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 purpose. 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 Characteristic
I spend lots of my day fascinated about vehicles. Most likely far more than is wholesome. After all I might be forgiven as vehicles are my profession, however it nonetheless looks like I usually spend the whole day with cars driving by my thoughts. Loads of the instances it’s fascinated about a function I’m attempting to put in writing or a narrative I’m attempting to chase. Different instances it’s scheming about elements and plans for my very own challenge vehicles.
Maybe it’s as a result of I’m so busy fascinated about different issues, however I haven’t had a lot time currently to really dream about vehicles. You recognize, simply throw out all the actual world limitations and fantasize in regards to the vehicles we’d wish to personal and drive.
And as uncommon as these moments is perhaps today for me, it’s all the time nice enjoyable to simply lay again and take into consideration what we might drive if cash was no object. Once you throw the monetary issue out the window, it’s pure that your thoughts will wander to supercars and exotics. They’re in spite of everything, 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 tough alternative isn’t it?
Whereas it’s seemingly inconceivable to slender issues right down to a single automobile, the one mannequin that I hold 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 in regards to the SLS that simply presses the proper buttons for me.
For one thing you’ll drive daily, the SLS simply appears so proper. It appears to be like unique, however not too unique as to trigger spectator pile-ups all over the place you go. It’s bought all the luxurious goodies you’d count on from a top-of-the-line-Mercedes, and all of the horsepower you would need.
However most of all, I feel there’s simply one thing that units the SLS aside from different vehicles 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 with regards to modifications? When a automobile is so spectacular from the manufacturing unit, bettering it with aftermarket elements can change into fairly a problem.
That’s what brings me to the Speedconcepts SLS, which we had the pleasure of capturing on the 2013 Optima Final Road Automotive Shootout following the 2013 SEMA Present. Let this serve for instance of take a automobile that’s already rattling good and make it higher.
Speedconcepts is a full service race and fabrication store situated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that works with all matter of excessive efficiency autos, 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 a number of the USA’s prime race tracks.
For the 2013 One Lap occasion, Speedconcepts’ Todd Treffert determined he would do one thing totally different and compete together with his 2012 SLS AMG. With the times to the occasion counting down, the inventory SLS was reworked 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 fully by Ty from Speedconcepts in the course of the span of these two brief months.
The equipment attracts lots of inspiration from the SLS GT3 race vehicles, 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 had been these well-known gullwing doorways.
The consequence may be very a lot one thing that appears like a barely toned-down race automobile, and it’s unbelievable to assume that the entire equipment was constructed from the bottom up in solely two months.
However as you most likely know, One Lap of America is just not a contest of which automobile appears to be like the very best, it’s about efficiency and the widebody conversion would solely be one a part of the automobile’s transformation.
Underneath the hood, the fellows 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 proper bounce from the already spectacular inventory output.
Beneath the automobile, the workforce 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 observe 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 could be seeing loads of laborious driving, the manufacturing unit seats had been eliminated in favor of Sparco fixed-back buckets with SCHROTH Racing harnesses and harness bar.
Amazingly, the race-ready Sparcos look very at residence within the matching crimson inside and assist the cockpit hold an amazing stability of each operate and luxury.
Whereas the automobile was accomplished simply in time for the 2013 One Lap occasion, there was sadly no time for observe testing earlier than the large present started. Due to this, final 12 months’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 Road Automotive Problem that adopted.
Along with his observe expertise within the automobile nonetheless restricted, Todd positioned the SLS in twelfth place of 60 whole opponents in the course of the USCC.
It wasn’t a nasty consequence by any means, however Todd says with extra observe time a podium end must be inside straightforward 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 totally dialed in and able to assault – with a podium end being the clear purpose.
After that, the automobile will stay a comparatively straightforward life in Florida the place it would function Todd’s each day driver and in addition because the occasional observe day weapon.
Todd says the automobile itself is nice to go, with no future modifications deliberate. He simply needs extra observe time so he can get comfy extracting each little bit of potential from the SLS.
With race automobile appears to be like, 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 proper instance of modify a dream automobile.
Mike Garrett
Instagram: japanifornia
Photographs by Larry Chen
Instagram: larry_chen_foto
