LA MOTOR SHOW: Mercedes-Benz SL facelift

Mercedes-Benz is hoping a facelift of its sixth-generation SL will finally see it get the same love as its predecessors.

Due to be unveiled at next week’s Los Angeles motor show, the facelifted SL comes almost four years after its launch at the Detroit motor show in January 2012.

As is its current wont with most cars, Mercedes is releasing teaser images of the new SL, starting with the nose that is smoother and more organic than the angular-snouted current model.

The SL’s lineage dates back to the 300 SL in 1957. The Roadster, which replaced the Gullwing 300 SL, became an instant classic and the often long-lived SL models have almost always been Mercedes-Benz standard bearers and sporting flagships.

Almost always. Until the current model. It morphed from sports-luxury flagship of the Mercedes-Benz range to a position of confusion for the first time in nearly 70 years.

Its positioning wasn’t helped by the arrival of the stand-alone SLS over at AMG and was made even more difficult with the arrival of the terrific SLS Roadster.

It got larger, lighter, more economical and faster than its predecessors, with a fearsomely complex body structure and more luxury, but that doesn’t tell its full story.

The car’s development was put on ice for two years after it had already been designed, with then-incoming design boss Gorden Wagener disowning the car before it had even been launched.

Its headlights were ungainly and large, Wagener explained, because the design freeze coupled with the development pause meant the LED light system was far bigger than it needed to be. That’s one of the clear developments from Benz’s teaser image.

The new facelift boasts a pair of LED headlights that are far more slender than the bulky R231 versions, and it also sports the multi-star grille, with its lower corners pushed out wide to emphasise the width of the car.

There are also aero flicks on the two ancillary air intakes ahead of the front wheels, and a deeper front splitter beneath the centrally-mounted three-pointed star. The once-traditional bonnet bulges look to have gone, replaced by a raised central portion to meet pedestrian-impact legislation.

The SL is also likely to receive the current generation of more powerful Mercedes-Benz engines to replace its flagship 4.7-litre twin-turbo V8 and 3.5-litre V6.

It managed 225kW of power and 370Nm of torque from the V6 in the SL 350 and 320kW and 700Nm of torque from the V8, easing the 1785kg roadster to 100km/h in 4.6 seconds. Expect those performance figures to improve with the new model.