The Mercedes-AMG Black Series: A Unique and Confusing Car

I have had the opportunity to experience a car that I didn't really know what to expect from, but one that I think is quite confused about its personality in many ways. It's like a GT, but then visually it is one of the meanest and most aggressive cars of its era. The combination of the frankly ludicrous wheel arches, the openings on the bonnet, the rear wing that's currently up and looking super stealthy as well, in the gloss black paintwork, it's a car that I think many people wouldn't even know what it is - one of those cars that if you know you know, but otherwise it could just be a Mercedes-Benz SLS that happens to be wearing a wide body kit. And of course, there have been many replicas of the Black Series kit for other SLS models, but this is one of the 350 originals - one of the cars well, the third car that AMG made to wear that Black Series badge.

Now talking of this, we need to come over to the C63 and talk about what is quite so significant and unique about this one. I think it's a total one-off for sure. We also have been joined by the SLS Electric Drive which is spectacularly rare - they made single digits of these for customers and there might be more to come with this one soon too. Now, this C63 Black Series is one of the original 800 C63 Black Series - it's wearing the track package with the carbon spoiler and the flicks you have around the front, but it does not have the original engine. It still has a 6.2-liter naturally aspirated V8, but not the one you would typically expect to find.

Let's come through and have a quick little look in here where we have very much track spec with the bucket seats, we've got harnesses - no seats in the rear, those are replaced by the fixed cage that you have back there. Open up the engine bay, have a look at what lies beneath, which creates quite a bulge literally, a one-off. The work done by mechatronic to install the engine from the SLs AMG GT3 race car - the race car version of the SLs engine in the C63 Black Series is a little bit mental.

Let's um go take a listen as well to what it sounds like, which believe me, is spectacular. I do have a pocket full of Mercedes keys at the moment, think it is this one - hope so. Let's give it a go, try it out, so to pop that in over here, turn on the ignition, let's take a quick listen then to the startup sound of this... wow, listen to the way that barks into life, what a cool sound this makes! One and a half thousand rpm - I'm not actually sure whether this or my SLs would be louder, don't know the answer to that but that is, frankly, silly. The sound of this car is absolutely silly, what a cool thing that they've done there. Really, really very very cool indeed.

So let me step back out for a moment - I love that unique project, a special car to be kept in the mechatronic collection C63 Black Series with the engine of the SLs GT3 race car - stupidly cool this though, I mean it's been an interesting one for me. I did hope that it would be a little bit more of a dynamic drive, a little bit more like SLs for example or like the C63 - these are brilliant cars, I think to drive in terms of being road cars but very much with a track focus and excited driving experience out on the public road. This was more GT, more GT, I think it's very special having the V12, having the V12 by turbo clearly that's an era that we're not going to see too much more of in the future. The AMG engine at least, uh will be no more, I think.

Visually it would just be an epic thing to add to the collection - it is so nice in terms of how it looks and it signifies a period as well for Mercedes, a period of cars where they could do these crazy things, these crazy designs, and just throw out the rule book and do you know. A project like the SL65 Black Series so for today I would like to say a huge thanks to the team here at mechatronic for the opportunity to get behind the wheel of this, to drive it as well, giving chase to the CLK DTM, and to be around all of the other amazing cars that are just here at the moment. This is really, really very very awesome.

