Mercedes SLS AMG: my review

[Arya]

For me the SLS was one of the cars I'd been most anticipating since I joined the game late last year. I've always been fond of Mercedes, particular their flagship coupes-the 300SL, SLR McLaren and SLS-AMG.

Now the car's actually here, I'm impressed but also slightly surprised by how it drives. AMG have a reputation for creating brutes; big heavy cars with all power and no handling. With the SLS however, for me the chassis was the thing that most grabbed my attention.

The SLS is not a light car, and it's massive 6.2 litre V8 is mounted at the front. Normally such a large front-mounted engine would effect balance, but the SLS feels surprisingly delicate for such a big car. The handling is... actually very sharp, with terrific brakes and very precise steering.

As for personality, the AMG feels a little dual-natured to me. Riding on Semislicks it feels a bit dour; it behaves like a no-nonsense track car with very neutral handing, brutally powerful brakes and boundless grip. But on streets, it's a whole different animal.

Riding on street tyres the SLS' chassis comes alive. It's a very willing, very talented drift car which almost anybody can look good in. I'm a very average drift driver, and even I was able to flick the big Merc through apexes like a seasoned veteran.

And this is where I'm going to leave it, with a recommendation: if you want to learn to drift, this may be the car to practice in, atleast at first. The SLS is forgiving, precise and extremely competant. Assuming you're reasonably quick to react, it's very easy to drift and the ideal vehicle to learn in.

[European Onion]

Thanks for the review, i love the car so much too ! i was just wondering if sound shouldn'T be more beast-sounding :D

[Arya]

It sounds pretty authentic to me. The only time I've seen an SLS driven in anger was at the Melbourne GP(F1 has an SLS safety car) and it didn't sound too different to AC's. I can't tell you how the in-car sound compares, but the external sounds are pretty good IMO.

The SLS I saw sounded techy rather than beastly. More like a McLaren 12C than a Mustang. That being said, I'm so glad they nailed the exhaust sounds. The real car made a gorgeous burble when braking, and that sound is replicated 100% in AC.

[yusupov]

i think the 'tone' is just what id imagine is right. the actual sound itself is very meh as all AC sounds (esp kunos' it seems!?) are. FMOD should fix that whenever they integrate that. i think thatll be a big boon to immersion within the game. i recently went ahead & bought a modded car out of curiousity, its actually quite good but the sound is terrible, kinda kills it, hope i can figure out how to mod it. on the other end sound just by itself pretty much makes raceroom worth at least checking out. insane what theyre doing.

[yusupov]

btw vin, saw a post on iracing by a guy who got to do laps at COTA with this car as part of some AMG sponsored event, gave it his seal of approval.

nevertheless imo, it has horrible understeer like the rest of kunos road cars. ;D

[A.K.]

True.