I guess it comes down to if you prefer a red one or a white one, because after spending some 80 km behind the wheel of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Roadster in the sunshine of Southern France and Monte Carlo, I found it a very difficult task to criticise Mercedes’s roofless two-seater.
This is the soft-top version of the iconic “gullwing” coupé that was introduced in 2009, which means that it swops a roof made of material for the coupé’s tin top and loses those fancy wings for a set of conventional doors.
But, luckily, it keeps all the rest of the things that made the coupé such a pleasure to drive – including the burbling 6,2-litre V8 that develops a yummy 420 kW and 650 N.m of torque and which is coupled with the company’s seven-speed dual clutch transmission.
This is a superb engine that offers great performance (a 0 to 100 km/h-sprinttime of 3,8 seconds is claimed) and, with the tiny roof stowed (that takes only 11 seconds and can be operated at speeds of up to 50 km/h), nothing prevents the howl and burble from the engine to penetrate the cabin.
Thanks to some clever design work, the Roadster only loses 3 dm³ of luggage space compared with the coupé, with 173 dm³ on offer at all times – no matter if the roof is up or folded away. The roof is available in three colours: black, red and beige and should suit all of the nine exterior and six interior colours.
The Roadster has also not lost any of the coupé’s beauty: the car is sleek and sporty and certainly lives up to the incredible heritage coupled with this range of vehicles. It doesn’t look out of place in Monaco, which says a lot … The folding roof is very unobtrusive when erect, and certainly doesn’t detract from the car’s simple design lines. Be sure to pick a contrasting colour when you buy one though.
This car is loud. At our lunchtime stop in the mountains west of Nice in Southern France, the rest of the international media contingent could clearly be heard as they wound their way up the sinuous pass. It sounds great and lets out a deep rumble and slight popping sounds when you lift of the accelerator. Very addictive.
I had the opportunity to drive the new car on the tight and twisty roads of the high mountains north-west of Monaco. It makes use of AMG’s new ride control sports suspension with electronically controlled damping available as an option – giving me the opportunity to modify the suspension from “comfort”, “sport” and “sport plus”.
On the comfort setting, the car wallowed a bit over undulations, which meant that it did lose some of its poise through bumpy corners. But, a quick turn of a dial and a push of a button firmed the suspension a bit and soon we were able to attack corner after corner with gusto. Despite not having the extra rigidity usually associated with a hardtop, the Roadster certainly doesn’t come up short; the car hardly squats under hard braking, turns in easily thanks a very direct (yet not overly nervous) steering and eagerly awaited my right foot to send the power to the rear wheels. Even under hard acceleration it remained poised, with the traction control system hardly ever kicking in.
I was also surprised at how compliant the ride remained, even with the suspension on its firmest setting; the ride on the 19-inch 265/35 front and 20-inch 295/30 rear tyres remained refined and even when pushing on, the car never became twitchy or nervous. Even over very rough patches, the suspension never bottomed out or felt crashy.
Standard appointments of the Roadster include black designo leather, AMG sport seats with heating, a glass slot-in draught stop between the two head restraints, a Comand system with DVD player and climate control. Airscarf is available as an option.
Sales of the car in Europe will start in November, and its local introduction will follow soon after.
For a full driving report be sure to get the November issue of CAR magazine.
