Having thoroughly enjoyed my C63 as a daily driver for the last year I have just had to re-calibrate what I understand to be a proper kick in the back from a cars performance as well as pure theatre for noise. My business partner has just upgraded his CLS63 for an SLS Roadster; that thing is beyond any adequate description for what happens when the loud pedal is tickled!
I’ve always thought the bi-turbo CLS had better immediate torque better suited for the daily drive than my C63 with the normally aspirated M156 engine. On open roads the normally aspirated engine was a lot more fun, purer in noise and delivery of performance with the power building with the revs all the way to the red line; the bi-turbo seemed to plateau at 4,000 rpm with not much more to give past there. This SLS package blows the lot away though, what a car! It’s got tectonic grunt from the off and is just on another level when you get into any kind of revs for piling on the speed - still limited to under 4,000 on the run-in though presumably also with some consideration in mind to the well being of the new owner’s heart! The noise is immense with a much more enthusiastic cackle on the overrun and I’ve only driven it with the roof up so far!
I’m not trying to suggest that the C63 and the SLS should represent similar levels of performance, I agree the £100k odd price difference should warrant an enormous gulf on every level as I do that we are very lu8cky to be driving these kind of cars but to pass on fresh first impressions Merc have definitely delivered in the SLS. Gunning my car after driving that thing was very humbling; they are meant to share the majority of their engine and gearbox hardware which goes some way to showing what the engineers at Afalterbach are capable of. What a car!
Edd
P.S. Hopefully more pics to follow
I’ve always thought the bi-turbo CLS had better immediate torque better suited for the daily drive than my C63 with the normally aspirated M156 engine. On open roads the normally aspirated engine was a lot more fun, purer in noise and delivery of performance with the power building with the revs all the way to the red line; the bi-turbo seemed to plateau at 4,000 rpm with not much more to give past there. This SLS package blows the lot away though, what a car! It’s got tectonic grunt from the off and is just on another level when you get into any kind of revs for piling on the speed - still limited to under 4,000 on the run-in though presumably also with some consideration in mind to the well being of the new owner’s heart! The noise is immense with a much more enthusiastic cackle on the overrun and I’ve only driven it with the roof up so far!
I’m not trying to suggest that the C63 and the SLS should represent similar levels of performance, I agree the £100k odd price difference should warrant an enormous gulf on every level as I do that we are very lu8cky to be driving these kind of cars but to pass on fresh first impressions Merc have definitely delivered in the SLS. Gunning my car after driving that thing was very humbling; they are meant to share the majority of their engine and gearbox hardware which goes some way to showing what the engineers at Afalterbach are capable of. What a car!
Edd
P.S. Hopefully more pics to follow
