GOLF INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2011
THE VERY BEST GOLF PROPERTY IN FRANCE / MEMORABILIA / MOTORING & MORE...
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A French home and hole in one
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Fresh croissant before a round, a knock-down-drag-out lunch washed down by a bottle of the local vin ordinaire afterwards – what could be finer? Peter Swain explores the terroir of French golfing property
ere’s a question: what’s the difference between a ‘horizontal’ and a ‘vertical’ wine tasting? Don’t laugh – it isn’t what you think. Under the watchful eye of Golf du Médoc patron, Henry Martinet, I discovered that the first is a comparison of different châteaux, in my case Margaux, all from the same year, while the second is an evaluation of one particular châteaux’s best offerings from several consecutive years. If you’re the sort of golfer who likes the sound
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of any wine tasting after a day’s golf, then there’s a fair chance you like playing in France as much as in Spain and Portugal. With well over 400 courses, and a growing number of enthusiastic club members, golf in France is on a roll. While the number of players in the UK has declined over the past 10 years, in France it has actually increased from 277,000 to 410,000. There is even talk of the 2018 Ryder Cup possibly going to Le Golf National near Paris. Many of us love playing over there, although few are as obsessed as Francophile P.G. Wodehouse, who was famously arrested by the advancing Germans on the Le Touquet links, seemingly oblivious to the fall of Dunkirk. Primelocation.com estimate half a million Brits
have homes in France, and the idea of a holiday or even retirement home, like Bertie Wooster’s creator’s, next to a French course certainly appeals. The courses in Normandy and Brittany are well placed for long weekends, but with the weather not much better than in Kent or Sussex, those looking for more permanent bases usually head further south. Three favourite destinations are the Dordogne in the central southwest, the Cote d’Azure on the Mediterranean coast, and the Pays de la Loire around Orleans. House values in the three areas differ substantially. According to Immoprix, the average home price in the Dordogne last year was €134,1000; in the Var around St Tropez, €392,800; and on the banks of the Loire, €167,200.
PROPERTY
(Clockwise from left): In addition to the 36 holes of spectacular championship golf, Golf du Medoc boasts a luxurious hotel & spa, making this the ideal base from which to explore the delights of Bordeaux towards the Atlantic coast (Below): Chateau des Vigiers, near Bergerac, features 27 holes by acclaimed architect Donald Ross
DORDOGNE AND AQUITAINE
For many buyers, the great appeal of France over Spain and Portugal is the food and wine, so where better to start than the region famous for Bordeaux, Perigord truffles and foie gras. Hampshire-based IT executive Brett Smith and his wife Angie first stayed at Château des Vigiers near Bergerac on a birthday break. They liked the set-up so much, they exchanged their gîte in Brittany for a small cottage on a courtyard between the main hotel and the 27 very tasty Donald Steel-designed holes. “I’m a keen golfer, and there’s always a group of British lads here to play with, plus the other courses nearby,” says Brett. Flybe whisks them from Southampton to Bergerac, four hours doorto-door. Thirty-odd properties have been built around the stunning 16th-century château. A two-bedroom cottage is currently for sale at £265,000, and a timber-built lakeside house for £495,000. “We visit about six times a year,” says Brett, “and, in between trips, the hotel rents it out for us.” The clubhouse has a swimming pool and a good restaurant, with even finer dining in the hotel, plus a vineyard, all within range of a good five-iron. “Prices in the Dordogne have fallen during the recession,” says Joanna Leverett of Savills. “So the perception is that now is a good time to buy.” MARCH/APRIL 2011 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM 133
(Above): The pink pastel shades of hillside villas at Gassin, above St Tropez. (Left & below): One- and two-bedroomed cottages start at £140,000 at Golf de Sologne, occupying a 450-acre estate in the Loire Valley. (Opposite): Heavy hitters are encouraged to check out the superlative Robert von Hagge course at Les Bordes, 90 minutes south of Paris, a design regularly voted as one of the finest courses in Europe
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Over towards the Atlantic coast, Bordeaux is at the heart of a region selling itself as the quintessential ‘Golf and Wine’ destination. With 12 clubs in and amongst villages like St Emillon, Pauillac and Margaux, it’s difficult to argue. In fact, the course at Margaux falls well short of the local grands crus, but Golf du Médoc is stunning. The 6,917-yard Châteaux course, which hosted the 1999 French Open, won by Retief Goosen, has a linksy feel, while the Vignes 18-holer is aimed more at mid and high handicappers. Both are serviced by the luxurious and very golf-friendly 79-room hotel and spa, which is an excellent base from which to explore the locale – and enjoy a horizontal tasting or three. None of these Bordeaux courses have property attached to them, but you can pick up a local three-bedroom village house for £150,000, while something bigger, older and with a pool need cost no more than £200,000 through a specialist local agent like Sextantproperties.com.
