These are the most up-to-date spy photographs of the new Mercedes SL, wearing everlighter camouflage as the comprehensive reveal of the brand’s reborn BMW 8 Collection Convertible and Lexus LC Convertible. later on in 2021 draws closer.
These new images stand for our best glance but at the new SL, with aspects like the car’s intense side skirts and flush-match doorway handles staying disclosed for the 1st time.
The rest of the convertible’s style and design has a sturdy AMG influence, which is no genuine shock offered Mercedes’s effectiveness division has taken responsibility for the car’s advancement.
Familiar features include the same Panamericana radiator grille as the Mercedes-AMG GT and the company’s trademark square exhausts, which are uncovered on everything from the AMG E 63 saloon to the colossal AMG GLS 63 SUV.
The past SL’s very long bonnet and rather short tail have been mirrored in the new car’s style and design, whilst Mercedes has ditched the past model’s folding metallic hardtop for a new fabric roof, which ought to shave a number of kilos off its kerb bodyweight.
Mercedes also not too long ago teased the new SL’s cabin. It will get a similar infotainment setup to the Mercedes AMG GT, with a twelve.3-inch electronic instrument panel forward of the driver and an eleven.9-inch infotainment process mounted in the centre of the dashboard.
To protect against glare from the solar turning out to be a distraction when the roof is down, the instrument cluster has its possess visor, when the angle of the infotainment screen can be electrically altered to a much more vertical position.
An optional head-up screen can display info in three dimensions on the screen in a array of variations that can match the format of the configurable sights demonstrated on the car’s most important screen. The car’s audio process arrives from Burmester.
Mercedes has dubbed the SL’s interior concept the “hyperanalogue” cockpit, declaring it will take inspiration from the unique 300 SL Roadster of the fifties. The business describes the concept as a mix of “analogue geometry and electronic get the job done.”
The seats are intended in this sort of a way that they show up much more compact, and have headrests integrated into the backrests for a sleeker glance. They can be trimmed in a array of finishes, which include two-tone nappa leather-based, nappa leather-based with diamond stitching, or a blend of nappa and Dinamica fabric.
Mercedes style and design boss Gordon Wagener said: “The SL is an icon of the brand with the three-pointed star: this roadster has stood for automotive fascination and want for many years. A good possibility and problem for style and design, for the reason that each designer desires to build icons. The outcome is a revolutionary interior knowledge caught in between electronic and analogue luxurious. We made the most iconic SL at any time considering that, the luxurious icon of the 20s.”
Mercedes also claims the new SL will be much more adaptable than its predecessor. It is the 1st SL considering that the R129, launched in 1989, to have a 2+2 seating format – and these rear seats will have adequate place for passengers up to 150cm tall. A wind deflector will also be obtainable to protect against buffeting at substantial speeds.
Mercedes-AMG boss Philipp Schiemer said: “The interior of the new Mercedes-AMG SL pampers motorists and passengers with innovative luxurious. The new SL combines the maximum stages of consolation and top quality in its interior, coupled with just the appropriate amount of money of sportiness. The substantial-top quality blend of analogue world and condition-of-the-art electronic gear will make a single matter clear: the new SL is the rebirth of an icon for the modern day period.”
New 2021 Mercedes SL: engines, chassis and effectiveness
The seventh-technology Mercedes SL’s chassis will use a blend of aluminium, metal, magnesium and fibre composites in its design to assistance retain bodyweight to a minimum. Mercedes claims the method has worked, as the car’s central skeleton weighs just 270kg.
Mercedes is also keen to stress that there is practically nothing in the SL’s chassis carried in excess of from any of its current models – not even the AMG GT Roadster. Having said that, there are rumours that the new architecture will also be utilised to underpin AMG’s alternative for the GT.
The new SL’s overall body is fifty for each cent much more rigid than the AMG GT Roadster throughout its width and 40 for each cent much better in excess of its size. Mercedes claims these enhancements will translate into much more specific dealing with and far better agility, as the overall body will deform less underneath tricky cornering.
Mercedes has also reduced the SL’s centre of gravity. The pick-up details for the subframes and axles are as low down as probable, when the motor will be mounted low, and shut to the cabin.
Mercedes has also confirmed that the new SL will be exclusively sold underneath the AMG banner. It’ll be obtainable with four-wheel push for the 1st time, as well, using the same 4MATIC+ process as the AMG E 63 S sports saloon.
That indicates the array ought to open with a 43-badged SL powered by a 3.-litre straight-six petrol unit. In the meantime, the flagship SL 63 will very likely be powered by AMG’s twin-turbocharged 4.-litre V8, giving 604bhp.
Previous AMG boss Tobias Moers (now Aston Martin CEO) earlier informed Auto Categorical that AMG will glance to offer you a hybrid edition of each design Mercedes sends its way. He also hinted that the SL, as a heavier sports car focussed on touring, could be a purely natural match for a heavier electrified powertrain with an monumental electricity output.
Mercedes is presently building this sort of a powertrain for the forthcoming array-topping AMG S seventy three e PHEV, which is set to have an output of much more than 800bhp. AMG will also give the SL’s suspension a extensive overhaul in an effort to raise its attractiveness to keen motorists, whilst it will still act as a much more relaxed choice to the AMG GT sports car.
New 2021 Mercedes SL: a set-up for the new AMG GT
In 2019, sports automobiles contributed to slightly much more than a single p.c of Mercedes’s overall revenue throughout the world, with all-around 28,four hundred automobiles sold. That is a increase of 48 for each cent in excess of 2018 but, by the firm’s possess admission, the AMG GT line-up accounts for most of that, with the compact SLC roadster now banished from the line-up and comprehensive-measurement SL dwindling in value.
Whilst the SLC now has no long term, the brand’s determination to develop the new SL with AMG hinges on the shared use of a new lightweight, aluminium-intensive platform that will at some point underpin the following AMG GT.
Speaking to Auto Categorical prior to his change to Aston Martin, former AMG boss Tobias Moers discussed how the undertaking was building: “This is a programme which is really rigorous,” he said. “The new SL aligned with maybe the following technology of GT.
“I imagine it is time to modify the angle of SL a small bit and bring back again a bit of the history of this touring DNA of SL – make it sportier, and other points.”
Timeline: six generations of Mercedes SL
W198 (1954-63): Iconic Gullwing lasted for three many years prior to Roadster replaced it. 4-cylinder a hundred ninety SL was the economical choice.
W113 (1963-1971): ‘Pagoda’ design arrived with a removable tricky-leading. 230, 250 and 280 models all arrived with six-cylinder engines.
R107 (1971-1989): As well as a roadster, Mercedes generated the four-seat SLC coupé up right until 1981. This was the 1st SL with a V8.
R129 (1989-2001): SL moved into the nineties with V12 electricity launched for the 1st time. AMG variations also show up.
R230 (2001-2011): Released folding tricky-leading roof 1st observed on the SLK, as well as adaptive overall body manage and other hi-tech aids.
R231 (2012-2020): Outgoing SL was a heavily up to date edition of the R230 that utilised an all-aluminium overall body for the 1st time.