New SLS is just as stiff, just as fast, and even more beautiful than the tin-top
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| To rigidify the shell, the Roadster's side skirts are tougher, the dashboard cross-member is supported by additional struts, and a curved strut between the soft top and the tank reinforces the rear axle. |
Three weeks into SLS AMG ‘ownership’, and we at wheels are starting to have feelings of envy. See, Mercedes-Benz has just launched the SLS AMG Roadster, and somehow it looks at least as good as the tin-top despite Affalterbach having to lob off the top, reinforce the body, and stick on a flimsy tonneau cover. Drop the fully automatic, weight-optimised top down in a lightning-quick 11 seconds, and you have an open air theatre in which to enjoy the bellow of an eight-cylinder engine with 571bhp and 650Nm. For a similar effect, we have to drive around in our coupé with the gullwing doors open.
Ah yes, the gullwing doors. The Roadster has to do without this signature feature, but it doesn’t matter because the soft top’s design perfectly keeps the lines of the coupé. Performance is also pretty much the same – 3.8 seconds to 100kph – because AMG needed just 40kg of added weight to reinforce the aluminium chassis and body.
To rigidify the shell, the Roadster’s side skirts are tougher, the dashboard cross-member is supported by additional struts, and a curved strut between the soft top and the tank reinforces the rear axle.
It costs a cool million dirhams in Europe, which isn’t a high price to pay for wheels’ 2010 car of the year, plus your own personal orchestra.
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