So this just showed up

No, it's not for me. A friend in WA bought it from someone in CO, so I am babysitting for 24 hours until he gets here. It's a 2006 SL55 AMG, which means 510 hp supercharged 5.5 and probably a curb weight of about 7000 lbs or so.

It's...interesting. You sit deep inside  with buttons on every surface. So many buttons. Some of the top mechanism is exposed on the interior, which is a little surprising.  It has rear seats as long as your passengers are 4 year olds with no legs. The cupholders are a marvel of overengineering. Everything seems like it's above you - I have a long torso and I think I'd have to raise the seat to feel like I wasn't inside a grey leather cave.

The noise of the exhaust is pretty muted. It's got pretty good poke when you floor it, but it's definitely not the punch in the chest you get with the EV response. The whole car is a bit muted - not sloppy, but there's just a bit of a delay between request and reaction. I can see it being a very good road trip car, with the potential for top down travel through the interesting bits and coupe action for the boring stuff.

It's funny. I feel like I should love it but it just doesn't push my buttons. I thought it would have more of an effect on me but it's just not far enough in any one direction for my taste. It needs to be crazier or more responsive or a little roomier. More like the M5 or more like one of the V8 Miatas. As it is, it's probably a really good all-arounder but apparently that's not what I look for!

From Cars and Bids, right? It went cheap! Not enough turbos on a V12 to satisfy my irrational Mercedes desire.

Keith Tanner said:

It's funny. I feel like I should love it but it just doesn't push my buttons. I thought it would have more of an effect on me but it's just not far enough in any one direction for my taste. It needs to be crazier or more responsive or a little roomier. More like the M5 or more like one of the V8 Miatas. As it is, it's probably a really good all-arounder but apparently that's not what I look for!

So what you're saying is that you need a Black Series? :)

I don't know where Matt bought it, but I suspect he will drive it for a while and flip. He likes to do that.

I have threatened to cut the mufflers off with a Sawzall. I think that would increase the entertainment factor considerably. As you can tell, I am a very mature individual.

I'm pretty sure the Black has an extra zero in the price tag. But yes. As my college roommate once said, "if it's worth doing, it's worth doing to excess".

That engine wakes up very nicely, and makes the Right Noise, with a pulley and a tune and headers.

Keith Tanner said:

 

It's funny. I feel like I should love it but it just doesn't push my buttons. I thought it would have more of an effect on me but it's just not far enough in any one direction for my taste. It needs to be crazier or more responsive or a little roomier. More like the M5 or more like one of the V8 Miatas. As it is, it's probably a really good all-arounder but apparently that's not what I look for!

I had a similar impression when I test drove one at a Mitty event. It seemed to embody the line about "You can't make a race horse out of a pig, but you can make a very fast pig." Which would have been a great impression for a large 4 door luxury car, and amazing in something like an SUV. But a 2 seat convertible should feel like a race horse and not a very fast pig.

It's a GT car for two, best at crossing continents and then some relaxed top down motoring when you get there.  

7k pound? Wow. Porker. I think my old 06 F150 crew cab short box was barely 6k lbs.

SL55's are about 4500lb's. They just feel very heavy. 

They are fantastic cars if you like that sort of thing. SL black series are still trading about 250k which is insanely good resale for a Mercedes for once. 

Naw it just feels like it weighs 7k. It's rly only 4... gad

wearymicrobe said:

They are fantastic cars if you like that sort of thing. SL black series are still trading about 250k which is insanely good resale for a Mercedes for once. 

I mean, look at those fenders...

Find the "sport" button it changes everything.  My CLS in "E" mode is like driving a 70's land yacht.  There are two setting above that.  the first is "O - E36 M3" and then it is followed by "You will be arrested if you push this button"  :-)

I may have to sneak out for a second test drive with the Sport button selected. There are an unbelievable number of buttons.

