A new Mercedes-Benz SL sports car is always big news, and if you don't believe me, just go onto any classic car auction site and have a look at how much cash it now takes to buy a classic sixties SL. As far as enduring badges go, the SL name is right up there.
Testing in the Arctic Circle
The current model - an utterly brilliant car, by the way - has become somewhat overshadowed by its own cousin, the AMG-built GT coupe and convertible. Mercedes is looking to overturn that overshadowing with an all-new SL, which is just now completing its rigorous winter testing programme inside the Arctic Circle.
It's almost seventy years since Mercedes launched the first SL, the legendary 300 SL Gullwing with the following press release, sent out in 1952: "Dear Editor! The new Mercedes-Benz "300 SL" (super-light) sports car model will be undertaking road trials in public for the first time this week. We are therefore delighted to enclose the technical data for this vehicle, together with a photo."
Rear seats and a cloth roof
Today we get more than just "a photo" - we get quite a few of them, which although the car is still heavily camouflaged for its Swedish sojourn, shows that the new SL gets styling that wears a similar aesthetic to that of the AMG GT (the rounded haunches, the anteater-low nose) but which has one critical difference. This time, the SL has rear seats, making Merc's range-topping convertible a 2+2 for the first time since the legendary R107 version of the SL (the Bobby Ewing one) went out of production in 1989.
The SL is also returning to a cloth roof for its convertible top, and again it's been a while since we've seen an SL with anything other than a folding hard-top (the last of the R129 SLs, built in 2001, were the final cloth-roofed SLs).
Four-wheel drive for the first time
The new SL will make some other breaks with tradition, too. It'll be the first-ever SL with four-wheel drive, thanks to a fully variable all-wheel drive 4MATIC+ system.
Mercedes says that now that the SL has finished its winter testing, it's off to the legendary Nurburgring Nordschleife, where: "the specialists from Mercedes-AMG will be ensuring that this latest interpretation of the SL draws even more than ever on its sporting roots."
Indeed, the new SL will actually be badged as a Mercedes-AMG model, and not a Mercedes-Benz, yet another break with tradition. Here's hoping that the AMG engineers remember that the SL is supposed to be as much about comfort as it is about sportiness. Leave the hard-riding stuff to the next AMG GT, eh?