By Robert Farago
May 8, 2008 - 3,306 views
Forgeddabout that unstable idle. (We're pretty unstable when we're idle too. Alternatively, unstable idles are the devil's plaything.) The new Mercedes SLC looks to be what the Mercedes McLaren wasn't: affordable. Wait, that's not it. While I'm busy thinking of a witty repost, play the video and contemplate the joys of burning a gallon of gas every couple of miles with your tail wagging like a miniature Schnauzer that just eviscerated a large rat (no animals were harmed in the making of this metaphor). Pistonheads' passive construction workers [via Motor Authority; you know how that goes] tell us that the SLC "is likely to be a direct successor to the McLaren SLR and is expected to be fitted with an AMG 6.2-litre V8 producing almost 700bhp." But who's listening when that monster motors' mauling the tarmac? Never mind all that when did TTAC start promoting gas guzzling hypercars while criticizing gas-guzzling hypercars stuff. When did Mercedes decide it was OK to crib the font end design from a 1979 TVR 3000 S? And how the Hell do you get out of a gullwing supercar in a supermarket parking lot? [Frank: very carefully.]
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POWERED
May 8th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Is it just me, or does that just look like a slightly reskinned Dodge Viper? All they changed was the headlights and taillights.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Maeloch,
My sentiments exactly, you beat me to it. When Daimler sold Chrysler, the must have kept a few Vipers as collateral.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:58 am
At least from the rear, I couldn’t discern that car from a Viper. Spooky.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Wow, that does look like a Viper…I hope they popped a Viper body over the chassis to sort out reliability and handling and that is not the final version.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Lol it handles like a Viper too. Look at the back end skittering back and forth on the second turn.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Previous reports had Merc using viper body panels as camo, so I don’t think you have to worry about it looking like this.
The more important question is this: having watched the end of the video, how do you get out of a gullwinged car after it gets loaded in a transport van?
May 8th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Sounds amazing, goes like stink and probably attached to an automatic unfortunately.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Not to get all flag-wavy or anything, but compare the song of the Benz to the ZR1 in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLBLWs4agkk
And, is it just me or does an automatic transmission sound just lame when pushing a car around the ‘ring?
May 8th, 2008 at 10:30 am
It might very well be a “bait the press” mule, as it SO looks like a viper.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:04 am
They have been using the “Viper Mule” for some time…
May 8th, 2008 at 11:41 am
You do mean “witty riposte,” right?
And that thing looks positively phallic. Granted, so did the SLR …
May 8th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Climbing out the window is always an option. Just remove your shoes first.
May 8th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Nothing looks more phallic than an SLR. After all, it has a five-foot schlong stamped into the hood with a Mercedes emblem at the tip…
This is clearly a mule. It needs a lot more crap tacked to the exterior to be a current AMG product.
Remember when AMG meant an understated monochromatic paint job?
May 8th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Hmmm, looks like a Viper… sounds like a Viper… handles like a Viper… looks like there’s something other than just the $6,Billion Daimler stole from Chrylser.
May 9th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
I wouldn’t be surprised if this car was built on the same chassis as the Viper, the proportions are entirely too similar for it to be JUST using Viper-like body panels. Besides, mules don’t get pushed as hard as this one unless it’s close to finished. So the overall aero may indeed be worked out, and it STILL looks like a Viper.
That’s Daimler for you, they take your best stuff, withhold their best from you, then dump you.
May 10th, 2008 at 12:28 am
If the “best” that Chrysler could do was a copy of a 1950’s chassis with a 1960’s motor, one cannot hold out much hope for them. The Viper is a nice Cobra replica, but it is still a replica: big pushrod engine in a Cobraesque body. Come to think of it, isn’t Lutz responsible for this one?
Here’s hoping that the new hot Benz is not proportioned like the mule, or the SLR as both are just plain ugly. Even if the ZR1 doesn’t have quite the “tooth” of a GT2, it is a beautifully proportioned car, and sounds way better than this MB mule, pushrods or no.