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Before marketers hijacked them, before BMW slapped them on an awkward hatchback, and long before you could buy a Mitsubishi Outlander GT, the letters “GT” defined a very specific type of automobile. A grand tourer, or gran turismo, was a swift, athletic car that placed equal priority on upscale trimmings, long-distance comfort, and imposing styling. A GT was the driving connoisseur’s road-trip machine, tailor-made for a holiday through the Alps or a blast across the United States. Today, GT is merely an ambiguous term that’s about as meaningful as the letters S, LTZ, or SEL.
Add the 2013 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT coupe and roadster to the long list of cars that have used and abused the GT tag (the Pontiac Aztek GT!). Sure, the gullwing version of this high-zoot Mercedes is purpose built to vanquish miles in high fashion, but the SLS GT does not do comfort. The 2011 SLS AMG was a hard-hitting, stiff-legged road rocket; its replacement is even more raucous and brutal.
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Stiff and Stiffer
We never accused the outgoing car of being soft or flabby, but someone must have thought it too sedate to be AMG’s calling card. On top of increasing the spring and damping rates on the GT, the engineers in Affalterbach eliminated the Comfort setting for the adjustable shocks. The SLS GT now offers Sport and Sport Plus modes—you can also call them stiff and stiffer. Either setting makes for a tedious ride over anything but fresh-laid asphalt. The SLS slaps at expansion joints, pounds on potholes, and thunks over heaves in a tantrum that you’d expect from a Lamborghini, not a Mercedes.
At the track, though, the SLS is everything you’d expect of a $200,000-plus car designed from the ground up by power-drunk AMG. We tested an SLS AMG GT coupe and roadster in back-to-back weeks, with the two cars posting nearly identical measurables. On the skidpad, the roadster’s lateral acceleration of 0.98 g matched our best performance with a 2011 model. Braking distances from 70 mph to 0 were also in line with our past results. The coupe, equipped with the optional carbon-ceramic brakes, posted a stopping distance of 159 feet; the roadster, with standard iron discs, came to a halt in 156 feet. The numbers are a real-world reminder that carbon-ceramic brakes are intended to combat fade and reduce weight, not shorten stopping distances.
Bark and Snarl
In upgrading its flagship to GT spec, AMG increased the output of the hellacious 6.2-liter V-8 to 583 horsepower (up by 20), keeping torque at 479 lb-ft. There’s a sweeter, more percussive exhaust note with enough bark and snarl to convince you that this hunk of aluminum is in an active battle against forced induction to protect its naturally aspirated, big-displacement livelihood. AMG wisely left the transmission’s Comfort setting intact, and the SLS is still content to dawdle along at 2000 rpm and handle additional throttle requests with big low-end torque rather than a downshift. Rotate the knob to a more aggressive setting, or shift for yourself, though, and the SLS becomes as feisty and urgent as an Italian exotic.
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We weren’t able to match our best 3.5-second 0-to-60 time achieved with the old SLS, nor were we able to hit Mercedes’ claimed 3.6-second time for both gullwing and roadster. Instead, we saw 3.7 and 3.8 seconds to 60 mph in our two testers, although we don’t doubt Mercedes’ claims. As with the outgoing SLS, the launch-control program still won’t extract the quickest times. You have to lightly brake-torque the engine and flatten the right pedal with the dual-clutch transmission in manual mode. Keep the throttle flat past 125 mph, and you’ll clear the quarter-mile in fewer than 12 seconds.
The SLS AMG GT isn’t a better performer than the car that came before it, but it is a tangibly different car. More than ever, the SLS turns away from the three-pointed star on the hood to pledge allegiance to the AMG crest embossed on its gear selector. Call it angry, luxurious, fast, striking, or timeless. Just don’t try to call it a true GT.