So thank you very much for watching guys - I'd love to hear your thoughts should one of these be the next Black Series model to arrive in the shmi mobile's garage, one for some food for thought to discuss in the future for now.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi guys i'm shmee hello and welcome back to the channel where behind me here is a pretty special display of amgs i'm visiting mechatronic here in germany who have kindly pulled some of the cars out from their collection including in particular the car that i'm going to be taking a look at today the sl 65 amg black series now i make no secret of my love for the black series models how much i'm enjoying my sls how much i would love to add the new gt black series to the garage in the future but this is one that particularly intrigues me i'm not going to lie i've never been behind the wheel of one today we're going to take a look around it take it out for a short drive to experience what it's like and whether this could potentially be the next black series model in the garage or perhaps it could be one of those a c63 black series although that's no ordinary c63 black series and we just happen to also have the clk dtm plus a 190e evo 2 as well this lineup is crazy here with mechatronic but let's take a look at the sl 65 black series when it comes to displays of cool amgs mechatronic have pulled out some pretty special cars here sandwiching my sls black series in the middle let's have a very quick look around starting with the 190 evo 2 the 1990 homologation version of the dtm car of which they made 502 then we've got one of the coolest mercedes-benz cars ever the clk dtm they did make a black series version of this but the dtm is even wider and even more aggressive they made 100 coupes and 75 roadsters then over here we've got the predecessor to the sls black series in terms of being the previous model to wear the black series badge except this car one of 800 is not so standard in fact it's got a different engine which we're going to talk more about later on but before that came this the third model that wore the black series badge the sl65 amg black series which today we're going to be taking a look at in detail this has always been one of the most badass cars when you look at it around the front look at how infinitely wide it is look at these gigantic arches look at the way it's all been completely redeveloped but still in some form retains the glamour of the mercedes-benz sl it's actually 250 kilos lighter than the regular sl65 they took out the foldable hardtop roof gave it a fixed roof two-seat track focused very much about performance in line with the other black series models that started with the slk 55 then with the clk 63 then the sl65 c63 sls and then obviously the latest the gt black series but this car has as you can see on the side av-12 by turbo it has a six liter twin turbocharged v12 engine making 670 horsepower and get this a thousand newton meters of torque the sls in standard form makes 631 horsepower yes you heard that right about 39 horsepower less and only 635 newton meters over 350 newton meters less than this does the thing about the car though is it has a five-speed auto gearbox the torque was limited the same torque actually as in the regular sl65 power was increased by 60 horsepower but to protect the gearbox from all of that power which is going through the rear wheels what i love about it though is that it's just a kind of shape nobody would make now sticking on these massive arches having those gaping openings for cooling and airflow inside to show you quickly in here we've got a very stripped out interior the european spec cars have the carbon fiber buckets the carbon trim in america they had to have the normal more comfort seats due to registration to get them legalized on the roads this car actually has very few kilometers on the clock at the moment so i feel rather special that we're going to be able to take it out for a very very short little drive but i've never experienced the sl 65 black series i've always thought that they look so awesome look you've got the carbon fiber around the back it was introduced back in 2008 they only made 350 of them in total so basically equal numbers to the sls making it a pretty rare machine they are now substantially more valuable than they were back at the time prices having well times by two or three since then due to the collectibility i've always thought these wheels are a really nice design as well and you have the active spoiler you can see it up at the moment but this sits back down and goes more flush with the bodywork one of the best designs of spoilers i think that's really uh existed let's come have a quick look at the engine though before we start the car up to take it out so down here if i can get this right we've got the latch there's actually quite a funny way to open this the way you do so is with the catch which is inside the three-pointed star i might struggle to do this with one hand lifting that up then we are greeted by the engine wearing the plaque the one man one engine amg philosophy the engine built in a falter back but a gigantic six liter twin turbo v12 obviously requiring a lot of extra cooling for the extra power that it made in fact you have additional coolers installed just behind the grilles in the front bumper but this looks epically cool you obviously have the carbon fiber that you can see at the exposed underside of the bonnet let me close this back down because i think we should go and start this up quickly to come around and have a listen to the way it barks into life obviously key that needs to be inserted actually the same key as the sls design basically slightly older but more or less the same thing this goes just to the right then turn on the ignition and then let's take a listen