The SL began its journey as the 300 SL in 1952, codenamed W198, and was introduced as a soft-top convertible or with a fixed hard-top with the iconic gullwing doors we all love. But later, the gullwing doors were gone when the W113 SL arrived in 1963 as a successor to the W198 SL, as a hard top or as a soft top convertible, and since the W113, the SL came as a convertible only. And in 2001, when the R230 generation came out, the SL came only as a hard-top convertible. But today in India, Mercedes-Benz launched the 7th generation of the SL, the W232 generation, in the form of the SL 55 AMG at a price of ₹2.35 Crore (ex-showroom), as a soft top convertible only. And the W232 generation of the SL comes only in the AMG format, and no more standard variants of the SL will be available globally or in India.
Globally, Mercedes offers 2 engine options with the 7th generation SL, which follows the Mercedes ‘One Man One Engine’ principle, comes with 4-wheel drive as standard for the 1st time, and both of these engines are divided into 3 variants, starting with the SL 43 AMG with a 2.0L turbo 4-cylinder, then comes the SL 55 AMG with a 4.0L twin-turbo V8 and then the top of the line SL 63 AMG, which also is powered with a 4.0L twin-turbo V8, but the engine is tuned to generate more power. And currently, in India, we got the SL 55 AMG, which 4.0L twin-turbo V8 puts out 470hp between 5,500rpm-6,500rpm and 700Nm of peak torque between 2350rpm-5000rpm, which sends power to all 4-wheels via a 9-Speed multi-clutch automatic transmission, which helps the SL 55 AMG to reach from 0-100km in 3.9 seconds.
Talking about its exterior look, from the front, it gets triangular headlamps with the AMG signature Pan-Americana grill in the middle, it has a blacked-out air dam below the front grill, which sucks air in to cool down the engine temperature, and on the front bumper, are the aggressive looking air curtains, helps to cool down the front brakes, from the side it has a proper convertible GT look, has pop-out door handles similar as on the S-Class, Mercedes offers different alloy wheel designs from 5-spoke 20” aero wheels to 21” forged cross-spoke wheels, Mercedes also offers 4 colour options for the convertible soft top, talking about the rear, it has a pretty good looking shape with dynamic taillamps, an automatic retractable spoiler that houses the stop lamp, has diffuser like treatment below the rear bumper, and has big quad exhaust tailpipes.
For the first time, the SL gets a 2+2 interior layout, with an AMG flat-bottom steering wheel with touch-sensitive driver-specific buttons and the AMG drive mode selector, and behind the steering is the instrument cluster, which includes all the driver-specific data with the navigation, the main attraction of the R232 SL’s interior is the vertical MBUX touchscreen infotainment system, which can be tilted to a certain angle, for reducing the glare, while you are driving it with the roof down in the daylight, and to open or close the roof, there is a roof mechanism button below the infotainment system, by pressing that button the roof can be open or closed.
The SL 55 AMG is the only V8-powered cabriolet currently in the Mercedes-Benz India line-up, which will directly rival the Porsche 992 911 Carrera S, which is quicker and costs ₹30 lakhs less than the SL 55 AMG. So, with that, we can say that the SL 55 AMG is for buyers who want a luxurious open-top grand tourer with the V8 rumble.
