So I'm sitting in the back of a Mercedes Viano at the
moment, which must be the fastest van I've
ever traveled in.
As you can see, I'm looking at the footage from driving the
new SL 63 today out on the hills above St. Tropez.
Pretty special car.
I'm afraid it's a home production.
As you can see, there's no one with me.
It's not just the fact that I've got terrible body odor.
Neil's back in the UK, working hard on another project that
you're going to be enjoying very soon.
So please enjoy my SL 63 AMG video.
[ENGINE REVVING]
So the new SL 63 is the ultimate go-anywhere,
roof-up-or-roof-down sports car.
In fact, I think it's hard to think of a car that has to
cover more bases in its intended role.
To me, this car is almost schizophrenic in
what it has to do.
Because it has to be comfortable for an old man.
It has to be sporting for a younger chap.
It has to be loud and exciting.
But it has to be quiet and cosseting.
I think the phrase I'm looking for is bipolar.
We've got the roof up, but the weather is quite nice.
So in a minute, I think I might just pop the roof down.
And then we'll see what it's like to cruise in the SL 63.
So if we start out at a cruise, then we'll climb out
of St. Tropez.
And we might as well just create a single journey in
which we explore all of this car's supposed talents.
So what's it like to cruise around St. Tropez
in the new SL 63?
It's very good, actually.
You really notice how much more stiffness this
structure has got.
Because every time an individual wheel drops into a
little pothole or a little road crevasse, the structure
of the car doesn't creak at all.
It just takes that little hit and moves on again.
It doesn't even worry about it.
Steering is very light.
What I'm saying is this car feels, at low speed, like an
SL 500 with slightly firmer springs.
The throttle response isn't too aggressive.
The steering's a bit heavier.
But it's still very light.
Electromechanical-- we'll come to that later on.
Tuned by AMG.
And of course, being France, I'm listening to a two-stroke
motorcycle in front of me.
Now, while we're traveling slowly and enjoying what is a
remarkably composed, comfortable car at low speed,
let's talk about the numbers.
The first thing is this car is much lighter than its
predecessor, so that even though the outgoing car had
525 horsepower, it actually weighed thick end of 2 tons,
about 1970 kilograms, without any extras on it.
This car is 125 kilograms lighter.
And yet, even at standard, it's got 537 horsepower.
That 537 horsepower is matched by 590 foot-pounds of torque.
But this car has the performance pack.
And the numbers go up again.
With the performance pack, you get 564 horsepower and-- this
is the silly bit, the really silly bit--
663 foot-pounds of torque.
I mean, it's absolutely bonkers.
The change is all down to
calibration and boost pressure.
It's 1.0 bar in the normal car and about 1.3 in this car.
I asked them how far they'd gone with it to see what they
could break on the engine and they were a bit noncommittal.
But there were lots of Germans grinning and sniggering about
how far they'd got.
And when I said 750 horsepower, they
didn't bat an eyelid.
They did say, though, that if you push, and push, and push
with boost pressure and more performance and more power,
the thing that goes is that the crankcase just goes kaboom
in a kind of nuclear explosion.
So now we've left St. Tropez town.
We're up and moving a bit quicker, about
55, 60 miles an hour.
And we can be objective about the car as a convertible GT
going faster.
Again, the structure feels very, very strong.
So each wheel is moving independently.
The ride is pretty good.
I can't tell much more about the ride because
it's such a flat road.
So maybe later on, we can tell more about the ride.
But the car doesn't feel too busy to me at all.
It feels very composed.
In terms of buffeting, there is a bit.
But we can solve that slightly by moving the old wind
deflector up.
So when I press that, that raises the thingy behind me.
You can just see it going up in the
corner of the shot there.
And now suddenly, from behind our heads, there's very little
air coming into the cabin.
Put my foot down, and now, this is when the SL does stuff
that not many cars can do.
The really clever bit about this car happens when you
decide to go a bit quicker.
Let me change the gearbox into manual, maybe put the ESP into
sport mode, start changing gear yourself.
And then, honestly, it is bipolar.
There's no other word for it.
[TIRES SCREECHING]
It's just extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary.
Turn everything off, and yeah, it becomes an animal.
[TIRES SCREECHING]
I stand by what I said before about this MCT gearbox.
I prefer it to a double-clutch.
I think in its combined roles of comfort, smoothness, and
then just being a bit stupid when you want to, it's great.
It's absolutely superb.
Yeah, I like this car.
I really like this car.
The SL 63 is a far, far better car than the one it replaces.
The electric power steering is much more accurate than the
new SL 500s.
And it's at its best in sport mode.
But it has some extra weight.
But what really shines through in this car is the sheer depth
of engineering and the attention to detail.
The seats are a cross between an armchair
and a racing bucket.
The optional B&O Hi-Fi gets those funky
tweeters from the SLS.
But the best bits are perhaps the wipers.
Roof down, they only squirt through these tiny, little
holes in the blades on the downstroke to keep those wigs
nice and dry.
You see, the SL 63 has pretty much everything.
I just wish it looked a little bit better.
[MUSIC PLAYING]