For lovers of driving, automotive design, and precise engineering, it’s endlessly refreshing and encouraging to find a car model dedicated to pure performance. The 2024 Mercedes-AMG SL 63 is just such a car.
Sitting high atop the Mercedes-AMG family tree, just a branch or two below the 2024 AMG GT 63 halo build, the SL 63 has a price tag running north of US$200,000, depending on options. Regardless of the bangs and whistles chosen, every SL 63 rolls out of Mercedes’ headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, with a 4-liter, 577-horsepower engine with a top speed of 196 mph.
MORE: A New U.K. Race Car Boasts Zero to 60 in 1.4 Seconds. And You Can Buy One in the U.S. Next Year.
While most automotive reviews published across the planet include spec numbers like that, they take on a special meaning with the AMG. This is the declining era of the V8 engine—fuel-efficient, turbo-amped six cylinder, hybrid, or fully electric power plants are taking over. While 21st-century automotive engineering can squeeze ample thrills out of those propulsion options, none of them offer the same physical and psychological experience of eight cylinders firing in time.
There’s a primitive, though grounded solidity to a sport-tuned V8. The suddenness of acceleration jerks the head back with more than a hint of G-force. Beyond any other sensory factor, the sound transforms the driving environment—filling the ears with a barely civilized rumble at a stoplight and a raging roar when the toe goes down. At full throttle, a humming vibration in the chest spurs the heartbeat up a few clicks.
According to Jochen Hermann, chief technical officer of Mercedes-AMG, in this age of the fading V8, it means something special to Mercedes-AMG to build its eight-cylinder ending up in the SL 63.
The Mercedes-AMG SL “is the rebirth of an icon, returning to its roots with a classic soft top and sporty character,” Hermann says.
There’s no denying a love for V8 power and noise urged on the creation of the 2024 Mercedes-AMG SL 63. By way of reminder, AMG was originally the Mercedes-Benz tuning shop in Affalterbach, Germany, where already great cars became better—tighter, stronger, faster. AMG adds power and handling abilities, piles a few more bucks on the price tag, and hands them along to serious drivers of means. These days, Mercedes-AMG is its own sub-brand in the German automaker’s overall collection, producing the firm’s most powerful builds.
“The SL has been completely redesigned by Mercedes-AMG,” Hermann says. “From an engineering perspective, it’s always great starting from scratch. But, to be honest it’s also a big challenge to create an automotive icon like the SL with this kind of heritage. So, the goal was to build an SL much sportier than its predecessors because it’s an AMG, all while also featuring enough comfort.”
AMG developed a completely new aluminum body shell wrapped around new technical developments for an SL. Those advances include the 4MATIC+ variable all-wheel drive and rear-axle steering.
“For AMG, the SL means going back to its roots—back to sportiness, but also to comfort, to lifestyle,” Hermann adds.
AMG engineers focus on exceptional power delivery and powerful acceleration in all engine speed ranges combined with maximum efficiency for low consumption and emission values, all against the backdrop of the push and pull of electrification.
“These are very volatile times, especially in the automotive industry,” Hermann explains. “The focus of our portfolio is clearly electrification. But AMG has a strong heritage as a V8 company, and therefore we will offer the V8 as long as there is a demand for it.”
The external styling wants to create the potent illusion of a car that looks in every way like it’s eager to move. With the SL 63’s squat, wide haunches and extended, diving hood, it’s fair to accuse this machine of always looking like it’s about to disappear down the pavement with some urgency.
Inside, the cockpit wraps around the occupants, focusing all of the attention forward into operating the vehicle. Centralized gauges and instrument panels work with a bright heads-up display to give the driver fewer reasons to look aside or fidget.
The human being behind the wheel of the SL 63 enjoys the expected suite of serenity and infotainment features, including power everything; sport leather massaging seats with lumbar support; 4-wheel ABS; an accident-avoidance system; driver attention alert; pre- and post-collision safety systems; stability and traction control; emergency-braking preparation and braking assist; adaptive headlights; an 11.9-inch infotainment dash display; Burmester 650-watt, 11-speaker premium stereo; and hands-free entry.
The driving experience combines classic tenets of Mercedes-Benz with the modern technology of AMG. The SL 63 possesses that familiar and reassuring heaviness in the nose that speaks of both control and German build quality.
There’s a quibble in the brake department as the high-tech material does squeal during application at low speeds. That’s common for supercars armed with maximum braking, but you’ll get odd looks by poorly informed drivers wondering why the gorgeous Mercedes-AMG has bad brakes.
Minor complaints like that aside, the SL 63 is a V8 jewel no gear head wants to see drive off into the electric sunset as hybrids take its place. Fortunately, Hermann indicates models like it aren’t leaving the Mercedes estate anytime soon.
“We do one thing without leaving out the other,” he says. “We are very proud of that and recently crowned the SL series with the new SL 63 S E Performance—the most powerful SL of all time—to complete the model.”
Read the full article here
