First Drive Review
The view out the windshield looks fake. Doctored. Computer enhanced. The French Provençal mountain scenery seems realistic enough, but the signals passing through the visual cortex are all out of sync with those the thalamus is processing from the other sensory receptors. No way could that curved guardrail be looming so quickly with so little attendant engine roar. It's equally inconceivable that it could so suddenly begin blurring past the side windows, without any tire squeal or body roll to accompany the copious lateral-g loading. The view never rises and falls with acceleration and braking, either.
We're scaling one of those phenomenal roads to nowhere in particular, whose construction and maintenance costs could only be justified by a community of avid drivers. The special effects are being generated by the ultimate Mercedes-Benz roadster, if not the ultimate Mercedes-Benz period-the twin-turbo, V-12-powered 2004 SL600.
In terms of having it all-sumptuous luxury and blistering performance, supple ride quality and level cornering, hardtop security and top-down wind in the hair (or top-down no wind if you prefer), plus every high-tech gizmo and gadget extant-it just doesn't get any better than this.
We fell madly into deep, reverent, grown-up love with the original 600SL back in 1993, when engineers ground off the tallest corners of a 48-valve 6.0-liter V-12 and pressed it into a hole sized for a V-8, leaving a clearance to the structure similar to the air gap across which the sparks jumped to ignite that car's 389 horsepower. Our first 600SL whooshed to 60 mph in 5.5 seconds. This time around, the 12 was part of the program from the outset, so the whole car was engineered to cope with this detuned Maybach mill's 493 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of road-warping torque, hence, the even greater feeling of sensory disbelief from the helm.
Mercedes claims the SL600 will waft to 62 mph in 4.7 seconds, which equals its claim for the snarling SL55 AMG that we prodded to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds. That car's supercharged V-8 is just 74 cubic centimeters smaller and is rated at an equivalent 493 horsepower, but its torque is, ahem, "just" 516 pound-feet. If the gearing were the same, the 12 would clearly be quicker, but a taller axle ratio (2.65 versus 2.82 in the SL55 and SL500) guarantees dignified throttle response in the SL600 and leaves some bragging rights to the AMG.
