First Drive: 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL 63 AMG

Mercedes’ sportiest SL has gone green. But don’t worry…It was a familiar question I asked AMG vehicle development manager Arnulf Paulat: how long have you been working on the SL 63 AMG? But his answer may surprise those who still think of AMG as simply a tuner of Mercedes: “Two years, maybe more.” And that’s on top of the many years of development Mercedes did to create the SL itself.

Yes: a manufacturer in its own right since Mercedes took 100 per cent ownership in 2005, AMG is the biggest German performance tuner we perhaps all still underappreciate.

And the SL 63 AMG? It too is much more than a new-shape SL with an AMG-tuned 5.5-litre V8. That old SL 63 AMG was a real gem, all nicely balanced and lairy handling plus an engine that was deficient in torque but didn’t half wail when on song. The new AMG needs to beat this goal, not just meet it: that’s why Paulat’s team have been so busy.

The need to meet a goal that sits apparently quite contrary to an AMG staple has also been a challenge. Customers’ top reason for buying an AMG is the engine, and “performance, performance, performance” is what the brand is about, says head of product development Thomas Rappel. But the new car also had to be greener than the old one, to chime with its buyers’ sense of social awareness.

Much greener: Mercedes targeted a fuel economy figure of less than 10 litres per 100km. In real money, that equates to an expected 22.8mpg on the US test cycle, a full 30 per cent more economical than before. But AMG has, remarkably, achieved this. Tickbox checked.

How? Through the adoption of that 5.5-litre V8 biturbo already seen in the S-Class. A drop in capacity is compensated by the two turbos, which have the happy byproduct of restoring the all-rev torque owners so loved from the original supercharged SL 55 AMG. “The torque monster is back!”, proclaimed Rappel. The sense of delight from all at AMG with regard to this is palpable.