Mercedes-Benz SLS 2010 News

Only two of the 10 Black Series SLS AMG coupes ordered by Benz Australia remain to be sold. That's despite an astronomical price tag of $639,000 apiece which does not include on-road costs, easily making it the most expensive Benz you can buy here.But it's by no means the most expensive Benz ever sold here. That honour goes to the million plus Maybach followed by the SL 65 AMG Black Series at $700K.The next most expensive Benz in the current line-up is the long wheel base, 6.0-litre V12 S-Class 65 AMG at a thumping $498,700. Benz has a short but notable tradition of making these cars.The SLS following in the footsteps of the CLK 63 AMG Black Series (2007), the SL 65 AMG Black Series (2008) and the C 63 AMG Coupe Black Series (2011).With engine mods and every conceivable option the Black Series is the hi-end version of its super sports car version of its gullwing model. "The SLS AMG Coupe Black Series perfectly embodies the transition of performance technology from motorsport to the open road" Benz boss Horst Von Sanden said."The new SLS AMG Coupe Black Series further enhances the success of the Black Series, which has thrilled our customers since 2007"The enhanced AMG 6.3-litre V8 engine delivers a maximum output of 464 kW and up to 635Nm of torque, affirming the SLS AMG Coupe Black Series as the most powerful high-performance car from AMG with a combustion engine.Its outstanding driving dynamics and uncompromised lightweight construction, in accordance with the 'AMG Lightweight Performance' strategy, determine that the SLS AMG Coupe Black Series accelerates from 0 - 100 km/h in 3.6 seconds, and attains a top speed of 315 km/h.Combining scintillating performance with meticulous attention to detail, the SLS AMG Coupe Black Series offers a highly emotional driving experience in every respect, with no half-hearted compromises.

