One day in the ultimate roadster

One day in the ultimate roadsterOur drive in the soft-top Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Roadster.Steve Walkercontent editor, MSN Cars2012-09-04T13:40:14Read Mercedes-Benz car reviewsFirst drive: Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG RoadsterDriving isn't fun anymore. Not in the UK anyway. These opinions and others like them are festering within more and more motorists these days, like mouldy sweets in darkest recesses of your glovebox.They're not only a response to the doom-and-gloom car stories drip-fed by the media but also to our own everyday experiences behind the wheel. Endless, soul-sapping commutes and school runs down this country's overworked, clogged arteries, they'll do that to you every time.What better car to prove that driving can still fire your imagination?Surely it can't have come to this, can it? A century-long national love affair with the car ending in bitter divorce on the grounds of spiralling costs, draconian legislation and, the ultimate irony, too many cars on the roads? We all still drive but is the car becoming solely a means to an end?Oh for heaven's sake, cheer up! The sun's shining (somewhere on the far side of the ominous grey cloud cover) and there's a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Roadster in the car park. What better car to prove that driving can still fire your imagination and have your heart skipping beats like a drunken drummer?How green could your car get?  Roadster therapyPerhaps more than any other category of car, the true roadster doesn't make a lick of practical sense. Viewed objectively, it's just plain silly. Two snug seats, a boot that can barely swallow a half-filled holdall and a roof that retracts to place both cramped occupants at the mercy of the British elements. They're noisy and hard-riding too; yet, if you're just in it for the kicks, there is nothing better.The SLS AMG Roadster is a roadster in the classic sense. No namby-pamby folding hard-top roof here, it's got a lightweight soft-top that tumbles down behind the seats in only 11 seconds. The rear wheels do the driving but the engine is in the front, pushed as far back in the enormous engine bay as it will go to equalise the weight distribution.And what an engine! Versions of AMG's V8 power unfeasibly fast saloons, SUVs and sports cars from across the Mercedes-Benz range but none of them are as evocative as this. Thumb the starter button, it strobes red beneath your digit and the explosions in the cylinders rock through the car.The SLS Roadster's key in your pocket is enough to ratchet anticipation levels up to 11Flex the throttle and you get more sense of the barely leashed 571hp, 479lb ft potential from the exhaust's roars and gunshot crackles. Across the street, curtains are twitching. Concerned phone calls may follow to the zoo, reporting a wild animal on the loose.  Is it what you drive or where you drive it?The SLS Roadster's key in your pocket is enough to ratchet anticipation levels all the way up to 11 but where do you take a car like this for a good day out? It's a supercar but not in the traditional, skirts and spoilers, high-tech, flying-wedge sense. The SLS AMG is retro in look and, to a lesser extent, in feel too - despite all the cutting-edge materials and mechanicals below its paint.The fact is that we're spoiled in this country for good driving roads and you don't even have to point the sat-nav to the back of beyond in search of them. Welsh mountains, Scottish highlands and northern English hills get most of the name checks but go anywhere outside the major cities and there'll be a quiet B-road relatively close at hand where you can bag some quality time with your car. Maybe even fall in love with driving again.British B-roads in a Porsche Boxster  How much car is too much car?Ok, so roads where a car of the SLS Roadster's ability can stretch its muscle-bound legs are a little harder to come by but Mercedes hasn't built one of those super-intense supercars that's twitchier than a squirrel with a nut at low speeds. The car copes well with general pootling thanks to its light helm and forgiving suspension in comfort mode. Even the engine loads on its power quite gently at first, as long as you're suitably gentle with the throttle.it will pass 60mph in 3.8s and race on to a smidgeon under 200mphIf anything, it's the brakes that get you. The optional carbon ceramic discs on our model prompt the kind of sudden deceleration that will have you checking your mirrors to make sure a parachute hasn't deployed. You'd want something pretty dramatic in exchange for the £8,000 these babies cost on the options list but expect a somewhat jerky bedding-in period while you get used to the sensitivity and crushing power under the middle pedal.If you did give the SLS AMG its head, it would pass 60mph in 3.8s and race on to a smidgeon under 200mph. That kind of performance is too big for British roads but you can open the car up a little on the public highway, taste some of its drama, stay on the right side of the law and have fun.Could you live with a supercar?  The right roadsBy supercar standards, the SLS AMG Roadster isn't too much of a handful. Compare it with the majority of other roadsters though, most of which could be yours for a quarter of our £210,000 test car's asking price, and it does feel like a lot of car.The size isn't apparent when you're wandering around it, although 4.6 metres long and over two metres wide would qualify as big in most drivers' books. The real impression of bulk comes when you drop into the driver's seat and look out through the windscreen down a bonnet that resembles the deck of a luxury yacht in scale.As the sounds of the car and the wind fill your ears, there's nothing betterThe classic roadster layout of the SLS puts the driver right at the back with a lot of car out in front to keep pointed in the right direction. At first the light, quick steering doesn't seem to tally with the apparent gravity of the task in hand and on tight, choppy B-roads this can get unnerving. The AMG Speedshift twin-clutch gearbox is more languid than its name suggests and isn't at its best when blipping quickly up and down the ratios but when they come the shifts are silky.So the 570hp, two-metre wide, SLS AMG Roadster isn't at its best on country lanes - surprise, surprise. It was far better where the surface calms, the carriageway opens out and the sight lines lengthen. Then you can use more of the road, tipping the nose into corners and letting the exhausts warbling roar build as the car twitches its tail and pushes wide on the exit. As the sounds of the car and the wind fill your ears, there's nothing better.Pick your £500k dream garage  Can driving still be fun?If you were going to pick a car to reaffirm your love of driving in one day, the SLS AMG Roadster would be a great choice. There are cars, super and otherwise, which will be quicker point to point but the combination of this retro roadster's delicately judged design and one of the most charismatic engines in the business ensures that any time spent behind the wheel has an uncanny habit of staying with you.The soft-top SLS fills your head with the perfect memories to call up when the traffic lights turn red or the tailback stretches long into the cold morning fog. Driving in Britain today isn't always great but it definitely still can be. Read Mercedes-Benz car reviewsFirst drive: Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG RoadsterCould you live with a supercar?How green could your car get?British B-roads in a Porsche BoxsterPick your £500k dream garageseo_keywordsmercedes SLS AMG Roadster251168288http://cars.uk.msn.com//features/images.aspx?cp-documentid=251168288