There is a setting for Active Body Control (ABC) that should be near the shifter, you can set that to sport for suspension stuff at least. It's a hydraulic system.  I haven't found anything regarding a sport mode for engine or throttle response items.

The ABC sport setting does not change the suspension feel as far as the dampening rates. It simply changes the rate at which body roll is countered.

Arno Rohringer, head of Mercedes spring/shock absorber development, says body roll during cornering is reduced by 68% and by 75% if the driver has selected ABC's "sport" mode. Braking dive and acceleration "squat" is all but eliminated. Body stabilizing time after a rapid swerve is cut by 30%. Ride height also can be continually adjusted, and at 140 mph (225 km/h) the ride height is lowered by almost a half-inch (10 mm).

About a month ago somebody driving one of these spent the better part of an hour doing back to back 0- "A high rate of speed" runs in front of my house. It made an impression, but I wasn't blown away even though it definitely stood out from the usual bro dozers and seemed a bit more reserved than any of my neighbor's vintage muscle cars or contemporary pony cars.

I found the "make it look cooler" button to drop the ride height. Also found a way to deploy a roll bar. 

The trunk is very complicated. 

Now with better stance. I shall go pick up the new owners in the '66 Cadillac. 

Wifey may have connections at a M-B  dealer and brought home a C 43 AMG last weekend, just for fun.  It was nice enough, and fast enough, but what surprised me was all the crackling and burbling sounds coming from the exhaust on decel.  I was a bit surprised that they were allowed to get a modern road car to act so much like a bad boy.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

AMG is staffed by all the people not mature enough to work at MB. 

Matt has been and gone. He very much appreciated the airport pickup and seemed pretty happy with the Mercedes noises. He didn't get it through an auction site, it was a friend of a friend kind of setup. There are 2.5 days of GT use ahead, but first he has to go buy a Bluetooth speaker because this $150,000-ish (new) 2006 car cannot interface with a phone or aux and he doesn't want to carry a bunch of CDs.

Fun fact: the SL55 weighs about the same as the 66 Cadillac. 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Fun fact: the SL55 weighs about the same as the 66 Cadillac. 

We need a vehicle density coefficient calculator. 

IIRC, R&T datamined their test database for their 50th anniversary issue and that's actually one of the things they noted. Average vehicle weight was not really changing all that much but footprint was shrinking and thus density was going up. This would have been 1997 so that was before the SUV boom really kicked off to the extent is has today.

They make such amazing noises and seem respond very well to aftermarket tuning. I've seen a few at dyno days over the years but don't get to see them at C&C or other events sadly. Mercedes number badging from that era really has nothing to do with displacement huh? I was just wikipedia-ing the engines in these.

SL500 -> 5.5 L

SL55 -> 5.4L

SL600 -> 5.5L

SL65 -> 6.0L

Sonic said:

It's a GT car for two, best at crossing continents and then some relaxed top down motoring when you get there.  

FYI, pack light. With that folding hardtop, there is very little useable trunk space if you want to actually put the top down. My rule on road trips is to try to keep luggage out of the passenger compartment because otherwise you feel packed in and less free. I've crossed the country like this. With this car, that would be hard to do. An ND Miata has more trunk space, I think, and that's a pretty low bar. Obviously this is not a showstopper but I would expect a true GT to have a little more cargo capacity because I equate a GT with luxury. If there's a true coupe version that does not fold, it would probably have enough space based on the "do not pack in this area" shield that sits in the trunk of the folding hardtop.

It turns out Matt bought this car on a bit of a whim - he's always had an SL65 on his dream car list, and when this one came across his radar he decided to give it a shot. He bought it under market so he can justify it on financial means, as he can sell for a profit. But this means he's looking at it from a fairly neutral point of view and I'll be interested to hear what his final thoughts are and how long the car sticks around. At least, he'll have a great road trip added to his life experiences in this thing. His traveling companion really liked my Cadillac but apparently warmed up to the Merc after experiencing the engine :)