Seen in public first by Carsguide in AMG's German hometown of Affalterbach, the SLS Black Series - prior to being flown to the Los Angeles motor show for its public debut - has filled its 2013 quota of five and Mercedes Australia is scrambling for more.  The fifth rendition in the Black Series family is here in the second half of 2013 and Mercedes-Benz Australia already has five orders. “As it stands, our 2013 allocation is already allocated to customers,” says spokesman Jerry Stamoulis. “We are now talking to AMG and attempting to secure more to fulfil a current wait list. “Realistically the total number will not exceed 10 cars for Australia. “The final price has not been set but it's likely to be similar to the SL65 Black Series which was around $700,000.”  The new SLS Black Series, inspired by the track-only SLS GT3, showed itself at Affalterbach finished in Solar Beam metallic paint and layered with exposed carbon-fibre components, black wheels and gold brake calipers. Compared with the standard SLS, the Black Series is lower, hunkered down on its fat wheels and aggressive with its highlights of shining carbon fibre, its dominant rear spoiler and the brightness of its moor show colour. It looked like a glowing ember in the centre of an enormous, otherwise vacant warehouse amongst AMG's factories. AMG engineer Alexander Weber says its specifications are closer to a GT3 car than a road car. “But the Black Series has a more powerful engine,” he says. It has a 6.2-litre M159 V8 engine with 464kW (631hp) - up 44kW on the SLS - but torque has been clipped back to 635Nm, down 15Nm on the SLS.  Part of the reason for the torque drop is simply that the coupe doesn't need it because it has a lower final drive ratio and weighs 100kg less than the standard SLS. Weber says the transaxle's drive ratio is 4.44, lower than the standard SLS at 3.67. “The steering ratio is also shorter.” The engine is redlined at 8000rpm, up from 7200rpm in the normal SLS, allowing it to hit 100km/h from rest in 3.6 seconds and onwards to 315km/h. It has launch control - with software specifically tailored for this car - that allows for a 10 per cent slip for better acceleration.  “We changed a lot in the engine,” says Weber. “It has a new intake manifold - made shorter - and new valve gear that is a lot lighter. The oil circuit is new and so are the engine bearings. “We have reduced back pressure and fitted a 100 per cent titanium exhaust system. “There is an improved cooling system that was developed for the race track.” Much of the performance increase has come from the weight-loss program. Weber says the weight has been dropped by 100kg to 1550kg. “The torque tube for the engine drive from the front mid-mounted engine to the rear transaxle is now made of carbon fibre,” he says. “Previously it was aluminium and now the weight has come down to 13kg from 26kg.” Carbon-fibre and carbon compounds feature prominently, including trim in the cabin. It has compound carbon brake rotors and the rear spoiler is made of carbon fibre and tested in a wind tunnel to achieve downforce up by 40 per cent on the normal SLS. Each wheel is forged and 1kg lighter than the normal wheels. In total there is a 16kg weight loss over the normal car because of the wheels and the compound carbon brake rotors. Tyres are Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 measuring 275/35ZR19 at the front and 325/30ZR20 at the rear.  Weber says the car has hydraulic engine dampers that are specific only to the Black Series. “These solve problems with preventing weight distribution as the engine moves during driving,” he says. “It means no two parts are moving against each other and therefore don't change the weight distribution and therefore don't affect the handling. “This makes the Black Series a quicker car on the race track.” When asked, Weber says that other AMG cars may get this system to improve handling. The SLS Black Series is 26mm wider at the rear and 13mm wider at the front compared with the standard SLS. “You can see this in the additional bulges over the wheels and the rear indicators which are sunk into the fender, not flush like the standard car,” Weber says. “The tracks are also wider - in fact, wider than a GT3 car.” Mercedes-Benz Australia says the car will arrive in Australia from the second half of next year and that most of the buyers who have placed orders are previous AMG owners. The SLS Black Series is the fifth of this model line-up to be produced by AMG. The company started the Black Series with the SLK55 in 2006, following it with the CLK63 in 2007, SL65 in 2008 and C63 Coupe in 2011. Mercedes-AMG chairman Ola Kallenius says the latest Black Series “is a perfect study in the 100 per cent transfer of technology and engineering from motorsport to the road”. He says the new gull-wing is “the ultimate choice for fast laps and highly emotional driving experiences” and is the “most dynamic gull-wing model of all time”.  

Unveiled globally yesterday, the SLS AMG GT variants slip into the middle of the range under the GT3 track day version - and have filched some of its hardcore aspects, with more power, race-tuned suspension and a tweaked transmission. The ‘entry level’ SLS AMG’s 6.3-litre V8 remains as does the 650Nm peak torque, but with power boosted 21kW to 441kW. Mercedes-Benz says the GT gets to 100km/h in just 3.6 seconds – 1.1 seconds faster than the standard SLS AMG, and has a top speed of 319km/h (electronically limited). To accompany the power lift, the seven-speed AMG dual-clutch transmission has been recalibrated for faster shifts in Manual mode, with newly developed gear change logic and optimised transmission control shaving off the shift time for each change. The transmission’s automatic double-declutching on downshifts is function when shifting down is also more definite and faster. And sounds even better, the Mercedes statement says.  Experience gained in racing the SLS AMG GT3 has gone into the GT’s new adaptive performance suspension set-up, with stiffer springs and specially-tuned electronically-adjustable dampers added to the twin aluminium wishbones front and rear. The selectable ride control has two track-focused modes: Sport for “bumpy tracks like Nordschleife, which requires higher suspension travel” and Sport plus for “level surfaces such as Hockenheim”. The SLS AMG GT rolls on unique 20-in alloy wheels with red brake calipers, while gloss black accents inside and out, set off with red interior touches - and the GT badging on the decklid -- set it apart from the standard Gullwing. The cars have an October on-sale schedule for European markets, priced at the equivalent of $260,000 for the coupe and $270,000 for the roadster. Don’t look for it here, though, because it won’t be arriving in Australia. “We’re not taking it,” Mercedes-Benz spokesman Jerry Stamoulis says. “We could have the GT but have opted not to take it as we’re putting our hand up for something that’s coming a little bit later that we think will be a little bit more desirable in our market. It will be more powerful.” Stamoulis would not  go into any further information, but the next arrival it could be the SLS AMG e-cell – or if you’re talking really desirable it could even be something as tasty as the Black Series rumoured to be testing in Europe.  

