2.
Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG
It's no secret that Benzes have been
growing on us. The world's oldest car company has found a dynamic sweet spot
that displaces even BMW. The new SL is a perfect example. It does just about
every- thing exceedingly well, being the best fusion of luxury and sporting
qualities in this test.
So it's a shame that the styling has few
friends here. We're not sure why Mercedes' designers believed that the SL,
basically unchanged around the middle from before, needed tons of visual heft
to its front and rear. But there it is, baggy in the butt and with excess
overhang. If you like it and can accept the price, well, don't mind us then,
because the Benz is otherwise the star with the star.
The
world's oldest car company has found a dynamic sweet spot that displaces even
BMW.
It's often chilly along this rocky coast,
but the Benz keeps you wind-protected and cozy, with a heater system in the
seats (part of the $4,300 Premium package) that directs warm air on your neck.
The Robo-roof is a fascinating gas-station sideshow, and a sec and quickest to
lower and raise after the Porsche. Once it's up and you're on your way, it
insulates the cabin from noise better than any top here. The trade-off is
reduced trunk space when the top is down.
Two 500thing, red-leather thrones are set
in a cabin that has been stitched and tucked and fitted with burnished metal
and glossy carbon fiber to epicurean exhaustion. Options notwithstanding, it
looks and feels worthy of its inflated price tag, which is saying something.
Even better, the S14’s lavish opulence is troweled onto a platform that can
move. With alert steering at hand, powerful brakes underfoot, and the
fortissimo V-8 barking in the ears, the driver has nothing but smiles in store
on a back road. The second-lightest car in the test manages its 4z8 pounds
well, and the chassis sets pleasingly in corners with the road firmly clutched
in its claws.
the
SL’s 5.5-liter V-8 has the throttle linearity of the Jag and Porsche, a
byproduct of its fabulous torque.
Benz has sorted the twin-turbo thing better
than BMW, whose engine builds pressure slowly, then suddenly bolts for the
redline. In part because it’s more than a liter larger than the M6’s, the SL’s
5.5-liter V-8 has the throttle linearity of the Jag and Porsche, a byproduct of
its fabulous torque. Even so, the AMG returned the same 14-mpg fuel economy as
the BMW and Jag. Not that we’re particularly proud of 14 mpg, but at least
there’s no penalty for all that extra power.
The only hitch was a stop-start system that
malfunctioned once and left the SL stalled at a light. We had to switch off and
reboot the car before it would restart.
Like others, the SL defaults to its com
fort mode on startup, and in that mode the gas pedal goes a little limp,
especially coming out of corners when the transmission is reluctant to
downshift. AMG endowed this car with a ton of sporting ability; it shouldn’t
make drivers switch back to sport mode every time they fire up the engine.
At this price, you’re still $37,380 short
of an SLS AMG GT roadster, and in many ways the SL63 is a better car. It’s more
comfort able and more usable daily. And if you can do without black forged
wheels ($2200) or electro chromic roof glass that darkens at the touch of a
button ($2,500), or any of the other $19,820 in options on our maxed-out
tester, so much the better.
1. Porsche 911 Carrera S
We don’t know if Hearst had Packards or
Cadillacs or Hispano-Suizas to run his guests up the hill from his private
airstrip (no doubt somebody will write in with the answer), but the Porsche is
the best car in this day and age for the job. It is immediate, it is thrilling,
it is loud in a brassy, mechanical way that sends shivers through your adrenal
system, and it is a joy.
WR.H. was surrounded by family and friends,
and a bit broad in the beam himself later in life, so he surely would have
scoffed at the smaller Carrera with its narrow buck ets and vestigial rear
seats.
It
is immediate, it is thrilling, it is loud in a brassy, mechanical way that
sends shivers through your adrenal system, and it is a joy.
Though the 911 has ballooned dimensionally
in recent years, it’s still intimate inside, especially compared with the other
four-seaters here. A new, sloping center tunnel evocative of the Panamera is
studded with buttons and divides the cockpit into distinct hemispheres.
Everything about the Carrera is quick and
nimble. Even the top needs only 13 seconds to do its thing. The steering is
prompt and tight, filtering out the unwanted chatter of a rough road while
allowing through the pulls and pulses of tires hard at work. The sense of
connectedness to the chassis is strong and it lures you to heroic speeds. Note
the wide margin by which the 911 established skid pad and slalom supremacy, at
1.03 g’s and 47.3 mph respectively.
Just 400 horsepower from the flat-six
outback makes the Carrera S the caboose on the drag strip, but the 911 would
have surely been quicker equipped with the dual-clutch auto and launch control,
and with a few more miles on its clock. As it is, the Porsche delivered the
best fuel economy.
Note
the wide margin by which the 911 established skid pad and slalom supremacy, at
1.03 g’s and 47.3 mph respectively.
Few convertibles have good outward
visibility with the roof up. The SL is one exception; the 911 isn’t. Top up or
down, the 911 also is noisier, with a wind ruffle around its glass, the
persistent moan of its big tires, and the burr of its engine as ever-present
com panions on your long drives. The shorter wheelbase also supplies a choppier
ride, even with the suspension settings turned down.
There are definitely trade-offs if you, as
we do, lean to the sportiest end of our group of sport-luxury convertibles.
However, even if the Porsche lacks the flashy carbon-fiber wings and gaping
forged wheels of our other cars, no vehicle here is as much fun. And that’s
really what cutting a perfectly good roof off is all about.
