SPY: The 2013 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series goes out for a ride, then gets roasted

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The new SLS AMG Black Series is a new dream machine engineered in the Affalterbach labs. Easily the sixth model of the expanding Gullwing range, this hypercar defies convention and sets new standards. Expected to be officially revealed in the coming months, the SLS AMG Black Series will be sold as a limited edition model beginning with summer 2013. The latest scoops emphasize a test prototype touching down at Nurburgring in a beautiful, sunny autumn day - which turned out to be a rather unpleasant experience afterwards.

Unpredictable incidents are an everyday part of any development program for a new generation of a model. Accidents and other fatalities are, most of the times, avoided or minimized thanks to the skilled test-driving engineers behind the steering wheel.

However, sometimes things do not go as planned. After a session of high-speed laps around the Nurburgring circuit in Germany, the pictured SLS AMG Black Series sustained heavy injuries after the driver appearantly lost control over the car and thus hit the sidewalls. If this was not enough, the test car suddenly caught fire and mostly burned to metal till the fire-fighting brigade reached the scene of the crash. The causes of that led to this instant ignition are yet to be announced, but we are sure valuable data was recorded during the occurence of the accident and later on, in order to fix the issue and prevent such severe situations from happening when the series product is out on streets.

The accident has also caused some "traffic congestion", as several prototypes and cars (e.g. 2013 S-Class, an SL-Class roadster, a pre-production CLA-Class etc.), that were testing on track were forced to stop and wait for the road ahead to be re-opened.This is not the first time an AMG prototype is involved in track incidents on the Ring. Not long time ago, a camouflaged A 45 AMG prototype was damaged after the driver was unable to correct the trajectory and avoid the crash (see HERE).

Sticking back to the main topic, the future SLS AMG Black Series will feature a substantially lower ride height, a lightweight aluminium chassis, a stiffer suspension and active damping system for a supreme sports ride, as well as extra power from the naturally aspirated V8 unit, tweaked to deliver near 660 hp. The outrageous Gullwing will be stripped off any unnecessary technology to save additional kilograms, so do not expect many comfort gimmicks like in the standard SLS AMG. All this measures surely come at a high cost, as less is sometimes more. Probably, this ultimate Black Series vehicle will be priced at around 400,000 euros in Germany, if not more.

Image Credits: Motor Authority

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