to the startup of the sl 65 black series oh yes it's not the loudest thing in the world it's not the craziest sound but it's such a cool noise v12 grumble but what's it gonna be like to drive well let's take it on out then and go and experience it we're being joined as well that sounds cool by the clk dtm so we're gonna take out the two cars together for a little drive clk dtm heading out first i am going to try and work this out then so in here we have the old school style automatic five-speed auto gearbox like in the slrs actually obviously replaced now by dual clutches very very track track because we do not have the best turning circle in the world so into reverse it's almost a mix because we have things like these seats which are brutally solid like brutally brutally uncomfortable also quite wide as well but then you've got an electric steering column there's a uh electric steering column for the car obviously being based on the sl being about comfort so here we go first few meters in this thing let's watch the incredibly low nose that we have and head out oh that sounds cool head out behind the clk dtm with its ridiculously wide rear arches that thing is super super rare obviously the dtm cars being or basically homologation required in order to race in the uh the german touring car championships so let's just get a little bit comfortable obviously with only 70 odd kilometers on the clock we do need to drive it like a new car tell you the seating positions are you actually sit quite high up which is a little bit strange i say that relative to the sls obviously which is so much more an amg in-house track project we've got the uh air condoms we can turn this on so we've got some cool air blowing there we go we're gonna feel further for driving it obviously like this we're not gonna be going flat out for a moment but it's a cool thing to be in that's for sure the clk is off i'm being slightly more ginger with it and i tell you it's actually really quite quiet inside here you've got a few things that you can change naturally down here you can press manual for the gearbox you've got esp which you can put into the sport mode which frees up the car a little bit because with this much power of this bunch of torque in normal mode everybody at the time being doing the the reviews and test drives was saying that well it's it's a lot to uh to control so actually i put it into comfort we want the gearbox there we go into manual one extra press there's actually surprisingly little noise from it i'm genuinely taken aback by that now obviously it's a beautiful sound but it's not like driving a ferrari v12 or something we downshift it obviously can't use too many rares can't go flat out the more i'm driving and i'm starting to get a little bit more accustomed to it but i do think that these seats are just brutal the seats are spectacularly uncomfortable they're reminding me of aventador sp and sbj seats that level of firmness no forgiven forgiving side to them at all and in fact not really that supportive just like sitting on a frame on a tub obviously the car is so much about lightweight that things like the armrest here it still has a lever but this doesn't open there's no storage bucket because they wanted to take as much weight out of it as possible it's still not a light car but it's significantly lighter 250 kilos because normally this would be a roof you could take off normally in an sl obviously the sl going way back actually to the 300 sl always actually sl stands for sport light which this is sport but less light obviously that's where the black series comes in yeah i mean it's a cool thing to be driving and the view in the mirrors if you have a look out at the arches they're just ridiculous they're just quite frankly mental and i think the wing is really nicely integrated i think the car looks awesome but to drive like this on the normal road it's it's not the most comfortable thing i'm also taking some getting oh that sounded cool through the tunnel i'm also getting a little bit used to the the pedal feel the brake i'd read about this in advance the brake is quite artificially light and you do feel like nothing really happens unless you're very very assertive with what you want out of it which is which is an odd driving experience feeling as well i mean it's a cool thing to drive but perhaps not quite what i thought it would be we're just exploring going through a narrow bit and i'm sure that this is plenty wide for this car but i'm still slightly concerned about it because it's a wide wide thing i also find it fascinating how this car which was four or five years before the sls and obviously there was another black series between them had so much more power it's it's a funny one that the figures from this car you know even the new gt black series it's 730 horsepower but only 800 newton meters it's only 60 horsepower more than this but 200 newton meters down on this what do you think about that this thing was really a case of making it a brute sticking in a massive amount of power into the normal gentlemanly grand touring car from the mercedes-benz lineup which doesn't necessarily make sense but it's a glorious thing to remember this engine with to still have the well to have used the six liter by turbo v12 in a world now where it's all twin turbo v8s but the v12s are just just something else anyway we're coming out of town which means a smaller opportunity to put the foot down and get more of a feel for it yes you feel the turbos obviously i'm being very very delicate in ginger whether it's on some bumpy roads here yes even there the traction light is coming on that's really quite funny i'm barely accelerating you can't hear much of it at all and we're on the traction light gotta be very very careful but just look at the clk dtm out ahead that's just really