An all-new coil-over suspension lies under the carbon-fiber extravaganza. Wheels are 19-inch light alloys up front and 20-inchers in the rear, with high-performance Dunlop Sport Maxx GT rubber all around. Each corner wears a vented, perforated disc brake, with six-piston calipers forward and 4-piston to the rear. Stability modes include ESP On, ESP Sport, and, if you're feeling a flash of insanity, ESP Off.
European buyers get full carbon-fiber door trim, but air bag requirements in the U.S. mean we have to settle for sumptuous leather. The sport seats offer a deep embrace, and the flat-bottom steering wheel stays out of the way of your legs while looking racy. The standard navigation system is simply lousy. Driving through San Francisco, I often had to guess when "she" wanted me to turn. Her vocabulary is more limited than a kindergartner's, too.
Not that you'll care. Step on the throttle, and your own vocabulary will momentarily lapse into mere grunts and screams. So much torque floods the 325/30R20 rear Dunlops, the Black Series nearly stands on end. You'd never move an inch forward without traction control.
Running high-speed laps around Laguna Seca, I left the stability system in ESP Sport, which allowed the tail to wag just a little and kept the revs from bogging down, as happens with full ESP on. This is an explosive automobile, not a finesse machine. Lots of handling grip, with surprisingly little understeer, but it's no match for the nimbler, V-8 SL63 AMG.
The power is fantastic, real head-banging stuff. Imagine the egos you could crush on the autobahn with this two-seat sledgehammer. The five-speed auto proved a little clunky at times, though. Hit the rev limiter, and before you can upshift the transmission pauses. The engine almost seems to reboot. Rather than simply bouncing back to life as revs drop, it stops, takes a breath, then reawakens as you get your upshift. I'm talking blink-of-an-eye timing here, but on a racetrack even mere ticks are confounding. And, obviously, you can avoid the whole issue by simply staying clear of the redline.
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