG? man i hope not..

Germancar1

True, but Lexus doesn't have one yet either. Its all rumors at this point.

M