mercboiuk
MB Enthusiast
I recently drove an '07 plate SL65 AMG, and I figured some of you may like to hear an opinion of my experience (but then again even more of you may just prefer to look at the photos 
).
It was a Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago. The salesman at Robinsons Norwich was very accomodating, even meeting me an hour before the dealership opened, so we could go out while the roads were quiet.
This chap's attitude and manner was VERY different to my previous experience of sales staff at that dealership - Well done to them!
Anyway, on to the test drive. The guy had planned a route to encompass a mixture of roads - town, dual carriageway and twisty country roads. It took around 45 minutes to complete the route.
The Asthetics:
As soon as I climbed aboard, I was overwhelmed by the quality of the cabin - very much an improved picture on those late-90s/early '00's cars, when this car was obviously conceived.
Being an '07 car, it had the facelift sat-nav system and paddle shift (rather than button shift) on the steering wheel.
The interior was coated with lashings of Anthracite coloured leather. There was also Carbon Fibre optioned for the centre console and door inserts, which looked fantastic.
As for the exterior, the silver paint complimented the interior very well, as did the gun-metal coloured "65 AMG" wheels. Again, it being the '07 facelift, there was the smoked tail-lights and rear brake light, along with the 3-slat grille, with a black coloured backing. Also, note the Performance Pack front bumper now has "veins" on the side air vents (they were just empty vents, pre-facelift).
The Drive:
Starting the car, the exhaust gives off a gorgeous burbble.
The entire drive was with the roof down. Squeezing the throttle in Park, the lovely V12 burbble grows. However, the noise seems to disappear once your in Drive and on the move. That's such a shame, as I can only imagine how it would sound with a mor-suiting exhaust
In town, it's amazing how quickly the car shinks around you. I remember jumping into an R230 when it was first released and thinking how huge it was. However, in practice, I found it extremely easy to thread the car through what little traffic there was. The gearbox in town was very good, the ride superb.
Heading out on the dual carriageway section of the route, I knew this would the Merc's party trick.
The '65 motor has well over twice the torque of my Audi's engine, so I was expecting it to be grin inducing. I wasn't quite expecting the onslaught of power, though.
Down the slip road, we were WELL into licence-losing territory.
We drove down to roundabout, going all the way round and coming back on ourselves. Exiting the roundabout, I was travelling at around 30mph. Squeezing on the power to round half throttle, the traction control actually had to intervene becuase the power! Again, we were travelling very fast, in such a small amount of time. This could get addictive!
Before reaching the twisty section, I put the suspension and gearbox into their sportiest settings, and flipped over to the paddles. These are very intuitive, and work well with the gearbox. Even under full throttle, I detected very little retardation from the torque converter - surprising, considering the torque figure of this engine!
Fortunately, I knew this section of the route fairly well, therefore knowing when I could "press on".
This is where the Merc really showed it's weakness.
There was so much weight out front that I never really felt confident. On a couple of corners, I could feel the nose running wider than expected.
I was pleasently surprised at the lack of scuttle-shake in the cabin, and there was only a hint of chassis-flex round the bends - the AMG engineers obviously know what they are doing! Unfortunately, you cannot engineer around physics, and the sheer weight of the thing really means this car cannot handle like other sports/convertibles out there.
The Verdict:
By no means is this car bad. It's an astonishing peice of engineering.
The car is beautifully constructed, and looks gorgeous! As a point-and-squirt, grand tourer, it's an epic car - there's nothing much out there that can match this car's mid-range grunt.
You just have to be a little careful in the corners.
Finally, the Photos:
Darren
).It was a Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago. The salesman at Robinsons Norwich was very accomodating, even meeting me an hour before the dealership opened, so we could go out while the roads were quiet.
This chap's attitude and manner was VERY different to my previous experience of sales staff at that dealership - Well done to them!
Anyway, on to the test drive. The guy had planned a route to encompass a mixture of roads - town, dual carriageway and twisty country roads. It took around 45 minutes to complete the route.
The Asthetics:
As soon as I climbed aboard, I was overwhelmed by the quality of the cabin - very much an improved picture on those late-90s/early '00's cars, when this car was obviously conceived.
Being an '07 car, it had the facelift sat-nav system and paddle shift (rather than button shift) on the steering wheel.
The interior was coated with lashings of Anthracite coloured leather. There was also Carbon Fibre optioned for the centre console and door inserts, which looked fantastic.
As for the exterior, the silver paint complimented the interior very well, as did the gun-metal coloured "65 AMG" wheels. Again, it being the '07 facelift, there was the smoked tail-lights and rear brake light, along with the 3-slat grille, with a black coloured backing. Also, note the Performance Pack front bumper now has "veins" on the side air vents (they were just empty vents, pre-facelift).
The Drive:
Starting the car, the exhaust gives off a gorgeous burbble.
The entire drive was with the roof down. Squeezing the throttle in Park, the lovely V12 burbble grows. However, the noise seems to disappear once your in Drive and on the move. That's such a shame, as I can only imagine how it would sound with a mor-suiting exhaust
In town, it's amazing how quickly the car shinks around you. I remember jumping into an R230 when it was first released and thinking how huge it was. However, in practice, I found it extremely easy to thread the car through what little traffic there was. The gearbox in town was very good, the ride superb.
Heading out on the dual carriageway section of the route, I knew this would the Merc's party trick.
The '65 motor has well over twice the torque of my Audi's engine, so I was expecting it to be grin inducing. I wasn't quite expecting the onslaught of power, though.
Down the slip road, we were WELL into licence-losing territory.
We drove down to roundabout, going all the way round and coming back on ourselves. Exiting the roundabout, I was travelling at around 30mph. Squeezing on the power to round half throttle, the traction control actually had to intervene becuase the power! Again, we were travelling very fast, in such a small amount of time. This could get addictive!
Before reaching the twisty section, I put the suspension and gearbox into their sportiest settings, and flipped over to the paddles. These are very intuitive, and work well with the gearbox. Even under full throttle, I detected very little retardation from the torque converter - surprising, considering the torque figure of this engine!
Fortunately, I knew this section of the route fairly well, therefore knowing when I could "press on".
This is where the Merc really showed it's weakness.
There was so much weight out front that I never really felt confident. On a couple of corners, I could feel the nose running wider than expected.
I was pleasently surprised at the lack of scuttle-shake in the cabin, and there was only a hint of chassis-flex round the bends - the AMG engineers obviously know what they are doing! Unfortunately, you cannot engineer around physics, and the sheer weight of the thing really means this car cannot handle like other sports/convertibles out there.
The Verdict:
By no means is this car bad. It's an astonishing peice of engineering.
The car is beautifully constructed, and looks gorgeous! As a point-and-squirt, grand tourer, it's an epic car - there's nothing much out there that can match this car's mid-range grunt.
You just have to be a little careful in the corners.
Finally, the Photos:
Darren
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