The 2024 SEMA Present is now lower than three months away. As all the time, we’re wanting ahead to seeing what new builds will flip up on the Las Vegas Conference Heart.
At SEMA 2013, a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG instantly piqued our curiosity – and for good cause. The supercharged and wide-bodied Speedconcepts SLS wasn’t only a showfloor looker – it had loads of efficiency to again it up, having been constructed to compete in One Lap of America. For this week’s throwback submit, let’s revisit Mike Garrett and Larry Chen’s function from 2014…
2014 Function
I spend a whole lot of my day enthusiastic about automobiles. In all probability far more than is wholesome. In fact I could be forgiven as automobiles are my profession, nevertheless it nonetheless looks like I typically spend the complete day with vehicles driving by means of my thoughts. A whole lot of the occasions it’s enthusiastic about a function I’m attempting to put in writing or a narrative I’m attempting to chase. Different occasions it’s scheming about elements and plans for my very own challenge automobiles.
Maybe it’s as a result of I’m so busy enthusiastic about different issues, however I haven’t had a lot time currently to truly dream about automobiles. You already know, simply throw out all the true world limitations and fantasize concerning the automobiles we’d wish to personal and drive.
And as uncommon as these moments could be nowadays for me, it’s all the time nice enjoyable to simply lay again and take into consideration what we’d drive if cash was no object. Whenever you throw the monetary issue out the window, it’s pure that your thoughts will wander to supercars and exotics. They’re in any case, the final word type of automotive fantasy for many individuals.
So on this fantasy world, what sort of automobile would you wish to hop into? A Ferrari? A McLaren? Lamborghini? Perhaps one thing modest like a Porsche? It’s a enjoyable however troublesome alternative isn’t it?
Whereas it’s probably unattainable to slim issues right down to a single automobile, the one mannequin that I preserve coming again to is the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. It won’t be on the highest of most individuals’s unique automobile lists, however there’s one thing concerning the SLS that simply presses the appropriate buttons for me.
For one thing you’ll drive daily, the SLS simply appears so proper. It appears unique, however not too unique as to trigger spectator pile-ups in every single place you go. It’s received all the posh goodies you’d anticipate from a top-of-the-line-Mercedes, and all of the horsepower you can need.
However most of all, I believe there’s simply one thing that units the SLS other than different automobiles in its class. Whether or not it’s these iconic gullwing doorways or that traditional lengthy hood, brief deck physique design, it’s a simple automobile to dream about.
So sure, the SLS is a quick, distinctive and well-rounded automobile – one I’d be ecstatic to have in my very own storage. However what about on the subject of modifications? When a automobile is so spectacular from the manufacturing facility, bettering it with aftermarket elements can turn out to be fairly a problem.
That’s what brings me to the Speedconcepts SLS, which we had the pleasure of capturing on the 2013 Optima Final Avenue Automobile Shootout following the 2013 SEMA Present. Let this serve for example of methods to take a automobile that’s already rattling good and make it higher.
Speedconcepts is a full service race and fabrication store positioned in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that works with all matter of excessive efficiency automobiles, together with the Nissan GT-R. It was with a modified GT-R that Speedconcepts competed within the famed One Lap of America – an eight day endurance occasion that spans among the USA’s prime race tracks.
For the 2013 One Lap occasion, Speedconcepts’ Todd Treffert determined he would do one thing completely different and compete along with his 2012 SLS AMG. With the times to the occasion counting down, the inventory SLS was remodeled into the automobile you see right here in simply eight weeks.
Simply probably the most dramatic change on the automobile is the widebody equipment, which was designed and constructed completely by Ty from Speedconcepts through the span of these two brief months.
The equipment attracts a whole lot of inspiration from the SLS GT3 race automobiles, with the entrance fenders being an inch wider than inventory and the rear fenders being two inches wider. The one elements of the physique that weren’t altered have been these well-known gullwing doorways.
The end result may be very a lot one thing that appears like a barely toned-down race automobile, and it’s unbelievable to suppose that the entire equipment was constructed from the bottom up in solely two months.
However as you in all probability know, One Lap of America shouldn’t be a contest of which automobile appears one of the best, it’s about efficiency and the widebody conversion would solely be one a part of the automobile’s transformation.
Underneath the hood, the blokes handled the double overhead cam V8 to a supercharger equipment from Mercedes blower specialists Kleeman in Denmark.
Together with an identical Kleeman exhaust system, the Speedconcepts SLS is now placing down practically 800 horsepower, which is the right leap from the already spectacular inventory output.
Beneath the automobile, the crew put in a set of KW Clubsport three-way adjustable shocks together with a customized air suspension equipment that permits the automobile to be dropped by as much as two inches throughout monitor days.
Filling up the aggressive bodywork are a set of Forgeline GA1R wheels, 20×11-inch within the entrance and 20×12-inch within the rear with 305/30R20 and 335/35R20 Michelin tires respectively.
Because the automobile can be seeing loads of exhausting driving, the manufacturing facility seats have been eliminated in favor of Sparco fixed-back buckets with SCHROTH Racing harnesses and harness bar.
Amazingly, the race-ready Sparcos look very at dwelling within the matching purple inside and assist the cockpit preserve a terrific stability of each perform and luxury.
Whereas the automobile was accomplished simply in time for the 2013 One Lap occasion, there was sadly no time for monitor testing earlier than the large present started. Due to this, final yr’s occasion basically grew to become a shakedown for the automobile.
By the second to final day, the SLS was operating seventh total, however an off-course tour at Virginia Worldwide Raceway broken the entrance fascia, oil cooler and popped a tire. For Speedconcepts the occasion was over.
Subsequent got here the 2013 SEMA Present and the Final Avenue Automobile Problem that adopted.
Together with his monitor expertise within the automobile nonetheless restricted, Todd positioned the SLS in twelfth place of 60 complete rivals through the USCC.
It wasn’t a nasty end result by any means, however Todd says with extra monitor time a podium end must be inside simple attain.
So what’s subsequent for the automobile now? For now, the plan is to return to the One Lap of America in 2014 with the automobile absolutely dialed in and able to assault – with a podium end being the clear purpose.
After that, the automobile will stay a comparatively simple life in Florida the place it is going to function Todd’s every day driver and in addition because the occasional monitor day weapon.
Todd says the automobile itself is nice to go, with no future modifications deliberate. He simply needs extra monitor time so he can get snug extracting each little bit of potential from the SLS.
With race automobile appears, race automobile efficiency and all the identical fashion and sophistication that makes the SLS AMG such a particular machine, I’d say Speedconcepts has actually set the right instance of methods to modify a dream automobile.
Mike Garrett
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Images by Larry Chen
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