Mercedes-Benz SL
Since 1954 the Mercedes-Benz SL has been a luxurious, sporty machine to be admired and pursued.
When the original Mercedes-Benz SL was launched in 1954, it had gullwing doors and was a coupe, inspired by the racing cars of its era. That famous ‘W198’ 300 SL is now one of the most desirable classic cars money can buy, and the modern Mercedes SL might be different in style, but the 3 core ingredients are still the same – luxury, performance and elegance.
Like other great names and models in motoring the ‘SL’ has endured and the car offered here at Synergy is the 6th generation of this famous model. It has a sophisticated construction using predominantly aluminium to keep weight as low as possible and the roof is a folding hardtop that can be operated at speeds up to 25mph.
A car with the pedigree of the SL needs to have an impressive heart, and the SL offers you a choice of 3 – a 6-cylinder with around 365bhp badged ‘SL 400’, an 8-cylinder 450bhp unit badged ‘SL 500’ and then there’s the mighty Mercedes-AMG version – the ‘SL 63’. This draws its power from a hand built 5.5-litre bi-turbo V8 and produces an output in the region of 570bhp, it’s certainly not for the faint hearted.
All engines come with an automatic gearbox, 9-speed ‘9GTRONIC’ in the SL 400 and 500, while the AMG SL 63 gets a special AMG 7-speed box. Despite the mighty performance figures the SL is a quiet and refined machine that doesn’t bombard the occupants with noise and fury. It can be enjoyed at all speeds and the new generation V8 of the SL 500 model can even return over 30mpg if you’re just cruising around.
Being a Mercedes, there’s obviously a big focus on comfort and luxury and a beautifully finished cabin features all the equipment you’d expect from such a model. One particularly nice touch is the ‘Air Scarf’ in the seating that blows heated or cooled air onto the back and around your neck. Being a fairly large 2-seater, the cabin has generous amounts of space and there’s even a boot with enough space for some weekend bags for those enjoyable road trips across country.
Very few cars are as prestigious as the Mercedes SL, and very few strike such a beautiful balance between sporting excellence and open-top luxury. This is a very special car indeed.