SL-Class (R231) [Official] Mercedes-Benz SL (R231)

[vios1]

 

[vios1]

 

[Merc1]

Now the R231 has come in to its own....wow. Now it looks right. The AMG treatment works beautifully.


M

 

[Merc1]

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M

 

[PHYBENZ]

I actually am not sure if I like the front AMG treatment. I thought the smaller grill would work front he spy photos, but now not so sure.

 

[Tarek]

Love the twins bar

What a nice design detail!

 

[Levi68]

I have not seen the SL live yet, I am waiting to drive to Geneva, but on the pics it looks nearly as ugly as the 1 Series, mainly due to headlights. However these pics of the SL AMG make it seem to be a completly other car. I love it. I could even have thought it was the SLC.

 

[Merc1]

Its the smaller grille and body sculpting that do it. That grille is huge improvement. This will now take the SL to the place it should be within the MB family.


M

 

[Human]

On looks alone, judging by the changes brought on by AMG this SL from AMG could or might as well outsell the 'normal' SL. Or put it this way, if an AMG derived body kit/styling becomes available that's going to be the most popular.

 

[Yaz]

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[-=Hot|Ice=-]

 

[Gianclaudio]

I REALLY need to see the SL with the other lightning system (I dunno if is the "standard" or there is also a LED) After looking and looking again and again I've realise that my problem with the headlights are those "eyebrows" which make the headlights look much bigger than they really are.
I think if MB had fitted an eyebrow similar to those in the pre FL W204, the SL's headlights wouldn't look as big as they look right now.

Regards

 

[PHYBENZ]

Nice commercial

 

[Human]

The most beautiful naked body I’ve ever seen.

Source:
Read more: The most beautiful naked body I

For only the third time in my life, Mercedes-Benz is debuting a new SL roadster. Three times in almost four decades isn’t much. In fact, the R107 SL went on sale before I was born, and by the time it was replaced, I owned a car myself.
The car that replaced it in 1990, the R129-chassis SL, was not only Bruno Sacco’s design masterpiece, but also a rolling technology showcase. I remember driving one for the first time in 1994. It was a 1990 500SL, with the 32-valve V8, and I’ll never forget nailing the gas out of my friend’s parents’ driveway and almost crashing because I had never experienced acceleration like that. And then I realized that the ol’ slushbox started out in second unless you hit the kickdown switch. The next time that SL started moving, it was in first gear, with its rear tires screaming only slightly louder than I was.
That SL wasn’t about speed, it was about technology. I had possession of an SL myself at the time, a R107-chassis 1985 380SL. My red-on-gray SL was but nine years old, but it might as well have come from the Paleolithic era, and I realized it the second I walked up to the 1990 model. The R129 did things no other open car did—like roll down the road with (almost) no cowl shake. It opened its roof at the touch of a button (my SL required a friggin’ wrench to unlatch the roof!) It had a pop-up rollbar that would deploy if you, say, jumped it over a railroad crossing (whoops) and it had seatbelts mounted directly on the seats in case you actually rolled it. The rearview mirror was electrically adjustable—which sounded like wretched excess until I realized it was part of the seat memory system. It had eight thousand storage compartments that all locked when you pressed the button on the infra-red key. It was like something from the future.
And then the R230 came out a couple years later. It was just another car. Technological innovations? I don’t remember any, to be honest. I’m sure there were a couple. But while we remember the first SL for being a Gullwing, the second because its hardtop looked like a Pagoda, the third for having a 19-year life, and the fourth for being all of that cool stuff I mentioned, we’ll remember the outgoing SL for being just fine and dandy.
Fine and dandy doesn’t cut it for an SL.
Which is why I am so pleased that I just got to see the new R231 SL fully naked. It’ll make its debut early next year, and I’m not yet allowed to tell you what its body looks like. I can, however, tell you that underneath, it’s the most beautiful roadster Mercedes has ever built.
It’s the first aluminum Mercedes, too. Sure, there are other aluminum cars, but this thing is a breathtaking work of art. I’ve never seen so many different types of aluminum: by weight, it’s 44 percent cast aluminum, 28 percent aluminum sheet, and 17 percent aluminum sections (oh, and 8 percent steel, 3 percent magnesium and other stuff.)
The R231 looks to me like a return to old-school Mercedes engineering: a wholesale rethink and anal-retentive analysis and re-analysis of the status quo. Bonded, riveteted, screwed, MIG welded, and friction-stir welded, the chassis just plain looks like a Mercedes, even though no Mercedes has ever looked like this. There’s no doubt in my mind that the new car will set the standards for stiffness, crashworthiness, and NVH for years to come. It couldn’t not; it’s so unbelievably well thought-out and packaged.
When you look at these pictures, try not to imagine what the final product will look like. Look instead at the detailing: the seven-section extruded door sills that look ten times stronger than a skyscraper I-beam; the sandwich-construction, three-layer floor that’s stir-welded together from individual sections; the front firewall that’s cast as one enormous piece; the longitudinal rear suspension mounts, which are hollow chilled cast and then attached to everything in seemingly every way possible; the holes and dips and wave-forms placed into the sheet aluminum to keep NVH under control.
Along with the two other innovations Mercedes is showing off (wiper blades that spray cleaning water only on the leading edge of the wiper and subwoofers built into the firewall), it strikes me that I don’t care what that final car looks like… I just can’t wait to experience what it’ll be like from behind the wheel of the new SL. I’m betting I’m going to feel flabbergasted the way I did the first time I drove that R129.

