![]() ![]() The six-speed doesn't have that transmission's balky feel or awkward shift knob, though it still falls short of the snick-snick short throws that make the Mazda Miata or Honda S2000 feel spec-ial. ![]() Accompanying that better feel is better noise control: The SLK, for the first time, sounds more like a sports car than a cruiser, with a brrrappp to the exhaust note best experienced with the still-wonderful power foldable steel roof in the droptop position.Ī new six-speed gear-box, standard in all North American SLKs, is light-years better than the disappointing five-speed manual used last year. Launch it with full-throttle from a standing stop and you'll feel a more natural progression of power. The new engine sharpens the SLK's reflexes. While the 1998-2000 SLK felt much like a big Mercedes sedan cut down to size, the '01 SLK feels tight and tossable. Mercedes claims a 0-to-60-mph time of 6.6 seconds for the new V6 SLK, compared to 6.9 for the '01 SLK230 and 7.2 seconds for the '00 SLK230.īut the qualities added with the V6 are less quantifiable than performance measurements. Mercedes switched fuel injection from Motronic to Siemens, switched to a clutchless supercharger and changed the intake plumbing for the extra power. That's compared with the 2001 SLK230, with its tweaked version of the 2.3-liter supercharged four for an extra 5 hp (for 190 hp) over the '00 SLK230. On paper, dropping the 18-valve, 215-hp 3.2-liter V6 into the SLK's engine bay slices only 0.3 second off the car's 0-to-60-mph times, according to M-B's own numbers. That "sometimes" for Mercedes is the 2001 model year, which begins this April, when the new SLK320 hits showrooms in North America. Sometimes, that kind of extra power and torque can transform a small, lightweight roadster into a true sports car. Sometimes, 25 more horsepower and another 29 lb-ft of torque is more than just 25 more horsepower and another 29 lb-ft of torque. ![]()
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