[gorun]

A good friend of mine got the new SL63 (525ps) and I took it for a 20 min drive yesterday. Impressions when compared to my DCT M3...

The Merc has incredible interior and exterior styling. Its actually quite striking in person, people would stop and stare at it, only those in the know came and checked out the M3. The interior is a big step up from previous MB attemps bar the S and CL. The engine note is brutal, its bassy and addictive. Its hilarious the way the car coughs and makes all sorts of weird noises even when no or little throttle is applied. The engine note doesnt have the mechanical refinement of that of the M3, you know that noise that tells you that everything is working in perfect harmony but it is still very loud. Best sounding Merc I've heard.

Engine wise I was surprised that the 63 unit is not what I expected it to be. It has good torque but still needs plenty revs to get going properly (very unlike the 55 supercharged powerplants). I now share the opinion of a friend of mine (exotic cars dealer) who insists that the 63s do not go as well as a 500+ horsepower car should. Dont get me wrong its plenty fast probably faster than the M3 but I didnt find it that spectacular. I took it through some twisties and then I swapped back in my M3. There is no contest here, the M3 wins hands down. Its more stable through the corners and gives you that extra 10% confidence to push hard. The Merc is softer even at its hardest setting. As far as straightline go is concerned we didnt manage to drag them as there was too much traffic on the roads but I suspect the MB will be faster but it doenst give you that sort of superfast feeling you get in a 997 turbo for example.

The gearbox in the Merc is actually quite good much better than I thought it would be. The MCT box is based on the 7G Auto but has a wet clutch and revs more freely athough nowhere nearly as freely as the M3. The box has three automatic and one manual setting. In the most aggressive auto setting it produces spectacular throttle blips when downshifting, something the DCT doesnt do in the auto modes (havent tried D5 extensively yet). In manual it shifts very fast with minimal power interuption and overall it is very smooth. When going from 1st to 2nd it lets you know there is no torque converter just like the DCT does. Good box but DCT is better. Merc have done something similar to the M drive function of the M3, M5, M6 in the form of an AMG button as a shortcut to all the sportiest settings,however, its not on the wheel but next to the gearstick. My friends car didnt have the optional performance pack and hence no LSD. It showed in the slower corners but not very badly as the cars electronics did a pretty reasonable impression of an LSD. Overall a very good sports GT in one fine packaging. 10 out of 10 for posing factor not so much for driving joy.