Oh I hate this, here are five cars, the ownership of any of which would be enough to get your pencil drumming impatiently on the table during meetings until you could go back outside and drive again. Each is powerful, sexy, luxurious and immensely desirable, but I have to construct an argument for sending four of them home. So before I do let me just acknowledge that the presence of any of these five on your drive would immeasurably improve you life unless- and this is unlikely – you already have something better. We have grouped them together loosely as big coupes; these are 2+2s, one is two seat tin top and this Mercedes Benz SL63 is a two seat folding hardtop. It is twice the price of Nissan GT-R, but the other three are more tightly packed on price, and when you drive all five together they feel like natural rivals, each telling you something about the others. Its hard to foresee any circumstances under which you’d drive your SL63 on a track, but the way the big merc performed at Anglesey was illuminating, if not strictly relevant. You expect this two tonne boulevardier to disintegrate, but the very opposite happens. With its active body control and AMG suspension package it turns in cleanly, corners flat and blots off in pursuit of M3s and Evos.
Its quickly apparent that AMG has managed to endow the SL, jackhammer 518bph atom V8, and the seven speed wet clutch automatic box lets you modulate the power as precisely as you’d hope for on a streaming wet track with fine views of the sea. In the dry, the tyres are fuse. The trick suspension keeps everything level and composed but down below they are working hard, and it’s a surprise when they finally start to let go. More natural, progressive roll would keep you better informed. You see what I mean? On what grounds do I eliminate the SL63? All I can say is that this car is merely surprisingly good, whereas one of its rivals is shockingly JAGUAR XKR-S.