Real-world driving moves a giant step closer to the gaming world when car racing simulator Gran Turismo 5 goes 3D in November.The Gran Turismo franchise has crafted a reputation for unmatched vehicle presentation and driving realism, world-class racers and weekend warriors all use the game to learn the tracks, and the long-awaited fifth model promises to lift the standard again.A bootload of technical innovation translates into the most realistic driving experience this side of a track day, and there's a chance to win a Mercedes-Benz SLS "Gullwing" supercar.There are 1000, yes, 1000, photo-realistically rendered vehicles ready to roll on 70 tracks, ranging from radical rally cars to regular production models. The list includes more than 800 cars, with many from previous versions of the game, along with 200 "premium" models that faithfully depict everything from driving dynamics — data loggers captured the acceleration, braking and handling of the real cars on the real tracks — right down to the interior fabric and plastic textures.That level of detail inevitably will drop a fraction if you play the game in 3D, but it is still high enough to encourage makers such as Ferrari to licence their cars for digital reproduction.Then there's the dirt. It sticks. That mightn't be a big deal to average gamers, racers can put their cars through the carwash to clean them up, but the accumulated grime, water spatters and scrape marks reflect the level of commitment the game's creator, Polyphony Digital's guru Kazunori Yamauchi, to generate near true-to-life detail.Vehicle damage also will make its mark. One of the criticisms of earlier Gran Turismo games was that hitting the walls or other drivers slowed the cars, but didn't mark them. Now there will be visual and mechanical consquences in a crash, with a physics engine calculating the speed and angle of impact to determine the severity of the damage.The standard cars will have a basic damage system, while the premium models will have a more detailed system, right down to tearing panels off the cars.Other innovations include online play for up to 16 racers; night racing, with the option of high and low beam headlights on the premium cars; and the ability to look around (if using a PlayStation Eye).The game will launch in three flavours: a standard version, a collector's edition with special artwork and five "ChromeLine" performance-enhanced cars and the signature edition. The signature version will be packaged in a contoured steel case finished in Mercedes-Benz SLS "Obsidian Black" paintwork, with a coffee table book showing the cars and tracks in the game and six extra "Stealth" cars, including the McLaren F1 and SLS Gullwing, along with a scale model of the SLS machine and a USB key with a video showing the collaboration between Mercedes and Polyphony.For more details on the game and how to win the Gullwing, go to www.gran-turismo.com.THE CARSVirtually every carmaker in the world is on the GT5 bandwagon, with Porsche as the only notable absentee. Ferrari has loosened its notoriously tight hold on its image to officially allow the 458 Italia to get a run, while Bugatti and Lamborghini also feature for the first time. Electric cars also earn a start, led by the Tesla Roadster, while hybrids such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight return.THE TRACKSThere are 20 sites and 70 tracks to play with in GT5, from the Nurburgring to Daytona and the Top Gear test track. The Top Gear track alone took more than two years of coding, with Yamauchi admitting the development team had several big crashes — just like The Stig — while capturing data. Equally the Nurburgring circuit is as realistically reproduced as possible, right down to the graffiti — though Sony had to delete some of the more profane slogans.

