There's a Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series in the planning
There are new reports that Mercedes are planning a Black Series version of the SLS AMG Gullwing for release in 2013.
Back in September we reported that Mercedes were working on a Black Series Version of the SLS AMG. Not the most surprising news admittedly – it’s an obvious thing for Mercedes to do even in these constrained times – but it was nice to get confirmation from a source at Mercedes that it was in the planning. The story didn’t get picked up widely at the time so we thought maybe we’d had a bad bit of info. But it would appear not.
Autocar and others are now reporting that Mercedes are indeed working on a halo version of the new Gullwing – the Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series – and reckon it will hit the roads in 2013 – just before the SLS Electric – Mercedes SLS eDrive – makes an appearance. All of which is pretty much what we said a couple of months ago.
But the latest reports are nowhere near as enticing as we reported. The latest news is that Mercedes will be tweaking the existing V8 to yield something around 600bhp, but still with a price tag up around £250k+. That’s reckoned to be enough to drop the 0-60mph time from 3.8 to 3.5 seconds. All fine and dandy, but not the monster we reckoned would appear.
Our source told us that Mercedes were planning on taking the running gear from the V12 SL65 Black and giving that a fettling before dropping it in to the SLS AMG. That would shove power up close to 700bhp and drop the 0-60mph to 3 seconds or below. Which is much more appealing. I suppose it does make sense that Mercedes will look a t the more fuel-efficient V8 instead of the V12 for the SLS Black, but it won’t make the SLS AMG Black the sort of halo monster we expected. It would also make it slower – but probably a better drive – than the SL65 Black.
I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.
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