2013 Mercedes-Benz SL-Class SL63 AMG review

By admin - Mon May 21, 5:43 am | 0 Comments | 0 views

Palm trees whip on my left side. In my right are stretched folds of valley that is rock-speckled. Roof is open for my 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG road ster & smell of sea slips in to the cabin. I crack off upshift of heavy-throttle just before French silly hatch back comes under steering into my lane which is already narrow. I was hard on brakes for avoiding punching 3-pointed star on wandering sub compact.

This disaster averted, we are back for enjoying scenery. It really looks really familiar but is slightly different. Palm trees are stockier & shorter & sea in front of me is blue milky instead of blue-green deep Pacific that I get to see in home.

This can be Southern California. I’d the minutes from my home. If I wasn’t paying a lot of attention, roads leading in to Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azure area of France was looking like California. If you aren’t paying any attention, this 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL-Class SL63 AMG just looks like normal SL 550.

Stronger & stiffer but not heavier

2013 Mercedes-Benz SL-Class SL63 AMG is just like new 2013 Mercedes SL 550 & hence gets all same treatments. Body-in-the-white for both the vehicles are down by about 220 pounds vs previous version, yet the rigidity is increased by around 20 percent. Latest chassis of SL contains around two hundred feet of the robot welding & about of two thousand rivets; this firewall is largest piece of cast in industry of automotives. Stiffness is really important when you have got car having 429 of horsepower from V8 twin-turbo.

It gets more important as you, as the AMG has done in here, take out the motor & fill void along with a530 of hp, twin-turbo 5.5-liters V8 hand that is built in the Affalterbach.

Stiffness too is an issue while the same car does not have any roof. The power-folding magnesium roof isn’t really sturdy; it just shaves about thirteen pounds from the last year’s roof that is steel-framed. Old SL will shudder as mechanisms whirred & origamied roof itself in to the place, but there is none of this in here. Holding button for top & just like good stagehand, this SL63 changes scenery with out reminding audience of intricacies which are @ play. We did say it of SL550 & we will repeat it in here: it is 1 of tightest convertibles that I have driven to date.

With additional body work and bigger wheels, the manufacturer estimates that SL63 tips scales @ 4,068 pounds – just hundred pounds heavier as compared to SL550 & about four hundred pounds lighter as compared to 2011 SL63 AMG that I got for we testing in the last year.

It just starts with engine

Starting engine begins along with familiar roar, but it comes from different body. There is no lustworthy aspirated naturally 6.2-liters V8 from out going SL63 AMG & in this place there is forced-induction new power plant which swears to satisfy love for the power and government’s fuel efficiency love.

Tobias Moers, who is chief engineer @ Mercedes AMG, reminds us saying this isn’t first application for AMG  latest M157 5.5-liters turbo charged V8. It sits already in S63, E63, CL63 & CLS63 AMG of cars & we have had hands on almost all. Just like S63, SL63 AMG makes the 530hp & 590 pounds eet torque in the standard tuning.

Mercedes did not provide them the normal state, though. The cars that we were drove had AMG package of Performance—$9,000 alternative which “relimits” top speed to about 186 mph, amplifies the power to about 557 hp & 664 lb-ft torque (through cranking boost from 14.2psi to 18.5psi) & adds differential of limited-slip. Equipped with the pack, Mercedes says that SL will be hitting 60mph in less than four seconds.

Controlling Launch

Achieving number, however, is not as easy as smashing go pedal & riding boost wave. Trying it this way & 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL 63 drags it self to around 10mph before turbos drop the full pay load & 285/35ZR20s back out scorch asphalt. It is fun, but this isn’t fast.

Instead, the SL, just like other AMGs are fitted along with Race Start (or RS) option which manages the wheel spin, the gearshifts & the rpm for getting ideal launch. But it is multi step process. Trying for using RS for the light-2-light racing is just like using over-under shot gun for mowing down the zombies; you might get first few, however, you will get caught eventually.

On open road, V8 twin-turbo comes with startling mid range. Passing slow paced Dacia — & six cars it is holding- is non-event which requires zero of fore thought. All this torque that we wanted @ launch is now available & only happy for getting things to move.

Whether I shift 7-speed automatic (wet clutch which replaces converter of torque in the AMG cars) through aluminum upgraded paddles or just dump in the mode of Sport Plus, shifts are very fast & simply just enough of shock through system for making you feel as if something had happened. With shift comes different pop. Less pop, than huff covering yelp. Sound does matter to the AMG. Simply because they can not get over run on the deceleration any more does not mean they can not make any inappropriate noises.

ABC of the AMG

You will find 3 buttons on center console close to shifter in 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG. 1st is familiar skidding of car representing the traction control. 3rd is AMG key which sets all the systems to preset attack level. Between these is familiar looking graphic of shock absorber which allows for the adjustment of suspension.

In the normal mode, SL63 glides along with solidity & effortlessness of megayachts moored at St. Tropez bay which is below me. Impacts flow right through suspension & in to cabin for reminding us that car is connected still to road in traditional way of Germans. The goal is not isolation; it is control. As road tightens, pitches body over which reacts to precise yet steering that is finger-light.

Pressing this shock absorber key & Mercedes-Benz Active Body Control comes in to life. Immediately steering changes. There is more of weight in wheel & SL63 is really reactive. Ratio never gets changed. Instead, Mercedes just tinkers with levels of the assist as ABC adjusts suspension for simulating quicker ratio. Turning -in is really immediate in the mode & it takes some time to get used to just like cornering that is ultra-flat.

Peerless?

A representative from Mercedes told me that thre aren’t any competitors right now as people do not cross-shop SL. According to this company, SL customers are, on average, about 56 years of old, male predominantly (about 84 percent), graduates from college (about 77 percent), the married (about 75 percent) & earning average house hold income of about $516,000 a year. About 40 percent of the buyers go for AMG version.

They are also the repeat buyers of Mercedes-Benz & often the repeat buyers of SL. 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL-Class SL63 AMG is much better in every way than the predecessor- some thing that I look for to prove on my back track home – & anyone who earns $516,000-a-year will count him self deserving for park 1 close to the S- or the CLS-Class AMG.

I will mourn loss of V8 naturally aspirated. I always liked way it popped and burbled under the engine braking, exploding with the sound natural on upshift & flying through the range of rpm with some wicked quickness.