Mercedes Benz SLC Will Have Up to 500 HP, No Gullwing Doors

Mercedes Benz is reportedly working on what we have affectionately come to know as the baby-SLS. Rumors have been circulating the internet regarding all sorts of things regarding the project, from the arrival date to the name of the car that will reportedly be ‘SLC’ and we now have some more fuel to add to the ever-growing fire.

German car magazine Auto Bild says the SLC will actually be a sportscar to rival the Porsche 911. But wait, there’s more! In order to take on the mighty Porsche, the German engineers will provide the two-seater not with the usual big V8 engine, but with a six-cylinder twin-turbocharged unit developing between 350 hp and 500 hp, depending on the model.

Unlike the 911, which uses a rear-engined configuration, Mercedes will stick to what it knows best and provide the SLC with a front mid-mounted unit.

The bad news is that the baby-SLS will not get the same gullwing doors as its bigger brother. This is mainly because Mercedes wants to be able to sell the 350 horsepower base model at under €100,000 ($144,000).

Not much else is known, not even an arrival date of the new sportscar, but Auto Bild indicates two possible scenarios. Should the SLC be based on the current SLS, it will arrive in 2014, but if Mercedes decide to build it as a replacement instead, it will hit the market in 2016. Whatever the case, the two-door coupe will also be conceived in a joint exercise between Mercedes-Benz’s regular passenger car department and its performance car division, AMG.

There’s even a soft-top version coming our way in a move that mirrors what Mercedes is doing with the SLS.