The SLS supercar produced by Mercedes-Benz, and just announced as a super-quick electric coupe, is getting the final tweaks for roadster work.  Carparazzi has caught the droptop SLS once before, but new pictures fresh from Germany show the car with far less camouflage and with a clear look for the first time at the top-down work.The SLS is going to be an old-school soft-top - not one of the new-age coupe-convertibles with a folding hardtop roof - and it will also have conventional front-hinged doors when it is revealed towards the end of the year.The body of the convertible - likely to be called the SLS Roadster - is almost identical to the gullwing coupe, apart from the tail-end changes necessary for the soft-top mechanism. It is similar, says Carparazzi, to the system used for the open-air version of the McLaren- Mercedes SLR produced in a collaboration between the German prestige brand and its former frontline F1 outfit.There is no news yet on whether the SLS Roadster will get the E-power pack just revealed for the coupe.  There is also uncertainty on timing, with the car not expected in showrooms for around 18 months - the first Australian deliveries of the gullwing coupe begin this month - following a likely preview at either the Paris or Los Angeles motor shows before the end of this year.

It's a gullwing Benz that flies like never before, thanks to an all-electric powertrain that makes a Mitsubishi iMiEV look as exciting as a golf cart with a flat battery.  The SLS AMG E-CELL is real, is headed for production, is more than just a toy, and is really quick.It has a 0-100km/h sprint time of just 4.0 seconds, a top speed of more than 200km/h and a range of more than 250 kilometres.  The E-CELL superhero uses four individual electric motors linked to a 400-volt battery pack for an overall package uncorking 880 Newton-metres of torque and 392 kiloWatts of power.The performance of the sparky new gullwing - splashed with lumilectric magno paint - is only a tick behind the regular V8-powered SLS AMG hero, the same coupe used to pace the racers in the Formula One world championship.AMG began planning its E-CELL program from the earliest stages of the SLS project and that means minimal changes for the flagship sports model in the Mercedes-Benz range. Its aluminium spaceframe chassis is unchanged, although there are new front-suspension units with pushrod damper struts, a new instrument cluster and touch-screen control panel, and a more-aerodynamic nose.AMG admits the E-CELL SLS is currently only at the prototype stage but it plans to have the car in showrooms in 2012, just two years after the first Australia deliveries of the 'regular' V8 Gullwing.  "We're putting the halo car into the electric vehicle sector. In the case of the SLS we wanted to demonstrate that you can go all the way," says Ole Kaellenius, the head of Mercedes AMG."It is definitely a pure performance vehicle. But we want to show you can have performance and address the green situation as well."  The E-CELL SLS was unveiled this week in Norway, where 99 per cent of the plug-in power for the car comes from renewable hydro-electric power. It will not make as much sense in Australia, where brown coal is the major source for electric generation, but Kaellenius says it's not his problem."We make cars, not decisions on infrastructure. Our end of the bargain is to make a zero-emission vehicle," he says.  Kaellenius also says the cradle-to-grave impact of the car is reduced because any SLS is likely to be a collector's car and will have a longer lifespan.The technology in the E-CELL car includes a lithium-ion battery array - fitted into the regular V8 engine bay, behind the seats and inside the transmission tunnel - twin transaxle units, a massive computer controller, carbon-ceramic brakes as standard, and the potential for breakthrough dynamic controls.  "With an engine for each wheel, think what we can do for driving enjoyment, safety and control," Kaellenius says.He rejects potential complaints that an electric car, even with motors spinning to 12,000 revs, cannot match the signature exhaust note of a highly-tuned V8 petrol engine.  "The V8 does sound nice. As a combustion engine fan I do like the sound," Kaellenius says.  "This has an interesting electric noise. It is an electrifying sound when it takes off like a rocket."He will not go into detail on production of the E-CELL car, beyond the basics.  "We're looking at series production sometime towards the end of 2012, perhaps early in 2013.  "We're talking about a smaller series, but we won't communicate numbers at this stage. It looks like the interest might be quite large."On the future prospects of battery cars, specifically on the AMG front, he will not be drawn. And he is not ruling out hybrids in addition to the existing petrol and diesel-fuel AMG hotrods.  It's maybe a little bit early to say. This is the first step. We will develop this technology and see where we go.  I'm not ruling out hybrids, but on the SLS we felt pure electric was the better option."