The R231's chilled cast aluminum rear longitudinal member, where it's welded to the floorboard.

2012 Mercedes SL: The cast-aluminum front shock tower, welded to the front extruded aluminum frame rail and the cast firewall, the largest cast aluminum piece in the Automotive world.

The SL550's aluminum hood. The drilled and pressed holes are to reduce weight and stop vibration.

The R231's battery tray and trunk floor, viewed from the passenger side toward the driver's side. The stamped-in honeycomb pattern is for NVH control.

The R231's interior, naked. Note the location of the FrontBass subwoofers in the firewall and the aluminum castings that run alongside the extruded tunnel. Oh, and the rear cast longitudinal members, or suspension carriers. Art, no?

 

[Ollemars]

And then the R230 came out a couple years later. It was just another car. Technological innovations? I don’t remember any, to be honest. I’m sure there were a couple. But while we remember the first SL for being a Gullwing, the second because its hardtop looked like a Pagoda, the third for having a 19-year life, and the fourth for being all of that cool stuff I mentioned, we’ll remember the outgoing SL for being just fine and dandy.
Fine and dandy doesn’t cut it for an SL.

well... fully automatic plastic/metal folding roof, active body control, radar-based active cruise control, SBC. R230 was a giant leap forward for its time, imo...

 

[Pagani]

well... fully automatic plastic/metal folding roof, active body control, radar-based active cruise control, SBC. R230 was a giant leap forward for its time, imo...

But all of these, save perhaps the SBC, debuted in other models first. And the SBC was soon discontinued, as it proved too faulty.

If there is anything the R230 should be remembered for is that it sounded like a sports car. The first time I drove an R129, I was mesmerized of the "whoosh" the engine did when nailed, the velvet and soundless punch. Whereas, the R230 sounded not unlike a Corvette.

 

[Merc1]

I agree, the SL models with the most impact were the original and the R129 for me also. The new R231 has finally grown on me. The R230 was a beautiful car and is still a lust object, but it didn't make the impact of the R129 IMO. I still want an R129 SL500.


M

 

[Tarek]

I agree, the SL models with the most impact were the original and the R129 for me also. The new R231 has finally grown on me. The R230 was a beautiful car and is still a lust object, but it didn't make the impact of the R129 IMO. I still want an R129 SL500.


M

Marcus i'd seriously kill for an R129 SL73 AMG..OMG!

 

[snksnok]

perfect

 

[K-A]

Damn those headlights. Otherwise, it looks fantastic! I won't say it's nicer than the R230, though. I judge car design as art, and as such, I'll never be one who says "newer is better", and I don't have any loyalty to Daimler Corp., so I have no incentive to say their newer models trump their old ones.

I think they're both beautiful and future Classics in their own right, unless the R231 dates quickly (R230 has already passed the test as far as I'm concerned).

Which one would I rather have? R231. The build quality difference via new-era M-B VS Schremmp era is enough.