really cool he's off totally off there's not a lot of sound out of it but you do start to get a bit more induction noise when you accelerate just some small flutters i'm surprised that it's not louder even if i open the window a little bit more oh we've got some raindrops that's not ideal at all and the slightest today you hear a lot of the induction sound the whistles from up front that's much louder and then in here if i accelerate right now all you hear is a bit of wind noise no window switches out there i'm really really surprised by this you have to probably try and wake it up but obviously i'm also conscious that this is pretty special and it's done very low miles and they're kind of letting me drive it today which is really actually an incredible opportunity so a big thanks goes to mechatronic because like i say first time driving an sl 65 black series a car that i've always thought looked mega in fact these were built from 2008 to 2011 so it's the fifth generation of the sl which actually had a 10 year lifespan it was the second facelift so the third look for this generation and that they made with the back oh prototype car always interesting when those kind of things go past us so yes it was the the last iteration they built them for three years but they only made a very small number of them so these things were super rare and i remember seeing one oh but i thought the traffic light i remember seeing one back well in the early days before i'd even started my videos i remember seeing one on the roads and just being like that is one of the coolest things ever obviously this car is in black but they had this magnificent dark silver liquid kind of silver which was the launch color which just looked unreal for this thing suited it perfectly right first gear yeah that's that's basically a decently firm acceleration it's an interesting one because it feels like a grand tourer except for the seat which is just i don't like it i don't like the seat at all i really really don't it needs a soft cushion on top but then you also don't want to sit on a cushion because it will raise you up even higher which wouldn't work quite so well oh what small things hey that's about all we're gonna hear so i'm left with mixed feelings because i think the car looks incredible this thing has road presence like you wouldn't believe there's there's very little that has ever been this crazy i mean other than the evo ii that we saw earlier in the clk dtm this was really let's dial up the aesthetics of the car to a different category but in terms of drive it feels a bit like it's confused it feels like a normal sl a luxury grand tourer that's very powerful but not sporty in the way that the sls is or the c63 black series is it's a completely different type of thing and i'm i'm genuinely left this is one of those don't you know when they say don't meet your heroes and sometimes you meet your heroes like the f50 for me and it's the best car in the world i thought i would enjoy driving this more than i do i appreciate the opportunity to drive it but it's not it's not the sls and you guys know how much i love the sls the sls to drive is just a masterpiece but this is a bit more it's a bit more docile it's just a bit more normal driver maybe it needs to be properly amped up on a racetrack to really get the feel from it in fact even just a few more spirited turns there already feels a little bit more alive yeah the steering feel is actually very good the steering feel is very good i think if you did just maybe a case of stick a big exhaust on it and i might like it it sounds cliche making a video to say it needs a new exhaust but i think that could be the difference i don't know what it sounds like from outside but side is just very calm we're arriving back then to where the other cars are parked up oh look look what's there in the middle that is something really very very special which well we might be talking about in a moment but for the time being i guess we're going to get this parked up back at base and uh just have a few more thoughts while we're parked up have a quick listen to this you hear a lot more sound when you have the door and window open there we go some noise of the v12 that was a very quick bailout as soon as we had parked back up with the cars here at mechatronic the heavens opened and it has been pouring with rain fortunately the showers have passed and it feels like the sun is even trying to poke back through the clouds but this has been a fascinating car to drive and experience a car that i didn't really know what to expect from but one that i think is quite confused about its personality in many ways it's like a gt but then visually it is one of the meanest and most aggressive cars of its era the combination of the frankly ludicrous wheel arches the openings on the bonnet the rear wing that's currently up and looking super stealthy as well in the gloss black paintwork it's a car that i think many people wouldn't even know what it is one of those cars that if you know you know but otherwise it could just be a mercedes-benz sl that happens to be wearing a wide body kit and of course there have been many replicas of the black series kit for the other sl models but this is one of the 350 originals one of the cars well the third car that amg made to wear that black series badge now talking of this we need to come over to the c63 and talk about what is quite so significant and unique about this one i think it is a total one-off for sure we also as i mentioned have been joined as well by the sls electric drive which is spectacularly rare they made single digits of these for customers and there might be more to come with this one soon too now this c63 black series is one of the original 800 c63 black series it's wearing the track package with the carbon spoiler and the flicks