DETROIT MOTOR SHOW: Mercedes-Benz SLC

After 20 years of trying to convince us that the SLK roadster owed its lineage to pre-war racing cars, Mercedes-Benz is changing tack.

After nearly 700,000 SLK sales, it’s now switched the name of its smallest roadster to reflect the Mercedes-Benz model it actually owes most of its technology to – the C-Class.

Now named the SLC, the roadster once-known-as-SLK will make its debut at the Detroit motor show in January complete with a new model at the top of the standard line-up and a new entry model, too.

"In 1996 Mercedes-Benz redefined the roadster with its innovative vario-roof, and combined open-air driving pleasure with uncompromised comfort in poor weather," said Ola Källenius, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, Mercedes-Benz Cars Sales & Marketing.

"The renamed compact roadster remains an ideal combination of passion and rational common sense, appealing to both the heart and the mind."

The SLC 43 has a bit of the old and the new about it, with the new SLC name and the '43' badge revived as well.

It once denoted a 4.3-litre V8, but Benz has long since strayed from the path of capacity truth in badging, so it now sits on the rump of an SLC with a 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6. Obviously.

The SLC 43’s name gives a hint about its performance, though, because the two-number system has previously been exclusive to AMG. This one is, too, officially a Mercedes-AMG SLC 43, but that doesn’t rule out even more engine for the SLC.

The rest of the SLC line-up will use more traditional naming, ranging from the SLC 180 to the SLC 200, the SLC 300 and the SLC 250 d (yes, there’s a diesel option, with a 2.1-litre four-cylinder turbo). The SLC 43, 300 and 250 d all use Benz’s nine-speed automatic transmission, while it’s an option on the 200 and the 180, which use a six-speed manual as standard fit.

At the head of the line-up, the SLC 43 will deliver 270kW of power from 5500 to 6000rpm, plus 520Nm of torque from 2000rpm to 4200 revs.

Benz claims that will be good enough to motivate it to 100km/h in 4.7 seconds and on to a 250km/h top speed, all while being frugal enough to post an NEDC figure of 7.8L/100km. That’s an improvement of 0.6L/100km on the V8 it replaces.

Obviously, that won’t be a patch on the diesel, which uses just 4.4L/100km and emits only 114 grams of CO2/km to be easily the most frugal of the SLC family.

For all that, the diesel won’t be the slowest of them, either. Its 500Nm (from 1600rpm) and 150kW will be enough to push it to 100km/h in 6.6 seconds (and to a 245km/h top speed).

The tardiest of them will be the 1.6-litre, turbocharged SLC 180, which borrows Renault-Nissan engine technology (and construction) to deliver 115kW of power and 250Nm. That’s only enough engine to get it to 100km/h in 7.9 seconds (or 8.1 seconds for the manual) and its top speed is only 226km/h, though it does compensate with an NEDC figure of 5.6L/100km.

In between will be the biggest sellers over the long haul. The SLC 200 and the SLC 300 share the 1991cc (Mercedes-Benz-built) four-cylinder turbocharged engine, which gives 135kW of power in the 200 and 180kW in the 300, at the same 5500rpm power peak.

The 300Nm of torque peaks at 1200-4000rpm in the 200, but that lifts to 370Nm from 1300 to 4000rpm in the 300.

Obviously, the 300 is the quicker of the two, posting a 5.8-second sprint to 100km/h to head the 200 by 1.2 seconds and it’s the only one of the two to need a speed limiter, with the SLC 200 missing out by 10km/h.

It’s thirstier, too, but not by as much as you might imagine. It posts an NEDC number of 5.8L/100km, where the SLC 200 pips it by just 0.1 litres.

Beneath the skin, the SLC 43 uses an upgrade of the old SLK 55’s sports suspension system, while all other models have been further developed from their Mercedes-Benz layouts and settings.

While all models come with the Dynamic Select button as a standard feature to switch the driving modes between Comfort, Sport, Sport+, Eco and Individual, an optional Dynamic handling package lowers the ride height another 10mm, adds adaptive dampers and ties them in to Dynamic Select and sharper steering.

The SLC 43 also gets specific engine and axle mounts and a limited-slip differential.

While the SLC 43 and 300 both have sports exhausts as standard, it’s optional on the 200 and pointless on the diesel.

For those paying less attention, the SLC facelift delivers Active Brake Assist as a standard tool, which can autonomously brake the car to reduce collision risk and severity.

Another upgrade is the addition of LED Intelligent Lights, while the Adaptive Highbeam Assist Plus system, which lets you remain on high beam and still not dazzle oncoming traffic, is an option.

It gets other tweaks, too, like recognising when a child is in the front seat and automatically deactivating the passenger airbag and having an optional reversing camera, even though the rear bumper is about a metre behind the driver’s ear.

The folding metal roof can now be operated at up to 40km/h, with Benz’s engineers finally bowing to the rest of the world’s preferences, and it also has the optional Magic Sky Control, which lightens or darkens a glass roof at the press of a button.

The 335-litre boot now links to a dash warning light to tell you if the luggage separator is not in place when you try to open the roof and its multimedia entertainment system has also been given an upgrade, with a 7.0-inch display, internet access (only when it’s stationary) and two USB ports.

There’s now a 4.5-inch TFT display screen behind the traditional pair of tube dials in the instrument cluster.