avmaviator
05-16-2010, 02:23 PM
I just came back last night from my trip to Belgium (visiting my grandparents). I also visited my uncle. He had an Aston Martin Vantage, I was looking forward to driving that to Spa-Francorchamps (race track) from the suburbs of Brussels. Then he tells me that he just sold it last week. I was pretty bummer until he told me the reason why he sold it.... He just got delivery of a Mercedes SLS. He is the first customer in Belgium to get one, and one of the first ten officially delivered car. This car was supposed to head to the US but Merc has had problem with certification for the US cars, something about the interior. So because of that, a lot of the US bound cars where delivered to Europe (he was supposed to get his fall of this year).
This thing is so much better looking in real life then pics. It is a very large and impressive car. The hood is never ending. The finish is just awesome too, AMG really makes some nice cars! The details are impressive. For example, the engine was built by hand by one guy only, and his name is on a plaque on the engine cover (Marcus Julio built that enigne, thanks Marcus haha). The gull wing doors are pretty cool, they do take a lot of space up above tho, they don't stick out further out to the side when you open them, which is nice.
So we went for a drive. We didn't end up going to Spa because it was raining heavily over there. This thing is like sitting in the batmobile. The seats are very comfortable and very supportive. It is not a super overloaded interior which is nice. They did a real nice job with this car in keeping some old school elements and lines into this new car.
This thing sounds ridiculous! 570hp, NA V8. It sounds like one of those offshore race boats, especially from inside the cabin.
Driving wise. It is very docile in the normal auto mode. Looooots of torque down low. Firm ride but not uncomfortable. It has twin clutch 7 speed box, located in the rear of the car. It was my first time driving a twin clutch car and it is definitely quick and smooth like advertised. The paddle shifting in normal mode has a bit of lag to it, nothing too bad. In sport mode it is really quick. When you downshift in sport mode it rev matches, sounds awesome when it does that. In sport mode, if you are just driving along (none paddle shift), and go WOT, you feel/hear the car downshift through all the gears fairly quickly, but nothing happens, till it finds the "correct" gear, then the power hits the wheel. It is a weird feeling, very different then any other automatics I have driven. Like hitting hyperdrive, waiting for the power to hit, very wicked feeling. It pulls so hard, and long too.
It is different from the Carrera GT that I have driven. The GT is really raw and on the edge. The SLS is uber fast but very composed and comfortable. The traction control is this car is the best I have experienced so far. It is like silk, which keeps giving you feedback on what is going on, while staying super straight and putting a lot of power down. When I drove it it was damp, and we blasted through the small Belgium back roads, also did some highway runs. The traction control came on a good amount of times, so much damn power. We didn't run it long and hard (that's what she said) on the highway since it only has 1500 km on it, and getting broken in (according to AMG... you can run it hard, just don't keep the same high rpm for a long time. That was easy to do on the small roads :) )
The brakes are just as good as the engine. Could stop a planet with these damn things (not ceramic tho).
My uncle was invited and flown to the Castelet race track in the south of France this winter, after he placed an order, to drive some SLS on the track. He drove with a DTM Touring champ. He said the car is even more amazing during full blast accelerations and braking. Really well balanced (engine is located behind the front axle).
Here are some pictures and very short cell phone videos (sorry). In the driving video, we hit about 200 kph when I turned it off (sounds retarded but I had to sneeze, that's why I turned it off), that was definitely not a WOT run!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/avmaviator/Auto/DSC_0046.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/avmaviator/Auto/DSC_0044.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/avmaviator/Auto/DSC_0043.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/avmaviator/Auto/DSC_0038.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/avmaviator/Auto/DSC_0037.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/avmaviator/Auto/DSC_0049.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/avmaviator/Auto/DSC_0050.jpg
This thing is so much better looking in real life then pics. It is a very large and impressive car. The hood is never ending. The finish is just awesome too, AMG really makes some nice cars! The details are impressive. For example, the engine was built by hand by one guy only, and his name is on a plaque on the engine cover (Marcus Julio built that enigne, thanks Marcus haha). The gull wing doors are pretty cool, they do take a lot of space up above tho, they don't stick out further out to the side when you open them, which is nice.
So we went for a drive. We didn't end up going to Spa because it was raining heavily over there. This thing is like sitting in the batmobile. The seats are very comfortable and very supportive. It is not a super overloaded interior which is nice. They did a real nice job with this car in keeping some old school elements and lines into this new car.
This thing sounds ridiculous! 570hp, NA V8. It sounds like one of those offshore race boats, especially from inside the cabin.
Driving wise. It is very docile in the normal auto mode. Looooots of torque down low. Firm ride but not uncomfortable. It has twin clutch 7 speed box, located in the rear of the car. It was my first time driving a twin clutch car and it is definitely quick and smooth like advertised. The paddle shifting in normal mode has a bit of lag to it, nothing too bad. In sport mode it is really quick. When you downshift in sport mode it rev matches, sounds awesome when it does that. In sport mode, if you are just driving along (none paddle shift), and go WOT, you feel/hear the car downshift through all the gears fairly quickly, but nothing happens, till it finds the "correct" gear, then the power hits the wheel. It is a weird feeling, very different then any other automatics I have driven. Like hitting hyperdrive, waiting for the power to hit, very wicked feeling. It pulls so hard, and long too.
It is different from the Carrera GT that I have driven. The GT is really raw and on the edge. The SLS is uber fast but very composed and comfortable. The traction control is this car is the best I have experienced so far. It is like silk, which keeps giving you feedback on what is going on, while staying super straight and putting a lot of power down. When I drove it it was damp, and we blasted through the small Belgium back roads, also did some highway runs. The traction control came on a good amount of times, so much damn power. We didn't run it long and hard (that's what she said) on the highway since it only has 1500 km on it, and getting broken in (according to AMG... you can run it hard, just don't keep the same high rpm for a long time. That was easy to do on the small roads :) )
The brakes are just as good as the engine. Could stop a planet with these damn things (not ceramic tho).
My uncle was invited and flown to the Castelet race track in the south of France this winter, after he placed an order, to drive some SLS on the track. He drove with a DTM Touring champ. He said the car is even more amazing during full blast accelerations and braking. Really well balanced (engine is located behind the front axle).
Here are some pictures and very short cell phone videos (sorry). In the driving video, we hit about 200 kph when I turned it off (sounds retarded but I had to sneeze, that's why I turned it off), that was definitely not a WOT run!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/avmaviator/Auto/DSC_0046.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/avmaviator/Auto/DSC_0044.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/avmaviator/Auto/DSC_0043.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/avmaviator/Auto/DSC_0038.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/avmaviator/Auto/DSC_0037.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/avmaviator/Auto/DSC_0049.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/avmaviator/Auto/DSC_0050.jpg