2013 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT: More Power and More Control? - Ignition Episode 54 - video Dailymotion

MotorTrend

On this episode of Ignition

Transcript

00:00 Perhaps we weren't exactly fair the last time we reviewed the SLS.

00:14 There was good reason for that, though.

00:15 It was because the SLS was, frankly, a sledgehammer of a car with one incredible engine.

00:21 It was very difficult to drive quickly and not what you might call in a fun way.

00:27 Now there's a new one.

00:46 This is the SLS AMG GT.

00:49 And starting this year, it's replacing the standard car in the US.

00:53 They've gone through and retuned the suspension to improve its limit handling,

00:56 reprogrammed the transmission to make it shift faster,

00:59 and they gave it more horsepower.

01:01 Not because it needed it, but because, well, that's just what AMG does.

01:06 The extra 20 horsepower didn't show itself during acceleration testing,

01:10 where the SLS reached 60 in 3.7 seconds and the quarter mile in 11.7 seconds

01:15 at 124 and 1/2 miles an hour, essentially tying the last SLS we tested.

01:22 The same goes for braking.

01:23 The GT took 107 feet to stop from 60 miles an hour.

01:27 The big differences came around our figure 8.

01:38 Where the last SLS would slide on turn-in, the GT was more stable,

01:43 allowing it to carry more speed on corner entry.

01:46 That extra speed lasted throughout the corner, evident by the GT's higher

01:50 average lateral G.

01:52 While the handling numbers are impressive,

01:54 they don't illustrate the effort that the GT requires.

01:57 It has great difficulty with traction under throttle,

02:00 no matter how carefully you apply it.

02:02 I just finished a lapping session with the SLS AMG GT.

02:17 And you can see its lap time here.

02:19 Now, you may be asking, where's Randy?

02:21 Why isn't he driving?

02:22 Well, he's not here today.

02:24 He definitely would be faster.

02:26 No argument there.

02:28 But I'll tell you what it's like for the normal person

02:32 to drive an SLS at the limit.

02:34 It's hairy.

02:35 It requires a lot of effort, a lot of concentration.

02:38 The peculiar thing is the last SLS took a lot of concentration,

02:43 a lot of planning around corners.

02:44 You had to carefully modulate your braking, your throttle,

02:48 to get the thing around the corners quickly.

02:50 And with this car, it doesn't seem much of it has changed.

02:54 Obviously, the braking performance is very, very nice.

02:57 You have very good pedal control.

02:59 And you feel like you can stop the car always

03:02 within reach of where you wanted to stop initially.

03:05 That said, the suspension tweaks that Mercedes

03:07 has done to the rear, I'm not sure

03:09 exactly what's happening there.

03:11 Because the original SLS was an extremely loose car on throttle.

03:16 You didn't really know when it was going to step out.

03:19 And when it did, it happened like a binary situation.

03:22 It was like, you're going fine, you're going fine.

03:24 All of a sudden, the tail's out.

03:25 And when it's out, you need very, very quick hands

03:28 and very careful throttle control.

03:30 This car is still the same thing.

03:32 It may be a little less like that.

03:35 But still, when this thing loses grip,

03:38 it goes very, very quickly.

03:41 The way it drives, though, is so strange.

03:43 Because you look at this car from the outside,

03:45 and you see its long nose.

03:47 I mean, from the interior, this hood

03:48 looks like it ends in Texas.

03:50 But it doesn't drive like the way it looks.

03:54 You imagine this is a front engine, rear drive car.

03:57 It's going to have a front weight bias.

03:59 It's going to have most of its weight on the front axle.

04:02 It should feel like a muscle car.

04:05 It doesn't.

04:06 It, in fact, has a rear weight bias.

04:08 And so it drives kind of like a mid-engine car.

04:13 And so that's why when the rear tires slip,

04:16 the whole car goes very quickly.

04:17 Because that's what mid-engine cars tend to do.

04:21 Chassis aside, though, this engine-- oh,

04:24 this engine is awesome.

04:27 The sound it makes is absolutely phenomenal.

04:31 When you're hard on the gas, and you grab a big downshift,

04:34 it gives you just the most satisfying bark

04:37 from the throttle.

04:38 It revs instantly.

04:40 It has this burble and crackle and pop.

04:43 It's just intoxicating.

04:47 Listen to that.

04:48 [ENGINE REVVING]

04:51 And it has this wonderfully high 7,000, 7,200 RPM red line.

04:57 And it just gets sweeter and sweeter up until that point.

05:01 Downshifts are so beautiful in this thing.

05:04 What I love about the SLS is that it

05:06 is unquestionably a supercar.

05:08 It hits all the criteria, which to me

05:10 is it's something you lust after.

05:13 It's something that gives you aspiration.

05:15 It's something that just immediately draws you

05:17 in through some sort of gut instinct.

05:18 And I think the most crucial part about this car that

05:21 does that is, well, of course, the engine,

05:22 but also the exterior styling, which

05:25 is just so cartoonishly exaggerated in every sense.

05:29 It's like the standard old SLS Roadster

05:31 has just blown up and been multiplied by 300%,

05:35 expanded out.

05:37 Old Roadsters never felt this big.

05:39 This thing feels massive.

05:40 There's just so much car everywhere with the hood way

05:44 out there.

05:45 And you look back, and even though we're basically

05:47 sitting on the rear axle, it seems

05:48 like there's a whole nother six feet of car back there.

05:51 Interior space is massive, although when

05:53 I had my helmet on, I kept banging it

05:54 against the roof here.

05:57 It is cartoonish, but that's what supercars should be.

06:03 It does that very well.

06:04 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:09 The SLS remains a conflicted car,

06:12 with dazzling sheet metal and an intoxicating engine note.

06:16 Though more controllable than last year's model,

06:18 its chassis retains an inelegance,

06:20 especially under throttle.

06:22 And it requires extraordinary restraint from its driver.

06:26 Yet the engine doesn't want moderation,

06:28 and it's easy to slip under its spell.

06:30 When you do, you'll find yourself spending the rest

06:32 of the day power sliding.

06:35 In this sense, the SLS is as glorious

06:37 as it is clumsy.

06:39 It makes you wonder, does it matter when it looks

06:41 and sounds the way it does?

06:43 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:46 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:50 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:53 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:56 [MUSIC PLAYING]

07:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

07:04 [MUSIC PLAYING]

07:07 [MUSIC PLAYING]

07:11 [MUSIC PLAYING]

07:14 (upbeat music)

2013 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT: More Power and More Control? - Ignition Episode 54

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