Got my issue yesterday (A leading UK Performance Car magazine) and felt sure it was about time for rounds of road tests on the blue car used by Autocar recently. This must be the UK test car (and in the fastest colour ).

Bit worried to read the front cover headline ""Merc SL55 v Caterham - Supercar versus lightweight sports car - which one wins?"

They have pitted the SL55 against their current track car of the year, a quarter of the SL55's weight.

The test reads superb - the SL55 aquits itself superbly, right up there with a stripped out track car.

0-100-0 - it beats the Caterham - 14.8 v 16.68. Quote "The SL looses speed like it's just spotted a concrete wall, squirming gently as individual wheels are manipulated for maximum retardation by the computer: If we hadn't seen it we wouldn't quite belive it."

Time Exposed to Danger - Overtaking a truck - dead heat 4.4 seconds. Quote - Once the SL55's torque converter is fully hooked up it wastes no time delivering maximum slam.

Slalom - Caterham 6.35 - SL55 6.81 (without the electronic aids 7.2!) Quote - The caterham "a best time of 6.35 is a stiff marker. Or it would be for most cars. In the SL55 you simply hit the 'amazing' button (aka ABC sport) and post a time of 6.81 which, all things considered is faintly absurd. Even in its default suspension setting the SL55 is superbly agile......"

Lateral G - (Maximum Grip) - Caterham 0.82 SL55 0.79. (as a marker - Porsche 911TT 0.8) The SL55 proves to be as grippy as a lotus elise!

On the track - Caterham 39.55 and SL55 42.2 (two very slow complexes). Still "The SL55 feels terrific - thunderously fast down the straights, awesome braking, precise and poised through the turns, even when drifting..."

Conclusion "The caterham R300 wins with an overal Evo Performance Rating (EPR) of 84.9 to the SL55's 82.1. You didn't think it was going to be beat by a car weighing nearly two tons did you? Well at one point we did. The fastest production Merc ever, simply hadn't read the script. Much of the time it seems to be performing feats that defy reason. Yes it really can give the Catreham R300 a fright and face down a 911 Turbo (EPR 82.2)..."

A great article - recommended read. They tip the car for this years Evo car of the year.

 

Thanks for the heads up. Sounds like a much better article than Autocar can muster.

 

Gets better - on reading the mag in more details they have a new long term test car ordered over a year ago with 500bhp from it's V8 5.5 litre supercharged engine - more details next month.

Subtle picture of a black SL55 in the background. Wonder if it will be as fast as the blue one

 

Fantastic...can't wait to read it...Ironically the next car I am planning to purchase after the SL55 is a Caterham Superlight R!!!

What a great comparison...between the classic bugs in your teeth, raw, ***** out roadster..with the state of the art, techno wizard, luxury, super roadster. Two different ways to arrive at a spectacular level of performance!!!

thanks for the headsup.

 

I'm sure the numbers will only get better as the engine loosens up with time. A friend with a C32AMG always mentioned that his car didn't feel 'that' fast untill about 8-10K miles on the clock then it opened up and now he always says that it feels ****** fast! When the SL55 finally arrives I look forward to seeing which feels faster as I have driven and been driven in his C32AMG.

Can't wait to receive my copy of EVO, tomorrow I think.

 

new articles in Road and Track ,and Car and Driver, see seperate posts

 

If anyone outside the UK would like to see a copy of Evo and cannot easily get it, let me know, I'll be happy to send a few copies out. That's what secretaries are for isn't it? If you want one, just send me a PM with your mailing address but do it soon because the magazine will be more difficult to get in a couple of weeks.