the canals you have around the front but it does not have the original engine it does still have a 6.2 liter naturally aspirated v8 but not the one you would typically expect to find let's come through and have a quick little look in here where we have very much track spec with the bucket seats we've got harnesses no seats in the rear those are replaced by the fixed cage that you have back there but open up the engine bay have a look at what lies beneath which creates quite a bulge literally a one-off the work done by mechatronic to install the engine from the sls amg gt3 race car the race car version of the sls engine in the c63 black series that's a little bit mental it creates more of a bulge up to the engine but let's um go take a listen as well to what it sounds like which believe me is spectacular so inside here i do have a pocket full of mercedes keys at the moment i think it is this one hope so let's give it a go try it out so to pop that in over here turn on the ignition let's take a uh a quick listen then to the startup sound of this wow listen to the way that barks into life what a cool sound this makes one and a half thousand rpm i'm not actually sure whether this or my sls would be louder i don't know the answer to that but that is that is frankly silly the sound of this car is absolutely silly what a cool thing that they've done there really really very very cool indeed so let me step back out for a moment i love that unique project a special car to be kept in the mechatronic collection c63 black series with the engine of the sls gt3 race car stupidly cool this though i mean it's been an interesting one for me i did hope that it would be a little bit more of a dynamic drive a little bit more like sls for example or like the c63 these are brilliant cars i think to drive in terms of being road cars but very much with a track focus and excited driving experience out on the public road this was more gt more gt i think it's very special having the v12 having the v12 by turbo clearly that's an era that we're not going to see too much more of in the future the amg engine at least uh will be no more i think visually it would just be an epic thing to add to the collection it is so so nice in terms of how it looks and it signifies a period as well for mercedes a period of cars where they could do these crazy things these crazy designs and just throw out the rule book and do you know a project like the sl65 black series so for today i would like to say a huge thanks to the team here at mechatronic for the opportunity to get behind the wheel of this to drive it as well giving chase to the clk dtm and to be around all of the other amazing cars that are just here at the moment this is really really very very awesome so thank you very much for watching guys i'd love to hear your thoughts should one of these be the next black series model to arrive in the shmi mobile's garage one for some food for thought to discuss in the future for now though thank you very much for watching and i'll see you again very soon cheers youhi guys i'm shmee hello and welcome back to the channel where behind me here is a pretty special display of amgs i'm visiting mechatronic here in germany who have kindly pulled some of the cars out from their collection including in particular the car that i'm going to be taking a look at today the sl 65 amg black series now i make no secret of my love for the black series models how much i'm enjoying my sls how much i would love to add the new gt black series to the garage in the future but this is one that particularly intrigues me i'm not going to lie i've never been behind the wheel of one today we're going to take a look around it take it out for a short drive to experience what it's like and whether this could potentially be the next black series model in the garage or perhaps it could be one of those a c63 black series although that's no ordinary c63 black series and we just happen to also have the clk dtm plus a 190e evo 2 as well this lineup is crazy here with mechatronic but let's take a look at the sl 65 black series when it comes to displays of cool amgs mechatronic have pulled out some pretty special cars here sandwiching my sls black series in the middle let's have a very quick look around starting with the 190 evo 2 the 1990 homologation version of the dtm car of which they made 502 then we've got one of the coolest mercedes-benz cars ever the clk dtm they did make a black series version of this but the dtm is even wider and even more aggressive they made 100 coupes and 75 roadsters then over here we've got the predecessor to the sls black series in terms of being the previous model to wear the black series badge except this car one of 800 is not so standard in fact it's got a different engine which we're going to talk more about later on but before that came this the third model that wore the black series badge the sl65 amg black series which today we're going to be taking a look at in detail this has always been one of the most badass cars when you look at it around the front look at how infinitely wide it is look at these gigantic arches look at the way it's all been completely redeveloped but still in some form retains the glamour of the mercedes-benz sl it's actually 250 kilos lighter than the regular sl65 they took out the foldable hardtop roof gave it a fixed roof two-seat track focused very much about performance in line with the other black series models that started with the slk 55 then with the clk 63 then the sl65 c63 sls and then obviously the latest the gt black series but this car has as you can see on the side av-12 by turbo it has a six liter twin turbocharged v12 engine making 670 horsepower and get this a thousand newton meters of torque the sls in standard form makes 631 horsepower yes you heard that right about 