Mercedes Benz SLS AMG – the car that can fly

Last weekend was a legendary one, because Bobby and I went to Mercedes Benz Star Experience, an event organized by Mercedes, who spoiled its guests with test drives with la crème de la crème of their cars. That meant that the line up consisted of an G 500, a ML 63 AMG, an E Class Coupe, an E Class Cabriolet, an AMG, a SL and a SLK and some of the BlueEFFICIENCY cars with S Hybrid, C 200 CDI and the C 200 CGI. But the star of the show what the Mercedes Benz SLS AMG, of course! The experience with the SLS reminds me of a quote from Fight Club: “After fighting, everything else in your life got the volume turned down.” In this case, it would be: “After riding a SLS AMG, everything else in my life is so slow.”

A team of pilots and engineers from Mercedes Benz briefed us about the most important technological concepts integrated in their models and they talked to us about the wonders of the SLS. The SLS was developed in 3 years, from scratch. It’s a completely new car, although it’s a descendant of the Mercedes Benz Gullwing. What’s so special about the SLS AMG? Well, here are a few details: aluminum body shell – only 241 kg, 6,3L V8 engine, the world’s most powerful standard-fit eight-cylinder naturally-aspired engine, that can develop 571 hp/420 kW. Top speed limited at 317 km/h, which takes the SLS from 0 to 100 km/h in 3,8 seconds. That’s too fast to blink, too fast even to think. The engineers all had a discrete smile on their faces, knowing that they had done their job and had given the world yet another fantastic sports car to rule the roads. The design of this particular sports car is brilliant: it looks incredible from every angle and you can feel it fueling your urge to step on that gas pedal like you’ve never done it before. It begs you to climb inside and fill in the driver’s seat and…well, go to car heaven.

Before I climbed the SLS, I had no idea what I was in for, but I knew I couldn’t wait. “Are you scared?”, the Mercedes pilot asked me, with the most serene smile on his face. “No, I’m not. I love cars, this is what I love”, I replied. “Here we go, nice and steady”, he assured me. But a SLS is everything but nice and steady. It’s intense and thrilling. It pushes you in your seat and overwhelms you with every inch of concrete it feasts upon. It’s both wild and precise. It steers around corners in a graceful manner, but it gives you an insane rush of adrenaline in the process! It’s perfectly engineered passion. The huge smile on my face after I got out of the car said it better than words could. Pure happiness. I can only imagine what it feels like to drive the SLS AMG around the Nurburgring…
I also had the chance to do a safety training with an E Class especially designed so that they could turn all the safety systems off. The drift was so much fun without it! But it’s true that maybe we don’t realize how important the safety systems are until we can sense the difference. And the difference is huge! With ESP & co. on, the windows and sun roof close automatically, the seat pushes you in order to protect you during the drift and the side elements gently tighten around you for the same purpose. It feels like the car is alive and that it’ll do anything to keep you safe. How can you not love it?

Also, a Ferarri 458 made an appearance and we were nothing short from happy to snap some pictures of it.

“A cockpit. An engine. Two wings. Is this still a car?” I’d say I’m not sure it’s still a car.

Photo Gallery: Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Launch Event