At last! Mercedes have decided to re-design the 2012 SL (well slightly) to make it more pleasing to the eye. Gone is the old boxy design that had so many loyal SL customers running for cover and back are the lovely lines that we loved back in the nineties.
The new SL is the first mass produced Mercedes to be built almost entirely of Aluminium and in doing so they have given the new line up almost identical performance to the outgoing model but with better fuel efficiency. Also by reducing the weight it has enabled the SL to handle even better down those lovely summer sun drenched roads of Britain.
So let’s look at the figures. Well, the SL 350 is a three and a half litre V6 giving 302hp and 273 lb torque so that should get it to 62 a full 0.3 seconds quicker than the old model. Wow! The next model is the SL500 which borrows the same turbo charged V8 unit from the S class which should give it a 0-60 time of 4.6 seconds . That’s better!
As is the norm with Mercedes they pack their cars full of electronic trickery with names like “magic sky control” and “magic vision control. What are they? Well, magic sky control is a switchable sunroof that swops from clear to opaque at the flick of a switch and magic vision control is a new system Mercedes have developed that delivers the water to the front screen via the wiper blade. All very clever but why the magic?