Driving through the legendary tunnel in Monaco with the roof down, the 6.2-litre V8 howling at the end of second gear and the walls reverberating an F1-sounding warcry, was when the SLS AMG Roadster started making sense.
Gone is that hardtop and those historic gullwing doors, and in its place is a smooth fabric soft top able to open or close in eleven seconds (at driving speeds of up to 50km/h). But besides being one of the latest additions to the ‘sexiest cars on the planet’ club, there’s one very obvious reason behind AMG’s latest baby: aural pleasure.
I kid you not when I say you will drive this car with the roof down in the rain, it sounds that good. Which is why I take my hat off to AMG for holding on to the naturally-aspirated 6.2-litre V8 from the gullwing – the newer force-fed engines being introduced in other AMG models would just not have sounded the same.
Power and torque figures in the roadster are the same as those in the gullwing (420kW and 650Nm), and all the same supercar boxes get ticked - dry-sump lubrication, aluminium spaceframe body, low centre of gravity, seven-speed dual-clutch transmission with race start technology, a transaxle layout (engine in front, gearbox in the back) and sports suspension with aluminium double wishbones.
The boys at AMG also did an impressive job with the weight gains on the roadster - at 1660kg it’s just 40kg heavier than the gullwing coupé, with the spaceframe itself only two kilograms heavier. Most of this is by way of making the bodyshell more rigid through thicker side skirts, additional struts and bracing, and a reinforced cross-member behind the seats. But, according to AMG, with most of the additional weight being rear-biased you do score some rear-wheel drive tractional advantages.
I must admit I was worried that, minus the gullwing doors, the roadster would let the SLS badge down in styling terms. But let me tell you, with the top down it’s Charlize Theron on wheels. The newcomer is based on the classic 300SL roadster of the 1950s, and like the SLS gullwing, the roadster has that long bonnet, long wheelbase, wide track, rear-biased cabin, short rear end, and short overhangs. There’s also a new matt black wheel, which with a white body is the perfect combo.
The interior follows an aircraft theme with a dashboard in the shape of an aircraft wing, air vents reminiscent of jet engines, and Merc’s new E-select gearlever, which looks like an aircraft’s thrust control lever. The AMG steering wheel, with flattened lower rim, is the business, as are the solid metal steering shift paddles, the optional carbon-fibre centre console, and the standard AMG sport seats. There’s also a sleek new glass draught-stop panel which clips out and can be stored in the boot, and Merc’s well known Airscarf neck-warming system as an option. The soft top itself is three layers thick and boot space, at 173-litres, is only three litres less than the gullwing.
We got the full Beauty and the Beast experience last week in Monaco, thanks largely to a route chosen with lots of tunnels to highlight that rumbling V8, and narrow mountain passes to prove the roadster’s supercar prowess. Must-have options when ordering your SLS roadster are the AMG Ride Control, which tweaks damping between Comfort, Sport and Sport Plus, and a very cool new feature called AMG Performance Media. This lets you scroll through various screens that monitor such as like G-forces, lap times, throttle inputs, various engine temperatures, you name it - very Playstation. And it lets you download your data should you wish to compare lap times.
The roadster is a pukka SLS and I found no performance or handling differences compared to its fancier-doored sibling. It screams AMG, has a 47/53 percent front/rear weight set-up, and attacks corners and straights with serious vigour. Corners are especially fun thanks to the razor-sharp steering feedback, the electronic limited-slip diff, and sporty traction control settings (ESP-on, Sport Handling mode, and Off). The Race Start function allows for some very interesting launches too.
With that roof down you hear every rev of that engine in Beast mode and can’t help but smirk with those downshifting throttle blips. The AMG Speedshift DCT ‘box has four settings - Comfort, Sport, Sport+ and Manual - with the last two settings really the best for open-top assassinations. They keep the engine on the boil and that exhaust howling. Merc reckon the roadster will break 100km/h from standstill in 3.8 seconds, will hit 200km/h in 11.3, and is limited to 317km/h.
The SLS AMG roadster will be shown at the Johannesburg motor show in October and will go on sale in South Africa immediately afterwards. Pricing is yet to be confirmed, but European markets are paying about €7000 (R77 500) more for the roadster than the gullwing, which retails in South Africa for R2 639 100. - Star Motoring