DETROIT MOTOR SHOW: Mercedes-Benz SL

It might be a classic badge and one that’s revered at Mercedes-Benz HQ in Stuttgart, but the SL has been telling porkies about its own name for decades.

With its name shortened from “Sports Light”, the SL spent its last two generations ballooning out towards two tonnes, sprouting such flab as folding metal roofs and tilting more towards comfort than either “Sports” or “Light”.

The all-new SL, though, puts a stop to all that by ripping 140kg from Mercedes-Benz’s current convertible flagship, the SL500.

Benz engineers have taken a leaf out of Audi’s book and combined it with the knowhow it picked up from designing the crackerjack SLS AMG by riddling the SL with cutting-edge light-weight technology.

The headline act is the all-aluminium bodyshell, which Benz claims weighs 110kg less than a conventional steel body would have.

It also uses aluminium extensively throughout its suspension system to save another 25kg, taking the V8 SL500 down by 125kg and the V6-powered SL350 down by 140kg. Besides being lighter, Benz claims the suspension systems are both more rigid and more accurate than the systems they replace.

With a pedigree stretching back to 1952, the aluminium liposuction and the new car’s range of six-and eight-cylinder engines will help it to be the cleanest SL yet when it debuts at January’s Detroit Motor Show.

Start-stop will be standard on both models, while the V8 will, at 4.7 litres, be considerably smaller than the 5.5-litre V8 it replaces. While it will become the first V8 SL to dip beneath the 10 litres/100km barrier (9.5), it won’t want for gristle, with 320kW of power and 530Nm of torque.

That’s going to mean 12 percent more power for 22 percent less fuel from the direct-injection bent eight, which isn’t a bad equation. To cap it off, its sprint to 100km/h is claimed to take 4.5 seconds, which rips almost a second out of its predecessor.

The SL350 continues the faster and thriftier theme, too, posting 225kW of power to sprint to 100km/h in 5.9 seconds (0.3 seconds quicker than the outgoing car). According to Benz’s figures, it will post a combined cycle 6.8 litres/100km at the bowser, too, which is close to 30 percent better.

That it makes extensive use of aluminium was, in truth, forced on Benz, because the car will be significantly larger than the already-large car it will replace. It’s 50mm longer than the outgoing SL and it will also pick up 57mm more width as the designers strive for that wide, sleek look they’re all in love with.

There’s no mistaking its Benz-ness, and there’s no mistaking it’s a Benz convertible, though from a distance, the squinty might mistake it for an SLK. The two cars share many a theme, including a folding metal hard-top roof, though the magnesium supports on the new one mean it will be 6kg lighter.

There will be more interior space and the fingerprints of the SLS’s cabin design are all over it, from the vents to the centre console.

While you’ll be able to option up the new SL with either aluminium or wood trim (and, inevitably, carbon-fibre if you want to pay enough), you’ll also be able to order the roof with the Vario Roof. We liked it more before it was launched, because it carried the loose tag of “Magic Sky”, but it’s essentially a glass roof that can change from clear to dark blue at the press of a button.

“There are around 900 million cars on this earth and thousands of models. But there is but a handful of automotive icons,” explained Mercedes' boss Dr. Dieter Zetsche. “Our SL is one of them – it has class, it has style, it is the embodiment of comfort and luxury. But it combines all of that with an unbelievably sporty and dynamic character.”

And it's good news for the local market, too, with a company spokesperson telling motoring.com.au “We’ll be taking everything they build -- six, eight and 12-cylinder”. 

Visit motoring.com.au again soon for more on the new Mercedes-Benz SL Roadster.

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