Globe Drive

When legend and romance are commingled with the latest in automotive technology, the result can be sensational, and that pretty much describes the latest addition to the short but spectacular roster of Mercedes-Benz models that have merited “ubercar” status in the past six decades.

In fact, the just-launched SLS AMG is one of only three modern, post-Second World War, supercars that could be called series production cars.

The 2011 SLS AMG may have a retro look that pays homage to the fabulous 300SL “Gullwing” of the fifties and drives onto the scene through the fading cloud of tire smoke left by that cars spiritual successor the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, but is, as they were, a ground breaker and ground shaker in its own right.

It's the first complete model created by M-B's AMG performance division, which for the past four decades has been basically turning staid M-B production machinery into the Germanic equivalent of the North American hot-rod – but with more emphasis on overall performance than flame-painted style, of course.

AMG was founded in the late 1960s by a pair of racing enthusiasts who in 1971 created a racer out of the big 300SEL sedan, which won its class and went on to finish second in the 24-hour race at Spa-Franchorchamps in Belgium. It marked the beginning of a series of competition successes that saw AMG become the pre-eminent tuner of M-B products. After a lengthy association, M-B officially made it part of the company in 1999 and it now sells 20,000 AMG-badged units in a good year.

That number will augmented by the much higher volume (no official estimates available) of SLS sales M-B anticipates compared to the Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR. The 617 hp, half-million-dollar SLR was introduced in 2003 and production ended last year with less than 2,000 built.

A fourth, but little known, modern-era M-B supercar was the $1.5-million CLK GTR of 1998, of which only 25 were built by specialty firm HWA in Germany to homologate the M-B GT1 racing car.

The comparatively more affordable SLS will arrive here next year and while Canadian pricing has yet to be announced, M-B is taking European orders for about €150,000, the equivalent of $238,000 Canadian.

The SLS coupe (a convertible and possibly an electric version will follow) may not be quite as exotic as the SLR - the body and structure are aluminum rather than a carbon-fibre – but it's a potent piece, powered by AMG's 6.3 litre V-8 engine, tuned to produced 563 hp and 479 lb-ft of torque, delivered to the wheels via a seven-speed dual clutch transmission.

With weight at a reasonable 1,620 kilograms, M-B says it accelerates to 100 kilometres per hour in 3.8 seconds and has a top speed electronically limited to 317 km/h. And when you climb in through those electrically operated gullwing doors, you'll find it's loaded with all the luxury accoutrements you'd expect of a top-line Mercedes.

Mercedes-Benz built some spectacular cars in the first half of the last century – the SSKs, SSKLs and 540Ks of the 20s and 30s were supercars in their day – but didn't get back into the high performance game until the early 1950s.

The first Mercedes to carry the SL designation was the 300SL or as it's better known the Gullwing, originally a racing coupe that was introduced early in 1952 and powered by a tilted-on-its-ear and tuned to produce 175 hp version of the company's 3.0 litre, single-cam six. This was bolted into a complex tubular spaceframe that didn't allow for conventional doors. The solution was to hinge them at the top and have them open upwards where, extended, the looked like gull wings – hence the name. It went on (also in SLR pure racing roadster versions driven by the likes of Fangio and Moss) to become a racing legend and in “civilian” form one of the most sought after sports cars of the 1950s, although only 1,400 were built.

It was replaced in 1958 by the classy 300SL Roadster, a more civilized car in many ways than the coupe, and not really any less potent, but a car that never attained the legendary status of its predecessor. It remained in production until 1963, but sales totalled less than 1,900.

It did set the tone for M-B models that went on to wear the SL badge and delivered high levels of refined (if not supercar) performance over the years though.

Cars such as the “Pagoda Roof” models of the 1960s, the V-8 powered generation that carried the SL badge from the early 70s until the end of the 80s, the increasingly powerful and high tech SLs of the 1990s (like the awesome 600SL). And the superlative SLs of the current generation, which bowed in 2003 and received a stunning new look and even more technological upgrades in 2009.

But despite many of these being capable of delivering prodigious performance, particularly AMG tuned versions, none can aspire to the rarified automotive stratosphere occupied by the 300SL, the SLR McLaren or the new SLS AMG.