Mercedes AMG has a brand new supercar known as the Mercedes SLS. With starting prices of approximately 180,000 dollars it is priced to compete directly with all the likes of Porsche, Ferrari and Aston Martin. Apart from all the usual overall performance comparisons there’s one thing that supercar has that the other ones do not – the gullwing Mercedes is back.

The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG coupe debuted this year at the Frankfurt Motor Show, scheduled to go on sale as early as next year. For those of you who have seen this beauty, the concept of a convertible version makes perfect sense.

Entertainment: well, there is a 6.2 litre engine located in the front providing a rumble to match anything to come out of Detroit. With over 550 horsepower the Mercedes SLS AMG is an entertaining drive even if the handling was a little poor. Fortunately that is definitely not the case. It is poised, agile and even though its feels pretty rigid on the road the combination of engine of handling provides a wonderful drive. The Mercedes SLS GT3 – which is basically the sport edition – offers even greater handling.

In term of practicality the super car is really a little bit of a mixed bag. Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 have clearly looked at how this car is going to be used and the Mercedes SLS is available with typical features to provide every day usability like sat-nav and a decent stereo. Nonetheless the gullwings, as iconic as they’re, really make it a pain to get inside and outside of the vehicle, even make the car very wide and also you really have to stretch to pull the doors down once you’re inside. The design also means headroom is quite tight too.

Then the gearbox is a double clutched affair which operates really well. There’s a slight delay whenever you flick the paddles yet in general it feels very sharp and responsive. The vehicle is quite clearly rear wheel drive. The seating placement is really back and harks back to honest, old school GT’s and also put together with the sharp steering you’ve total faith in where the front of the car is gonna go. This car can easily go round corners very, very quick – in the event you try hard enough you could actually keep up with a four-wheel drive Porsche 911 Turbo. It’s also really quick in a straight line – really impressive for a quite heavy, front engined Grand Tourer.

Looking at value for money – could any car at this cost be regarded as fair value? Possibly not but put alongside its peers it is competitively priced. Let’s look at it one other way – against the Mercedes McLaren SLR, the Mercedes SLS is faster, handles better and is much less expensive to the tune of nearly 200,000 dollars.