Gullwing confirmed for Australia

After a year of speculation Mercedes-Benz has officially confirmed the yet-to-be-unveiled Gullwing supercar will be sold in Australia.

In fact, the company has already started taking customer orders even though the price of the car is yet to be confirmed.

"The [Gullwing] will be coming to Australia," the managing director of the Mercedes Car Group in Australia, Horst von Sanden, told the Carsales Network at the launch of the new E-Class sedan and coupe this week. "We are already holding pre-orders for it, so we are very excited."

Mr von Sanden also confirmed the car would be built in right-hand-drive, when it goes into limited production from early next year.

"There was a question about whether or not it will be built in right-hand-drive and the answer is: yes it will," revealed von Sanden.

Mercedes is well advanced with its Gullwing plans even though the car is not due to be unveiled until the Frankfurt motor show in September. "We have already ordered our demonstrator cars for the dealer network and we are in the process of determining the total volume for that car for this market."

Mr von Sanden said the Gullwing would not be sold in the hundreds, and the final figure would be closer to a maximum of 50 per year providing Australia can get enough supply.

The Gullwing is likely to be a rare beast, with a price tag close to $650,000. Mercedes is yet to release details on the vehicle but it is expected to be powered by a high output version of the 6.2-litre V8 used in numerous AMG models.

Internet speculation says it will be faster from 0 to 100km/h than the maker's last supercar, the McLaren SLR. "It is certainly an ambition of AMG to put a dream product on the road," Horst Von Sanden said.

Each Gullwing will be assembled by hand at AMG headquarters in Affalterbach, not far from Mercedes headquarters in Stuttgart. Production of left-hand-drive models is due to start in the first quarter of 2010 and the right-hand-drive version should follow mid-year.

"We don't expect there will be a big gap between left- and right-hand-drive," added von Sanden.

Mercedes estimates up to 25 per cent of Gullwing production will be right-hand-drive and sold in countries such as the UK, Japan, Hong Kong and South Africa, as well as Australia.

Meanwhile, Mercedes is understood to be on track with plans for a fully-electric version of the Gullwing, which is said to be almost as quick as its V8 counterpart (read more here).

"We don't yet have confirmation if [the electric version] is to go into production. At the moment it's a prototype. We hope to know more about this car at Frankfurt," said Mr von Sanden. "If it is available to us, it is certainly something we would consider." He said AMG was serious about creating high performance cars that were 'sustainable'.

"It's not a PR stunt. There is clearly a need that, even in the high performance segment, that the environmental challenges are taken very seriously," he said.

"Of course a high performance AMG car will not run on 3 litres of fuel (per 100km) but we will find new ways to deliver performance."

The modern version of the Gullwing is widely believed to be a product of some high level professional jealousy inside Mercedes-Benz -- and car enthusiasts will get the benefit. According to Carsales Network insiders, the SLS AMG Gullwing was created to prove that Mercedes' performance division, AMG, could build a faster and more capable supercar than the SLR McLaren, of which about 500 were made.

Power output of both vehicles is said to be similar, but insiders say the Gullwing has a more slippery body shape to make it quicker at high speeds, and its chassis will make it more agile.

We have to get out of the habit of calling the SLS the Gullwing, it seems, as there's also to be a convertible version of the car, as these pics taken by the master spy photographers, Carparazzi, indicate.

The original Gullwing from the 1950s is regarded as one of the prettiest Mercedes of all time and pristine classic examples today can fetch close to $750,000. Australian truck magnate and car nut Lindsay Fox owns several and is expected to be one of the first in line for the new model locally.

-- with Carparazzi

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