If car reviews were still written on Olivetti Underwoods, the floor of my office would be littered with crumpled paper balls.
Try as I might, I just couldn't seem to write this story without having it sound like automotive porn.
Eventually, cursing the ghost of departed muses and deadlines past, I conceded defeat - tempering weak-kneed lust with as much cold objectivity as I could forcibly muster.
Given my weakness for a substantial nose, tight muscular butt and deep husky baritone – the 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG pretty much had me at "hello.”
Darkly sinister in Obsidian Black, my tester possessed the sort of hypnotic good looks that inspire sharp intakes of breath. Not the garish, curvaceous flashiness of the euro-trash exotic, hailing from the sun-drenched beaches of the Italian Riviera, but subtly long, lithe and lethal – a Teutonic ninja cloaked in black.
When the Mercedes rep popped that long hood to reveal the monstrous 6.2L V8 – with twin cold air intakes and looking like a shrunken Klingon warship nestled deep in the engine bay – I blamed reflexes, pure and simple, for my slowly exhaled expletive.
The SLS is, of course, a modern interpretation of the iconic 300SL gullwing of the 1950s, updated with a dose of venom.
Soaring wings held aloft – the SLS is a traffic stopper. Get past that signature party trick though, and there's a genuine performance car beneath the taut skin.
Occupying the top slot in the AMG pecking order – the SLS fills the space vacated by the departed McLaren SLR supercar. It has every bit of the presence of the carbon fibre-bodied SLR – and at $230,000 for my fully-loaded tester – is roughly half the cost.
Try as I might, I just couldn't seem to write this story without having it sound like automotive porn.
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| Darkly sinister in Obsidian Black, my tester possessed the sort of hypnotic good looks that inspire sharp intakes of breath.(Photo: Lesley Wimbush/Auto123.com) |
Eventually, cursing the ghost of departed muses and deadlines past, I conceded defeat - tempering weak-kneed lust with as much cold objectivity as I could forcibly muster.
Given my weakness for a substantial nose, tight muscular butt and deep husky baritone – the 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG pretty much had me at "hello.”
Darkly sinister in Obsidian Black, my tester possessed the sort of hypnotic good looks that inspire sharp intakes of breath. Not the garish, curvaceous flashiness of the euro-trash exotic, hailing from the sun-drenched beaches of the Italian Riviera, but subtly long, lithe and lethal – a Teutonic ninja cloaked in black.
When the Mercedes rep popped that long hood to reveal the monstrous 6.2L V8 – with twin cold air intakes and looking like a shrunken Klingon warship nestled deep in the engine bay – I blamed reflexes, pure and simple, for my slowly exhaled expletive.
The SLS is, of course, a modern interpretation of the iconic 300SL gullwing of the 1950s, updated with a dose of venom.
Soaring wings held aloft – the SLS is a traffic stopper. Get past that signature party trick though, and there's a genuine performance car beneath the taut skin.
Occupying the top slot in the AMG pecking order – the SLS fills the space vacated by the departed McLaren SLR supercar. It has every bit of the presence of the carbon fibre-bodied SLR – and at $230,000 for my fully-loaded tester – is roughly half the cost.
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| Occupying the top slot in the AMG pecking order – the SLS fills the space vacated by the departed McLaren SLR supercar. (Photo: Mercedes-Benz) |