Merc's new SL-Class range revealed

Official shots of Mercedes’ new line-up of SL-Class vehicles surfaced on the web a few months ago, but none of the crucial details accompanied them. Now they’re here.

Here’s the important stuff – there will be two options available for the sixth-generation SL-Class; the SL350 that features a 225kW/370Nm V6 engine, and the SL500 which comes with a 320kW/700Nm V8. Both engines use Mercedes’ new BlueDIRECT technology, with the SL500 representing a 12 percent power increase over the previous generation.

If you didn’t know, SL actually stands for “super light”, and the new models are now 125kg (SL500) and 140kg (SL350) lighter thanks mainly to an all-new aluminium bodyshell and other weight saving measures. Combine this with the power increases and you get 0-100km/h in 5.9 seconds in the SL350 and 0-100km/h in 4.3 seconds in the SL500.

Fuel consumption is down 30 percent for the SL350 to 6.9 l/100km, and 22 percent for the SL500 to 9.1 l/100km. This corresponds to some pretty reasonable CO2 figures of 159g/km and 212g/km respectively.