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A droptop SLS is definitely in the product program at the AMG hothouse that created the new supersports coupe and there are strong pointers also to an extreme Black Series model. Photo Gallery
The born-again Gullwing is barely out of the nest and there are already plans to make the Mercedes SLS faster and sexier.
A droptop SLS is definitely in the product program at the AMG hothouse that created the new supersports coupe and there are strong pointers also to an extreme Black Series model. Both are a couple of years away but Mercedes-AMG director, Kai Marten, is not denying they will come.
"The car has a lot of possibilities, so we will have an intensive internal discussion. In the next year we will decide if there is anything or not," Marten says. But press him on the convertible and he comes clean. "At the moment we haven't decided a time schedule for the convertible.
But you can be sure we will not do it next year. You can expect it in one or two years," Marten admits. The rigid structure of the SLS coupe is a pointer to a car which will be no slower without a roof and a little more luxurious. Given the space in the basic body, it is almost certain to be have a canvas roof and not a clamshell-style coupe-convertible top.
"We have a very rigid structure also in the convertible. It's on a very good level for other convertibles," says Marten. "And, of course, we prepared this version during the development phase. Therefore the changes we had to do are very little."
He is a little more guarded on the subject of a Black Series SLS, which would follow similar top-end tweaks on the SLK, SLK and SL, but admits there is "still some potential" in both power and weight cuts for an extreme Gullwing. "Customers should always get what they want. If you would decide to do so then, yes, there could be some changes. But at the moment we didn't decide this.
"If we think about a special sort of model then it would be perhaps be a Performance Studio model, or perhaps not. Normally we call them Black Series editions. "At the moment there are no plans. But there are always a lot of ideas."
