SL did mean Sport Leicht when the Gullwing was the fastest production car in the world. Over the years, the Sport Light morphed into increasingly heavier and posher grand tourers. Adding to the confusion, the Mercedes-AMG GT is more of a sports car than a gran turismo.
Then again, Merc also calls the GT 4-Door Coupe a four-door coupe despite being a liftback-style take on the E-Class sedan. It boggles the mind how bad the German marque can be at this stuff, and that's not all.
To make the SL a bit more special than before, and in order to squeeze more money from prospective customers who don't know better, the R232 generation is available exclusively as an AMG. Engine choices begin with a four-cylinder turbo for the 43 series, whereas the 63 serves as king of the hill with a twin-turbocharged V8. It's a thoroughbred AMG engine, just like the four-pot in the 43er, but there's a catch.
You see, Mercedes calls the V8 in question M177 as opposed to M178 for the engine in the GT. The primary difference comes in the form of the lubrication system: dry sump for the M178, wet sump for the M177. The R232 generation also introduces all-wheel drive to the SL, although it's not as effective of an all-wheel-drive system as expected from an AMG. The same can be said about the AMG Speedshift MCT gearbox, which replaces the 9G-Tronic's torque converter with a start-off wet clutch for less weight and better response.
As you can tell from the headline, not even AMG's fancy transmission can make a difference in a straight line against an R35 and a G82. Namely, a 2018 model year Nissan GT-R and a 2022 model year BMW M4 Competition xDrive. From a dig, the SL 63 needs 3.0 seconds to reach 60 miles per hour (97 kilometers per hour), exactly the same as the GT-R. Bear in mind the R35 celebrates its 16th anniversary this year, which goes to show how mind-blowingly good the R35 was in 2007 for MY2009, and still is so many years later.
The SL 63 clocked 11.3 seconds in the quarter mile at the Dunnville Autodrome in Ontario. The GT-R? Make that 11.2 seconds. Bear in mind the 2018 model used to retail at $99,990 (sans destination charge), which is $124,460 after adjusting for inflation. Care to guess how much the SL 63 is? According to Merc's build & price tool, pricing for the 63 series kicks off at $178,100 in the US as of July 2023.
The M4 is more affordable than both the SL and GT-R, with BMW asking $86,300 for the Competition spec with xDrive all-wheel drive. Add the $2,500 M Driver's Package, and you're also getting a slightly higher top speed. The quarter-mile ET for the Bavarian coupe is 11 seconds flat, and zero to 60 mph took 2.8 seconds.
Not only does the M4 Competition xDrive come with a torque-converter auto, but this level of performance from a more desirable brand than Nissan at a lower price than the 2024 GT-R? Insanely impressive, indeed…
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News