39 horsepower less and only 635 newton meters over 350 newton meters less than this does the thing about the car though is it has a five-speed auto gearbox the torque was limited the same torque actually as in the regular sl65 power was increased by 60 horsepower but to protect the gearbox from all of that power which is going through the rear wheels what i love about it though is that it's just a kind of shape nobody would make now sticking on these massive arches having those gaping openings for cooling and airflow inside to show you quickly in here we've got a very stripped out interior the european spec cars have the carbon fiber buckets the carbon trim in america they had to have the normal more comfort seats due to registration to get them legalized on the roads this car actually has very few kilometers on the clock at the moment so i feel rather special that we're going to be able to take it out for a very very short little drive but i've never experienced the sl 65 black series i've always thought that they look so awesome look you've got the carbon fiber around the back it was introduced back in 2008 they only made 350 of them in total so basically equal numbers to the sls making it a pretty rare machine they are now substantially more valuable than they were back at the time prices having well times by two or three since then due to the collectibility i've always thought these wheels are a really nice design as well and you have the active spoiler you can see it up at the moment but this sits back down and goes more flush with the bodywork one of the best designs of spoilers i think that's really uh existed let's come have a quick look at the engine though before we start the car up to take it out so down here if i can get this right we've got the latch there's actually quite a funny way to open this the way you do so is with the catch which is inside the three-pointed star i might struggle to do this with one hand lifting that up then we are greeted by the engine wearing the plaque the one man one engine amg philosophy the engine built in a falter back but a gigantic six liter twin turbo v12 obviously requiring a lot of extra cooling for the extra power that it made in fact you have additional coolers installed just behind the grilles in the front bumper but this looks epically cool you obviously have the carbon fiber that you can see at the exposed underside of the bonnet let me close this back down because i think we should go and start this up quickly to come around and have a listen to the way it barks into life obviously key that needs to be inserted actually the same key as the sls design basically slightly older but more or less the same thing this goes just to the right then turn on the ignition and then let's take a listen to the startup of the sl 65 black series oh yes it's not the loudest thing in the world it's not the craziest sound but it's such a cool noise v12 grumble but what's it gonna be like to drive well let's take it on out then and go and experience it we're being joined as well that sounds cool by the clk dtm so we're gonna take out the two cars together for a little drive clk dtm heading out first i am going to try and work this out then so in here we have the old school style automatic five-speed auto gearbox like in the slrs actually obviously replaced now by dual clutches very very track track because we do not have the best turning circle in the world so into reverse it's almost a mix because we have things like these seats which are brutally solid like brutally brutally uncomfortable also quite wide as well but then you've got an electric steering column there's a uh electric steering column for the car obviously being based on the sl being about comfort so here we go first few meters in this thing let's watch the incredibly low nose that we have and head out oh that sounds cool head out behind the clk dtm with its ridiculously wide rear arches that thing is super super rare obviously the dtm cars being or basically homologation required in order to race in the uh the german touring car championships so let's just get a little bit comfortable obviously with only 70 odd kilometers on the clock we do need to drive it like a new car tell you the seating positions are you actually sit quite high up which is a little bit strange i say that relative to the sls obviously which is so much more an amg in-house track project we've got the uh air condoms we can turn this on so we've got some cool air blowing there we go we're gonna feel further for driving it obviously like this we're not gonna be going flat out for a moment but it's a cool thing to be in that's for sure the clk is off i'm being slightly more ginger with it and i tell you it's actually really quite quiet inside here you've got a few things that you can change naturally down here you can press manual for the gearbox you've got esp which you can put into the sport mode which frees up the car a little bit because with this much power of this bunch of torque in normal mode everybody at the time being doing the the reviews and test drives was saying that well it's it's a lot to uh to control so actually i put it into comfort we want the gearbox there we go into manual one extra press there's actually surprisingly little noise from it i'm genuinely taken aback by that now obviously it's a beautiful sound but it's not like driving a ferrari v12 or something we downshift it obviously can't use too many rares can't go flat out the more i'm driving and i'm starting to get a little bit more accustomed to it but i do think that these seats are just brutal the seats are spectacularly uncomfortable they're reminding me of aventador sp and sbj seats that level of firmness no forgiven forgiving side to them at all and in fact not really that supportive just like sitting on a frame