The Mercedes Benz SL has long been a standard-bearer for the Mercedes brand. Flashy, sexy, fast, safe, luxurious, and exclusive — it’s all of the brand values rolled into one, minus a back seat. Since the original 300 SL launched in 1954, and really since the R107 SL launched in 1971, the SL has represented all of Mercedes’ best thinking crammed into one, four-wheeled place. Of course, the SLS AMG kinda monkey-wrenches the notion that the SL sits atop the brand, but no marketing strategy is perfect. Anyhow, the new SL (internally named R231) looks to be more of the same, and that same is good. It also looks — to my eyes, at least — like the most technically advanced chassis ever fitted to a production car.

 

Let’s start with the body-in-white. Mercedes claims it is more than 20-percent stiffer than the chassis on the outgoing R230. Almost 90 percent of the chassis is made from aluminum — 89 percent, to be exact. Because of rollover requirements, the A-pillars, the top of the windshield, the pop-up roll hoops, and part of the roof are high-strength steel. And there’s a flap of magnesium covering the gas tank. Counting the magnesium, other metals make up 3 percent of the total structure. Using that much lightweight material on its own is impressive, though not exactly groundbreaking. What is new, and novel is the sheer amount of cast aluminum. 

You have to see the size of some of these cast aluminum pieces to believe ‘em. According to Mercedes, the firewall is largest piece of cast aluminum found on any production car. I believe it. More impressive to my admittedly non-engineering eyes are the two massive pieces that form the rear end. On the previous steel-chassis car, a similar structure required 18 components. On the new SL? Just three. Again, three. Obviously, the weight savings from such aluminum-intensive construction are big: When compared to the outgoing Mercedes Benz SL, we’re 242 pounds less for the chassis and 308 pounds overall once the aluminum body panels are bolted on. Of course, that’s for the SL with the V-6, a car we’re not going to get (yet) in North America. The SL with the twin-turbo 4.7-liter V-8 will weigh 275 pounds less than the car it replaces.