Friday, November 5, 2010

Wing-mirrors; they should be optional extras


Here’s the horrid truth – my time at both CAR and Wiel is drawing to an end, and I think security might need to forcefully remove me from the building, because I don’t want to leave.

So what made today an interesting one? Oh, just a Merc…the SLS AMG Gullwing, that’s all.
The honest truth is that there probably isn’t much that you guys don’t now about the car, so I’m going to tell you why you should try and get a spin in one before you die.
The SLS is powered by Mercedes’ 6.2-litre naturally aspirated V8. And unlike in the C Class, or the ML, it has been tweaked here and there and now produces an astronomical 420 kW and 650 Nm. The SLS is also the only AMG Merc that has been built from the ground up by AMG. Normally they just take a conventional Merc model and shoehorn a bigger motor in, but not the case with this one.
It will do 0 – 100 in 3,8 seconds, and leave you screaming right through the rev-range. That’s why I think wing-mirros should be optional extras…you don’t generally look behind you much.
The man who took me for a spin, CAR’s Ian McLaren, must think I am a complete mute because half the time I just couldn’t speak. Let me sum up the SLS in a small statement. Everytime Ian did me the favour of mashing the throttle; it felt like the resulting speed left the blood in my veins stationary because my heart just couldn’t pump against the savage thrust!

Sadly, this spine tingling acceleration was only given in short bursts, because needless to say there are always idiots who will pull out in front of you and then decide that 37 km/h is a decent cruising speed!
And this brings me to my next point, the SLS might be ‘mind-mashingly’ fast, but at the same time is mind numbingly beautiful. It is as fast as it looks, and, considering how manufactures are always striving to make their product more streamlined than the next, for one to still be able to produce something gorgeous in the process is pretty damn impressive.

To best describe the SLS, I need to leave you with the words of some random guy who hang out his car window to get a better look as we drove past…"F#K IT!" 

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