Mercedes-Benz SL 63 AMG Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Mercedes SL 63 AMG
Prices: £102,075 – on the road
Insurance Group: 20
Emissions: 330g/km
Performance: Max Speed 155mph / 0-60mph 4.3s
Fuel Consumption: (urban) 13.2 (extra urban) 29.7 (combined) 20.3mpg
Safety: Twin front, side & head airbags, ESP, ABS
Dimensions: Length/Width/Heightmm 4532/1827/1298

PUTTING THE SPORT BACK INTO THE SL

Our Rating: 7.9 / 10

The 6.2-litre V8 engine that powers the Mercedes SL 63 AMG roadster brings out a very different side to its character than previous AMG variants. Andy Enright reports

Buy an AMG version of a Mercedes SL and you tend to get an engine with power boosted to dizzying levels by either a turbocharger or a supercharger. This time round it’s different, the SL 63 AMG’s normally-aspirated 6.2-litre V8 engine thriving on revs and making the car feel a lot sportier to boot. A new gearbox also involves the driver far more.

Despite AMG having been responsible for some impressively fast and monstrously powerful Mercedes SL models in the past, it’s easy to forget that the S in SL stands for ‘sport’. The SL had morphed into a big grand touring car that could gobble up autobahns and A roads but which seemed to have forgotten how to involve the driver beyond anything that involved depressing the go pedal and clinging on grimly as the scenery went rather blurred. With the SL 63 AMG, Mercedes have taken the SL back to an earlier time when it was still a driver’s car of note.

The current generation car, known to proper Mercedes anoraks as the R230 series, went on sale in the UK in early 2002 and has been a massive success. It’s now been updated to freshen the appeal and put some upstart rivals in their places.

The headline figure of 518bhp will tell most all they need to know about the SL 63 AMG. More powerful than a Ferrari 430 Scuderia or a range-topping Porsche 911 GT2, the SL 63 AMG might be the entry-level SL AMG variant but it still packs a fearsome wallop. It’ll get to 60mph in 4.3 seconds and effortless nudge into the electronic speed limiter at 155mph. The interesting thing about this engine is that it makes its peak power at 6,800rpm which means that unlike previous SL AMG versions, you’ll need to rev this car. The AMG Speedshift MCT seven-speed sequential manual gearbox is a thing of some brilliance.

This features four drive modes, Comfort, Sport, Sport Plus and Manual as well as a Race Start function and automatic double declutching for smooth, metered downshifts. The driver can change gear via a stick or wheel-mounted paddles, milking the howl of the V8 engine as it approaches its 7,200rpm redline. AMG sports suspension and three-stage ESP stability control is also fitted to the SL 63 AMG, but there’s little doubt that this chassis has been overtaken in terms of torsional rigidity by more modern rivals. There is the odd shake and shimmy but the Active Body Control elements in

The SL 63 AMG can be differentiated from its humbler brethren courtesy of a black-finished radiator grille, a more aggressive front spoiler and bigger cooling intakes. Nineteen-inch AMG light alloy wheels are shod with 255/35 tyres at the front and 285/30 rubber at the rear. Peer through the triple-spoke design alloys and you’ll spot some very big brakes, six-piston units with 360mm discs at the front and four-pot items with 330mm rotors at the back. In other words, the back brakes of this Mercedes are as big as the front brakes of a Porsche 911 Carrera.

Get the SL 63 AMG down from warp speed and you’ll spot a few of the revisions that have run across the latest SL range. The ‘peanut’ style headlamps of the old model have been replaced with massive single pod bi-xenon units that look surprisingly good. The Intelligent Light System provides five different lighting modes which activate automatically. Motorway mode, for instance, is activated in two stages when speeds exceed 90km/h, increasing the driver’s range of vision by 60 per cent. When the active light function is activated, the headlamps pivot with the steering. There are also cornering lights that illuminate the verge below 70km/h. The interior has been given the once over as well, with a completely restyled instrument cluster with the speedometer and the rev counter finished in a classic chronometer design.

AMG signatures are liberally scattered about the cabin. There’s an AMG three-spoke sports steering wheel with aluminium shift paddles, an AMG instrument cluster with ‘6.3 V8’ lettering on the rev counter in case you wondered why your car was travelling so rapidly. There’s also a Racetime mode that can log lap times and engine diagnostics. AMG perforated leather sports seats are fitted, although the smaller SLK model’s excellent Airscarf system remains, rather shamefully, an option. This incorporates heating and a hot air blower in the head restraint of the seat to provide a constant stream of warm air,