I Had a Cool Race Yesterday...

I was on the way home from work yesterday afternoon in my SL minding my own business when a sport bike shows up in the rear view. I didn't think anything of him until he started acting frisky. There is this one stretch of a bypass that I take on the way home that is the perfect spot to run up to about 150mph or so. It's a straight stretch and there are guard rails on either side with no entrances or exits. I put my right blinker on to enter said bypass, and my heart rate increased as he tucked in behind me with his blinker. Oh shit, here we go. There is a long sweeping right hand loop that empties you onto the bypass and then you are ready to hit it. I took this time to get the trans and suspension into the correct modes, and to turn traction control off.

 

As we emptied out onto the straight, I noticed that there was no traffic ahead, and it was time to put up or shut up. I slowed down to about 40mph, and rolled my windows down. I was in the right lane and he pulled up beside me in the left. I gave him the universal "let's run em" hand motion and his nod was followed up by a triple downshift. His bike was way up in the revs and I knew he was ready when I was. I blipped my down shift paddle twice and nailed the throttle. The 305's left a nice haze down the bypass up to about 80mph. It was a great feeling as the ass end of my 4500lb barge was floating around searching for traction while a 12000 rpm sport bike was screaming right next to me with the windows down on a 40 degree afternoon.

 

I jumped him out of the hole and immediately took a one car lead. From 40-80mph, he stopped my pull and started inching back on me. At 100mph or so, we were dead even, and by 150mph, I was a couple of cars ahead. We pulled off at the next exit and I found out that it was a newer gsxr600. Far from the liter bikes I have crushed back in the day, but still a worthy opponent in my book. As we went our separate ways, I couldn't help but think that he must be wondering what the hell just happened. I'm sure for must of you guys, an SL65 is as common as a taxi, but in Savannah, I'm pretty sure I have the only one, and most folks have no idea what it is.

 

I rolled the windows up and smiled the rest of the way home. I know some people just don't get the appeal of this. Thank God we have each other!

 

 

Cool race, makes me miss my Renntech SL65 and how it easily pulled 600 bikes up top (over 120mph).

I have some more goodies coming for it this Christmas. I love this car...

 

I have some more goodies coming for it this Christmas. I love this car...

 

NICE STORY AND i've fallen in love with merc SL since it first came out

daddy had the chance to buy one, but instead chose lexus lx570, which makes us all happy!

What a rush!

I know some people just don't get the appeal of this. Thank God we have each other!

 

 

Nice kill.

thats the best looking SL model..prefer it over the latest one...

Great story. SL65's are monsters from a roll. I love surprising bikes.

 

 

Good Looking ride Gary !

 

 

Really like the wheels

love it

Nothing better than a luxury dd putting a hurtin on a bike. He must've been somewhat knowledgable about your car to know to even attempt to race you. Glad you put him in his place:)!

Nice, kill! Biker was probably thinking, "I'm going to smoke this dude in the Benz. " LOL.

You dont have to sing the praises of an SL to me.. TT V12 FTW!!!

I have some more goodies coming for it this Christmas. I love this car...

 

Have always liked the SL since they came out in 2003, and even moreso when they launched the 65 series cars.

 

Since you have modded yours, have you had issues with anything?

 

How is the maintenance in general on the car? Overly expensive?

Cool, there is a little old lady around here that drives a blueish silver SL65. I see her all over the place, never have seen her go over 40mph.

NICE STORY AND i've fallen in love with merc SL since it first came out

daddy had the chance to buy one, but instead chose lexus lx570, which makes us all happy!

 

I don't get it, SL vs Lexus LX... such a weird comparison and I don´t know why that makes you happy.

Thanks guys for the comments!

 

Mike,

The car has a little history. The original owner was Roger Penske. He had it to 6k miles. The second owner was a guy in his 60s that sent it to Renntech and purchased every upgrade they offer. I bought it from him with 11k miles on it and it has been flawless. It's a CPO car with 2 years of MB coverage left (a must on v12tts). The toe links kit keeps the car nice and straight, and the rear exhaust gives the car a really nice snarl that no one expects when they get in the car. The second owner said he took it to his local 1/4 mile to see if it was really making the power he paid for. He said that on the 305-25-20s, the car ran an 11.5x @ 127.x mph. He didn't have the time slip, but I can't imaging why he would lie about it. He said that he had to baby the car off the line so much that he knew the car would go 10's with tires. That seems pretty accurate based on everything I have seen.

 

If I had to complain about anything, it would be the lack of traction, and the POS traction control they put on these cars. Anything under 80mph and you will just haze the tires causing the traction control to kill all power for about a second. I found that if you turn TC off and just let the tires spin a little, it really pulls like a bat out of hell. It does get a little hairy when you get a 4500lb car loose at speed.

 

At this stage in my life, this is a great DD for me. We are planning to have our first child in a couple of years, so I'll have to rethink things a little, but for now it's great to be able to smoke 600s and do this...

Great looking SL !!

Love the Renntech wheels Gary!

My Renntech Sl65 never had any issues, and I had stage 3 as well. Biggest complaint was how it started to feel very floaty after 140-150mph.

 

 

Congrats on a beautiful car! Looks very clean.

 

 

 

very fun stuff.. we have a place 1 mile from home where we can roll on to about 150..

 

cars v cars.... cars v bikes.

 

it funny that we both like hayabusas AND amg mb.

 

the supercharged SL55 motor is almost as fast as a the S65 motor and in some ways, more fun. the 55 is instant but once the 65 is rolling, it is a motor from God..

 

your car looks great! we have a silver and a black.

Been said at least 3 times but it's true. Nice rims!!

good story

good story

 

If you didn't have 200+ posts, I would peg you as a spam bot. What is the deal with all the 3 word posts?