SLS Mercedes-Benz Planning New Sports Car Based On SLS AMG Platform

[HighestOfHigh]

The Porsche 911 better look out because Mercedes-Benz is reportedly working on a new sports car based on a shortened version of the 2010 SLS AMG’s platform targeted directly at it. The new Mercedes-Benz sports car will copy the SLS AMG’s aluminum construction but will lose the funky gullwing doors.

Instead, conventional front-hinged doors will be adopted in an effort to bring costs down. The new model will also pick up AMG’s next-generation V-8 engine, a 5.5-liter unit with direct-injection and turbocharging technologies and an output of around 500-horsepower. Acceleration times for the 0-60 mph dash are expected to fall around the 4.5 second mark.

The new sports car is tipped to be called the SSK AMG and is due for launch in 2014--an open top roadster version is an almost certainty.

The decision to build more standalone AMG models is to help establish the Mercedes-Benz in-house tuner as a separate sports car manufacturer that could eventually rival other smaller players in the supercar arena such as Pagani and McLaren.

Other models in the pipeline include an all-electric SLS AMG due in 2013 and a possible SLS AMG Black Series.

- Mercedes-Benz Planning New Sports Car Based On SLS AMG Platform - MotorAuthority

 

[LaArtist]

Wow a new SSK

MB will keep on making supercars..they wont be cowards like **cough** bmw **cough**..

Im sure about that

 

[GBOY]

Great! Hopefully, one we can afford (used) but what will it do to the SL?

 

[Beemer B773ER]

MB will keep on making supercars..

Supercars? ... who said anything about supercars? You mean SPORTS cars right?

Jussst kidding. I agree with you. BMW should create a dedicated sportscar developed purely by M-Division (like the plan was the for a future Z8 until that got red-lighted). I wonder if BMW's ever considered branding ///M as a slightly separate entity rather than just tuned-up versions of their BMW line-up. Interesting strategy by MB I must say now that they've ditched the partnership with McLaren.

 

[Merc1]

Mercedes needs to forget about another sports car. Concentrate on making the best C, E, S-Classes the best cars in their respective segments. New engines and other things, not yet another sports car. Hell make the next SLK sportier/better etc.


M

 

[LaArtist]

Yeah sports cars then..
But to me 911 turbo and up are supercars...

Sports cars are M3 and SL´s...

But doesent matter..

I have to agree with merc though.. about the engines.. some are in desperate need of update..
Other than that all MBs hold up extremely well against the competition..

But one must understand that this is a cheap project for MB,.. the chassi of SLS with the standard AMG engine of that time.. will gain them praise and attention..
Its a great deal.. and it was expected...they werent doing the SLS chassi and just making 1 car from it

 

[Gullwing]

MB spends $2 billion on the E class, this SSK will only cost them tens to hundreds of million. They will also use the SSK as a test bed for new tech, like the SLR. These will then drop down into everything else.

I don't think it will do much to the SL, it will be priced higher and be limited production.

They should use the old 5.5 kompressor, why would you turbocharge an SSK?

 

[Shining Star]

Great! Hopefully, one we can afford (used) but what will it do to the SL?

The same as what I thought...it'll be interesting...maybe this new sports car will actually just be the new SL...

 

[Centurion]

I believe it when I see it. I don't see any room for this car on the market unless they price it at around 60-100k i.e between the SLK and SL.

 

[Wolfgang]

An successor in 2020?

AMG confirms SLS replacement
But there will be a gap of years between the current Gullwing and its successor

The spectacular Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG ‘Gullwing’ sports car will not be directly or immediately replaced when its production ceases.

Instead it will be phased out sometime soon after the introduction of the smaller C190-codenamed ‘Porsche fighter’ and eventually replaced – after a suitable gap – by a new flagship supercar.

The C190, also referred to as the GT and SLC, is currently on high rotation in spy footage and photography as the front/mid-engined V8 coupe tests in heavily disguised form ahead of a 2014 reveal and 2015 on-sale date.

The 6.2-litre V8-engined SLS, which is also offered as a convertible, has been a huge success for AMG. The C190 is based on a shorter and simpler version of its aluminium spaceframe chassis and will not have gullwing doors.

“The SLS was in the last 10 years maybe the most important decision we made as a performance car company, because it took the whole organisation and the brand in my view to yet another level,” Ola Kallenius, the CEO of AMG told motoring.com.au.

“That was the car we really had the opportunity to start with a white sheet of paper and really do an out-and-out AMG.

“It has been immensely successful -- successful beyond what we had thought in the beginning. If you look on a life-to-date basis that segment for the last 10-20 years has been dominated by a car perhaps with a red colour and in terms of sales we have been a close second in that segment, the 200,000 Euro roughly entry point supersport segment.”

The SLS’ nominal predecessor, the McLaren SLR, was built between 2003 and 2010. An SLS successor would probably not be seen from AMG, Mercedes-Benz’s in-house tuning arm, until 2020.

Kallenius said a suitable gap was required because the SLS was a unique motor car.

“We probably won’t do a Volkswagen Golf 5, 6, 7 with the SLS because of the unique gullwing doors and so on and so forth. It’s not something you just do one after the after,” he said.

“I am not suggesting we should wait 55 years to do the next gullwing car, but certainly not straight after the one we have done now. That needs to sit in automotive history as its own chapter.”

Kallenius said the success of the SLS had allowed and encouraged AMG to develop the C190 project.

“We will do another sports car. It will be another true AMG in an interesting sports car segment.”

Kallenius would not say how much longer the lifespan of the $486,230 SLS is, but he was prepared to drop a hint.

“We haven’t said yet -- we will say soon. But if you want to buy one strike now!”

http://www.motoring.com.au/news/201...cedes-benz/amg-confirms-sls-replacement-38790

 

[Merc1]

I guess we will see the new sports cars at either Paris next year or Detroit 2015 or maybe Geneva 2015. Frankfurt 2015 is a long 2 years from now.

M