The Carsguide office is divided. It’s possibly to hammer on the door of the laws of physics, but it’s going to take a hell of a car…and a hell of a driver.Reportedly, the stretch of highway that this ad was filmed on is in BC in the Fraser Canyon. The Tunnel  is China Bar on Hwy 1 just north of Boston Bar. The bridge is  Alexandra, just 2k north of Spuzzum, BC. 

When Mercedes-Benz Australia announced pricing for its stunning new SLS AMG "Gullwing" earlier this week, it was almost $40,000 lower than its forecast $500,000. At $464,000, Mercedes-Benz Australia managing director, Horst von Sanden, is tipping an increase in deposits from prospective buyers, many of them collectors. The first cars are due to arrive within months. As many SLS's are expected to be driven at weekends and race days, owners will also get a specially made car cover and battery recharging equipment. The company's allocation of just 50 cars has blown out to 70 and the Australian operation is trying to secure more cars. Following its world premiere at the Frankfurt International Motor Show last year, production of the SLS is now well under way at Sindelfingen, Germany - the largest Mercedes-Benz passenger car production plant.  "The SLS AMG has been extremely well received by our customers in Australia with over forty orders already locked in," von Sanden says. "Despite the fact that the first customer cars have not yet arrived and with deliveries not expected until August the order book is filling fast. Even in advance of the actual market launch, orders have considerably exceeded our expectations. Given the impressive demand we are experiencing for this special car our stock allocation for 2010 could well be insufficient." The SLS features an aluminium spaceframe body with gullwing doors that tips the scales at just 1620kg. It is powered by an AMG-built 6.3-litre V8 front-mid-engine developing 420kW and 650Nm. There is dry sump lubrication, seven-speed double-declutch transmission in a transaxle configuration and sports suspension. The SLS has a top speed of 317km/h and zero to 100km/h sprint time of just 3.8 seconds.

It has unleashed a track-ready version called the AMG GT3.The sleek racecar will compete in next year's European GT3 series. Using the same 6.3-litre V8 as the SLS, the light-weight racer will be significantly quicker. With an engine tuned for more than 450kW, the AMG GT3 is tipped to have a top speed of more than 330km/h.The head of Mercedes-AMG, Volker Mornhinweg, says the SLS AMG provided an outstanding starting point for the racecar. "It is our response to strong customer demand for a car designed for the GT3 motorsports series," he says.Inside, the donor car's luxurious cabin has been stripped bare to save weight and exterior changes focus on improved aerodynamics. There is a new front apron with a splitter, a bonnet with a central cooling air vent and the wider front and rear wings. The modifications continue with side wheel arch air vents, sideskirts with cooling ducts for the rear brakes, a smooth underbody with a rear diffuser and adjustable rear aerofoil.The C-pillars accommodate the standardised filler pipes for the fast-refuel system. The powerful V8 is linked to a six-speed racing gearbox with steering wheel mounted paddles and a locking differential. Like the standard SLS AMG, the transmission is located at the rear axle. Both the engine and transmission are connected by a torque tube within which a carbon-fibre shaft rotates at the engine speed, just like the road car.However, for the track the springs, shock absorbers, suspension height, stabilisers, track width and camber are fully adjustable. The rack-and-pinion steering gets a more direct ratio and speed-sensitive servo assistance design for crisp handling. Inside the cabin is dominated by a steel rollover cage that adds additional reinforcement to the aluminium spaceframe.There is a racing seat with a six-point seatbelt and HANS neck protecting system. An open-top racing steering wheel with gearshift paddles makes perfect vehicle control possible. Additional controls on the centre console start the car, adjust the traction control or activate the integrated fire extinguisher system in an accident.Like the power output, Mercedes-Benz has not revealed pricing. However, racing GT3 series BMWs and Porsches cost between $450,000 and $500,000.