Autocar - First for car news and reviews

New SLs do not come along very often. Since the model line’s 1954 inception, there have been only five generations.

The gullwing 300SL started life purely as a racing car, winning Le Mans in 1952, before its road-going variant was developed in ’54. That was replaced by the 300SL roadster in 1958; the cheaper 190SL was sold alongside these until they were replaced by the 230 in 1963. Further generations arrived in ’71, ’89 and 2001.

Road testing a Mercedes-Benz SL is always a ...Read the full article

So the SL appears to still be an excellent car after 7year, even in its revised AMG spec. One car that appears to be missing as a rival is the BMW M6. Was this car forgotten, or is it outclassed by the Merc? Me thinks the latter!

Very good. well done merc.

I can't help wondering how many SL65 AMG's will be seen on the road outside of Monaco though. £150,000..? Thats getting very close to Lamborghini money, which inturn are getting very close to GT cars. 90% of SL's sold are going to be to women, will be well specced  SL350's, and they all have AMG wheels.

A ferrari F430 would give you change from 150k and you'd get a better keyring to leave on the bar in the casino.

Roy Fullee:

So the SL appears to still be an excellent car after 7year, even in its revised AMG spec. One car that appears to be missing as a rival is the BMW M6. Was this car forgotten, or is it outclassed by the Merc? Me thinks the latter!

Autocar, for whatever reason, doesn't think much of the M6. They are both great cars and I doubt if M6 gives much away to the SL in terms of build quality, performance, handling etc.

More to the point, I'm not sure if they are direct rivals. the SL is a strict two-seater, whereas the M6 makes a fair fist of being a four-seater coupe and is considerably the bigger and heavier car. The M6 is probably more of a rival to the bigger Merc CL coupe.