Though AMG, the in-house performance division at Mercedes-Benz, has been wringing triple-digit horsepower and torque gains from the German brand’s V-8 engines, its engineers have not wrenched on the automaker’s stout 6-liter V-12 in a few years.
Mercedes responded Tuesday with the 2013 SL65 AMG, equipped with a V-12 producing 621 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque. The roadster is expected in American showrooms in November and is scheduled to have its formal debut at the 2012 New York auto show, where press previews begin April 4.
The V-12 puts the roadster in rarified, if not exclusive, power territory for a production convertible. The 2012 Ford Shelby GT500 convertible generates 650 horsepower, the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 produces 570 and the Mercedes SLS AMG Roadster, the brand’s de facto droptop supercar, is rated at 536.
About that $200,000 AMG product: Mercedes is positioning the SL65 as its autobahn-blasting convertible grand tourer, whereas the SLS AMG Roaster retains its track-day orientation and remains quicker than the SL65 in no small part to its 3,661-pound curb weight; the SL65 weighs 4,299 pounds. Even so, Mercedes expects the SL65 to accelerate from a stop to 60 miles per hour in 3.9 seconds, just two-tenths of a second slower than the SLS.
Within its own range, however, the SL65 barely registers as a flagship. Introduced last month, the 2013 SL63 AMG, with its 590-horsepower 5.5-liter twin-turbo V-8 engine, might have seemed perfectly suited to top the revamped SL range. But as it did in the mid-2000s, Mercedes dusted off the 6-liter V-12, which also appeared in the S65 AMG sedan and CL65 AMG coupe, as well as the 57 and 62, those doomed land yachts from Maybach, the sister brand of Mercedes under Daimler.
Distinguishing the SL65 from the SL63 in the valet lot will be a hairsplitting affair, with V-12 Biturbo badging on the side vents among the few outward signifiers of the SL65’s 31-horsepower advantage over the SL63, and the extra tens of thousands of dollars spent by its owner.
Pricing for the 2013 SL65 AMG was not disclosed. The previous-generation SL65 carried a base price just under $200,000, nearly $60,000 more than the SL63 of the same generation. In the shadowy art of supercar equivalencies, that’s roughly the difference between one SL65 in the garage or an SL63 and, for slower errands, an SLK55.
Source: NY Times
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