Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing - official photos

Mercedes has now sent us a big photo gallery of the SLS AMG Gullwing

Mercedes has now released detail and pictures of the SLS AMG Gullwing ahead of Frankfurt.

The Mercedes SLS AMG is so well known to us all – after the endless ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’ Mercedes has been performing with the launch – that it feels as if the SLS has been around forever. But it hasn’t, and it’s only a day or so since we brought you the first official images of the SLS that had leaked in to our inbox.

But Mercedes has now released all the official images, so we thought you ought to get to judge the whole deal for yourself. The leaked images we had looked much better than we’d expected, and the SLS does look good – a sort of Z4 on steroids mixed with design cues from the original 300SL Gullwing. But even though the SLS will be at Frankfurt next week it won’t be launched until 2011.

So what new gems do we have to convey now Mercedes has given us the official bumph on the SLS? Nothing new really. The SLS is powered by a 6.2 litre V8 producing 563 horses with a 0-60mph of around 3.6 seconds and a top speed of almost 200mph. It’s a light, carbon fibre car with iconic Gullwing doors. But you knew all that anyway.

Even so, Mercedes has conspired to write reams on the SLS AMG, so if you want to read every morsel have a look at the Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing Press Release.

But one thing that still puzzles us a little is where the original leaked photos came from. Speculation centres around Mercedes themselves trying to pull a spoiler on McLaren’s new MP4-12C. There is not much love lost between the two car makers these days, and the SLS AMG and the MP4-12C are the respective replacements for the joint collaboration that was the McLaren Mercedes SLR.

But just speculation, you understand.