The gullwing, a born-again classic

When Mercedes-Benz unveiled the 300 SL gullwing coupe in 1954, it instantly became the Brigitte Bardot of automotive icons—so hot you couldn’t take your eyes off it, yet built for speed. In America it was called the gullwing, in France it was papillon (butterfly) and in Germany, Flügeltürer (wing door). More than half a century later Mercedes unleashes its ultramodern reincarnation: the SLS AMG. We got our hands on this beast before any other journalists. The scene: the Nordschleife (northern loop) at the Nürburgring, a racetrack as world famous and replete with history as the car itself. “I felt the racing genes immediately,” says our test-driver, Michael Goering of PLAYBOY Germany. The lightweight 6.3-liter eight cylinder pumps out 563 horsepower (compared with the original gullwing’s 215). Everything is perfectly balanced engine in front and transaxle in back (a 47/53 percent weight split). “I hit a maximum of more than 300 kilometers an hour on the Döttinger Höhe,” says Goering (that’s upward of 186 mph). With its 3.6-second zero-to-60 mph sprint, you feel as if you’re taking off from an aircraft carrier in an F-14. The most surprising fact: The SLS is comfortable. The interior is all leather, aluminum and carbon fiber, and many details are shaped like parts of a jet. The downside? MB will make only a handful, with a tag of about $200,000. Info at mbusa.com.