on a tub obviously the car is so much about lightweight that things like the armrest here it still has a lever but this doesn't open there's no storage bucket because they wanted to take as much weight out of it as possible it's still not a light car but it's significantly lighter 250 kilos because normally this would be a roof you could take off normally in an sl obviously the sl going way back actually to the 300 sl always actually sl stands for sport light which this is sport but less light obviously that's where the black series comes in yeah i mean it's a cool thing to be driving and the view in the mirrors if you have a look out at the arches they're just ridiculous they're just quite frankly mental and i think the wing is really nicely integrated i think the car looks awesome but to drive like this on the normal road it's it's not the most comfortable thing i'm also taking some getting oh that sounded cool through the tunnel i'm also getting a little bit used to the the pedal feel the brake i'd read about this in advance the brake is quite artificially light and you do feel like nothing really happens unless you're very very assertive with what you want out of it which is which is an odd driving experience feeling as well i mean it's a cool thing to drive but perhaps not quite what i thought it would be we're just exploring going through a narrow bit and i'm sure that this is plenty wide for this car but i'm still slightly concerned about it because it's a wide wide thing i also find it fascinating how this car which was four or five years before the sls and obviously there was another black series between them had so much more power it's it's a funny one that the figures from this car you know even the new gt black series it's 730 horsepower but only 800 newton meters it's only 60 horsepower more than this but 200 newton meters down on this what do you think about that this thing was really a case of making it a brute sticking in a massive amount of power into the normal gentlemanly grand touring car from the mercedes-benz lineup which doesn't necessarily make sense but it's a glorious thing to remember this engine with to still have the well to have used the six liter by turbo v12 in a world now where it's all twin turbo v8s but the v12s are just just something else anyway we're coming out of town which means a smaller opportunity to put the foot down and get more of a feel for it yes you feel the turbos obviously i'm being very very delicate in ginger whether it's on some bumpy roads here yes even there the traction light is coming on that's really quite funny i'm barely accelerating you can't hear much of it at all and we're on the traction light gotta be very very careful but just look at the clk dtm out ahead that's just really really cool he's off totally off there's not a lot of sound out of it but you do start to get a bit more induction noise when you accelerate just some small flutters i'm surprised that it's not louder even if i open the window a little bit more oh we've got some raindrops that's not ideal at all and the slightest today you hear a lot of the induction sound the whistles from up front that's much louder and then in here if i accelerate right now all you hear is a bit of wind noise no window switches out there i'm really really surprised by this you have to probably try and wake it up but obviously i'm also conscious that this is pretty special and it's done very low miles and they're kind of letting me drive it today which is really actually an incredible opportunity so a big thanks goes to mechatronic because like i say first time driving an sl 65 black series a car that i've always thought looked mega in fact these were built from 2008 to 2011 so it's the fifth generation of the sl which actually had a 10 year lifespan it was the second facelift so the third look for this generation and that they made with the back oh prototype car always interesting when those kind of things go past us so yes it was the the last iteration they built them for three years but they only made a very small number of them so these things were super rare and i remember seeing one oh but i thought the traffic light i remember seeing one back well in the early days before i'd even started my videos i remember seeing one on the roads and just being like that is one of the coolest things ever obviously this car is in black but they had this magnificent dark silver liquid kind of silver which was the launch color which just looked unreal for this thing suited it perfectly right first gear yeah that's that's basically a decently firm acceleration it's an interesting one because it feels like a grand tourer except for the seat which is just i don't like it i don't like the seat at all i really really don't it needs a soft cushion on top but then you also don't want to sit on a cushion because it will raise you up even higher which wouldn't work quite so well oh what small things hey that's about all we're gonna hear so i'm left with mixed feelings because i think the car looks incredible this thing has road presence like you wouldn't believe there's there's very little that has ever been this crazy i mean other than the evo ii that we saw earlier in the clk dtm this was really let's dial up the aesthetics of the car to a different category but in terms of drive it feels a bit like it's confused it feels like a normal sl a luxury grand tourer that's very powerful but not sporty in the way that the sls is or the c63 black series is it's a completely different type of thing and i'm i'm genuinely left this is one of those don't you know when they say don't meet your heroes and sometimes you meet your heroes like the f50 for me and it's the best car in the world i thought i would enjoy driving this more than i do i appreciate the opportunity to drive it but