It won't make its official debut until this summer, but the Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series is already staking its claim as one of the most extreme Mercedes-Benzes ever built.
It starts with a 6.0-liter twin turbo V12 engine. In the standard SL65 AMG it pumps out a healthy 604 horsepower, but in the Black Series the same engine gets cranked up to 670 hp. The torque peak won't increase, but given that it already sits at 738 pound-feet, there's really isn't a need for more. The five-speed automatic transmission, torque converter and all, will remain, but it will get two Sport shift programs, with the second delivering quicker gearchanges timed at just 250 milliseconds.
In addition to the added power, the engineers at Mercedes-Benz concentrated on reducing the car's weight. AMG's engineers chucked the heavy airbag suspension setup on the standard SL65 for steel coil springs, lost the Active Body Control system and made the Black's trunk, vented hood, roof, vented front fenders and bumpers out of carbon fiber.
Weight savings also turned the car into a coupe. Instead of a heavy folding hardtop, the Black Series gets a fixed roof fortified with a fully integrated roll cage. The changes reduce the car's overall weight by 570 pounds and give it a power-to-weight ratio of 1 horsepower per 6.1 pounds.
Read Article