First Drive Review
Mercedes-Benz chose Southern California for the worldwide first-drive program of its freshened 2009 SL-class roadster on account of, we thought, its friendly, relatively predictable March weather and access to fabulous roads. Although the blessed Left Coast location has both of those things, Mercedes attributed its choice of locations to something even more significant, asserting that it was bringing us to the roots of the SL-class. That’s right, Southern California is responsible for the very existence of the SL roadster itself.
Huh? According to Mercedes-Benz, in the SL’s not-so-humble beginnings—the storied 300SL Gullwing—there was little or no initial consideration for doing a roadster version. The butterfly doors on the coupe were designed to make the big two-seater accessible in tight European quarters, and without a roof, there would be no place to mount them. But according to the “legend,” California’s rich and famous—who didn’t share European space constraints, nor did they care much about Europeans, for that matter—clamored enough to make a case for a roadster version. The result was a beautifully proportioned instant classic.
Surprised? Just take a look around Los Angeles and you won’t be. There are more SLs on the road in Southern California, we’d guess, than anywhere else in the world. And so we set off feeling right at home as we got our first taste of the 2009 SL-class. The fact that it was a perfect sunny day in March and we were enjoying California’s trademark fabulous roads was icing on the cake.
Just as the Rich Get Richer, the Stylish Get More Stylish
Just as the wealthy always seem to find more money in their accounts after making withdrawals, style builds on style when it comes to their rides. The SL’s midcycle enhancement, then, brings with it a few effective styling changes, headlined by a new single-bar grille that evokes most of its SL forebears, flanked by L-shaped headlamps that evoke none of them. But they do tie the SL nicely to the CLS-class four-door coupe-sedan thing and likely many sporting Mercedes-Benz models to come. To us, the lights look a bit discordant, primarily due to the rearmost edge having the same roundness as the previous SL’s now-dated peanut lights, no doubt to keep Mercedes from having to develop new fender stampings.
The fenders themselves on the SL550 and SL600 incorporate modified gill-type air outlets behind the front wheels and bracket a redesigned hood with two stupidly named “power domes,” which, in fact, are neither domes nor anything that gives the car more power (for the real power story in the SL lineup, look no further than our drive of the new SL63 AMG, with its naturally aspirated 518-hp, 6.2-liter V-8—and no power domes). Other modifications found on the SL lineup include larger side mirrors with curious arrow-shaped turn signals and, in the case of the SL550 and SL600, a faux air “diffuser” and trapezoidal exhaust tips at the rear.
In all, we’d say the changes are successful in adding presence and a sportier overall look to the car. Whether it’s more attractive is up to the beholder, we suppose. All we can say at this point is that, unlike the previous model, it now looks really good in red. More important, from Rodeo Drive to Indian Canyon Boulevard in Palm Springs, everyone seemed to notice that we were driving new Benzes.
New Steering Wheel, New Steering Sensations
A sporty new three-spoke steering wheel is the most dramatic change made to the SL’s interior. The only other changes of note are the mildly revised instrument cluster, a more logical COMAND infotainment system, and the newly available three-speed Airscarf system that blows warm air onto your neck. But it’s what you feel through the steering wheel, we’d say, that is more important.
The previous steering rack has been replaced by a new variable-ratio system that is a touch slow immediately off-center but gets really serious, really soon as the wheel turns toward 90 degrees. Seldom in our winding mountain driving experience—over the gorgeous Angeles Crest Highway toward Palmdale, back around Mount Waterman and down toward Palm Springs, with a stretch along the 6000-foot-high Rim-of-the-World Highway—did we have to feed the wheel from hand to hand in corners. Although feel and feedback are far from Porsche-like, both characteristics can be considered excellent and perfectly suitable for a sporting six-figure luxury-touring roadster.
Want a bit of oversteer? Simply stab the gas—particularly with the stability control (ESP) off—and the big roadster’s tail comes around quickly and predictably, making us feel perhaps a bit more confident on our drive than we should have given the narrow roads, often with steep drop-offs on one side and hungry-looking trees on the other. As ever, ABC (active body control) does a remarkable job of keeping body roll completely snuffed while soaking up all but the most torrid impacts; between the air springs and the solid construction inherent to all recent SLs, we noticed only a few jolts during our entire stint behind the wheels of both SL550 and SL600 models—impacts that probably would have caused much more of a disturbance to lesser cars and their occupants.
The SL’s brakes, however, felt a touch artificial as the hypersensitive anti-lock system constantly fiddled with the brake pressure at each wheel, especially when trail-braking into corners or on rough patches. This was most apparent in the SL550, whose 13.8-inch-front and 12.6-inch-rear rotors are each 0.4 inch smaller than those of the marginally heavier SL600. Still, both systems proved completely fade-resistant and more than capable of yanking the big two-seater abruptly down in speed.