it's not it's not the sls and you guys know how much i love the sls the sls to drive is just a masterpiece but this is a bit more it's a bit more docile it's just a bit more normal driver maybe it needs to be properly amped up on a racetrack to really get the feel from it in fact even just a few more spirited turns there already feels a little bit more alive yeah the steering feel is actually very good the steering feel is very good i think if you did just maybe a case of stick a big exhaust on it and i might like it it sounds cliche making a video to say it needs a new exhaust but i think that could be the difference i don't know what it sounds like from outside but side is just very calm we're arriving back then to where the other cars are parked up oh look look what's there in the middle that is something really very very special which well we might be talking about in a moment but for the time being i guess we're going to get this parked up back at base and uh just have a few more thoughts while we're parked up have a quick listen to this you hear a lot more sound when you have the door and window open there we go some noise of the v12 that was a very quick bailout as soon as we had parked back up with the cars here at mechatronic the heavens opened and it has been pouring with rain fortunately the showers have passed and it feels like the sun is even trying to poke back through the clouds but this has been a fascinating car to drive and experience a car that i didn't really know what to expect from but one that i think is quite confused about its personality in many ways it's like a gt but then visually it is one of the meanest and most aggressive cars of its era the combination of the frankly ludicrous wheel arches the openings on the bonnet the rear wing that's currently up and looking super stealthy as well in the gloss black paintwork it's a car that i think many people wouldn't even know what it is one of those cars that if you know you know but otherwise it could just be a mercedes-benz sl that happens to be wearing a wide body kit and of course there have been many replicas of the black series kit for the other sl models but this is one of the 350 originals one of the cars well the third car that amg made to wear that black series badge now talking of this we need to come over to the c63 and talk about what is quite so significant and unique about this one i think it is a total one-off for sure we also as i mentioned have been joined as well by the sls electric drive which is spectacularly rare they made single digits of these for customers and there might be more to come with this one soon too now this c63 black series is one of the original 800 c63 black series it's wearing the track package with the carbon spoiler and the flicks the canals you have around the front but it does not have the original engine it does still have a 6.2 liter naturally aspirated v8 but not the one you would typically expect to find let's come through and have a quick little look in here where we have very much track spec with the bucket seats we've got harnesses no seats in the rear those are replaced by the fixed cage that you have back there but open up the engine bay have a look at what lies beneath which creates quite a bulge literally a one-off the work done by mechatronic to install the engine from the sls amg gt3 race car the race car version of the sls engine in the c63 black series that's a little bit mental it creates more of a bulge up to the engine but let's um go take a listen as well to what it sounds like which believe me is spectacular so inside here i do have a pocket full of mercedes keys at the moment i think it is this one hope so let's give it a go try it out so to pop that in over here turn on the ignition let's take a uh a quick listen then to the startup sound of this wow listen to the way that barks into life what a cool sound this makes one and a half thousand rpm i'm not actually sure whether this or my sls would be louder i don't know the answer to that but that is that is frankly silly the sound of this car is absolutely silly what a cool thing that they've done there really really very very cool indeed so let me step back out for a moment i love that unique project a special car to be kept in the mechatronic collection c63 black series with the engine of the sls gt3 race car stupidly cool this though i mean it's been an interesting one for me i did hope that it would be a little bit more of a dynamic drive a little bit more like sls for example or like the c63 these are brilliant cars i think to drive in terms of being road cars but very much with a track focus and excited driving experience out on the public road this was more gt more gt i think it's very special having the v12 having the v12 by turbo clearly that's an era that we're not going to see too much more of in the future the amg engine at least uh will be no more i think visually it would just be an epic thing to add to the collection it is so so nice in terms of how it looks and it signifies a period as well for mercedes a period of cars where they could do these crazy things these crazy designs and just throw out the rule book and do you know a project like the sl65 black series so for today i would like to say a huge thanks to the team here at mechatronic for the opportunity to get behind the wheel of this to drive it as well giving chase to the clk dtm and to be around all of the other amazing cars that are just here at the moment this is really really very very awesome so thank you very much for watching guys i'd love to hear your thoughts should one of these be the next black series model to arrive in the shmi mobile's garage one for some food for thought to discuss in the future for now though thank you very much for watching and i'll see you again very soon cheers you\n"