CÔTE D’AZUR AND PROVENCE
For those who like playing on the beach as well as in the bunkers, a property on one of the Côte d'Azur’s 18 courses is a hole-in-one. According to Joanna Leverett: ‘The French Riviera has been firmly established for decades as one of the most prestigious places for second-home property worldwide. There’s no oversupply, so prices have remained strong.’ Unlike the Portuguese and the Spanish, the French have built very few integrated golf, hotel and housing resorts, but there are a couple of good ones overlooking or within a short drive of the Mediterranean. Just above St Tropez, Golf de Gassin is très chic – rather like the locals. Not that long at just 6,611 yards, there’s practically no rough because the 18 immaculately conditioned holes wind through a protected nature reserve. Impeccably designed small townhouses with views over vineyards and the bay of St Tropez start at €693,000. Three tennis courts, a 38-suite hotel and excellent clubhouse restaurant make this an ideal destination for heavy hitters. Thirty-five minutes from Marseilles, the Sevedesigned Pont Royal course is part of a golf and country club near Mallemort that has been maturing over the past 20 years. With a David Leadbetter Academy, the 6,835-yard course is just one of 16 in the region made famous by Peter Mayle’s bestselling A Year in Provence. Four developers have created separate ‘villages’ in and around the course, but with construction substantially complete, now is a good time to take a look. Sextant Properties are offering apartments from €160,000 and townhouses from €260,000. A detached villa with a pool costs from €495,000,
PROPERTY
The finest things in golf?
MY PERSONAL TOP 10 1. Pebble Beach. If there’s one course you simply have to play before you die, it’s Pebble.... 2. The Rum Dums in the clubhouse at Lyford Cay on New Providence in the Bahamas. OK, so the course isn’t world-class but the barman is. Willie Sands invented this particular nectar: 11/2 oz white Bacardi, 2 oz syrup, 3 oz lemon juice, dash of egg white, 1 oz dark rum (float). Combine the first four, shake well, pour over ice, then float dark rum on top. With a Cohiba, golfing heaven. 3. The tee-shot at the first hole at Machrihanish. This is often called the best opening hole in links golf, and it is. 4. Monte Rei, Portugal. From the moment you arrive when a car jockey takes your car, a guy cleans your clubs, and the caddy master starts organizing your buggy, to the 18 superb holes of golf, to the terrace overlooking the course, and the El Bulli chef looking after the main restaurant in the palatial clubhouse, Monte Rei has the lot. This is how golf should be – I think it’s the best club in continental Europe. 5. Fairway to Hell. The Miami writer Carl Hiasen is best know for penning a series of hysterical crime novels based in his home state of Florida, a number of which have had the Hollywood treatment. In this book, he details the agonies of a middle-aged hacker trying to rediscover his youth, nerve and game. Simply the funniest golf book ever written.
with potential rental returns in the region of £1,500 a week in high season.
PAYS DE LA LOIRE
For British buyers who think they know the French property market, this may be a new département to consider. The Loire Valley, starting at Orleans just 90 miles south of Paris, represents history, fine wine and, of course, dreamy riverside Châteaux. Mick Jagger likes it so much, he has his own, La Fourchette, near Tours. The new part of the equation for les rosbifs is golf. Golf de Sologne is a 450-acre forested estate with four lakes, a delightful 19th-century château and an 18-hole course at its heart. Acquired by French developers five years ago, a hotel with 99 apartments, spa, 91 terraced cottages, and 168 villas are to be built in traditional half-timbered style. One- and two-bedroom cottages start at £140,000, with the larger detached villas going for £235,000 upwards. They can all be bought through the French ‘sale and leaseback’ scheme, which avoids the 19.6% VAT that would otherwise be payable on top of these prices. In exchange, you get so many weeks usage a year plus a guaranteed ‘leaseback’ income, so it’s ideal if you can only afford to spend a month a year down there. For outright ownership, you just pay the extra VAT. “It particularly appeals to families,” says Robert Green of Cluttons Resorts, the selling agents. “The weather is mild and there’s plenty to do – an
equestrian centre, swimming pool, eight golf courses within 30 miles, cycling and fishing, plus Michelin-starred restaurants and the Loire châteaux, all within an hour by train from Paris.” One of those nearby clubs is Les Bordes with its peerless Robert von Hagge course, the Château d’Yquem of French golf. Club membership, costing a cool €1 million, entitles you to buy a lodge for €1.35 million and up. It is, as they say, a very big ask, but the region has identified golf as a way of attracting new interest, and who are we to argue. So, Portugal and Spain have more courses, so more choice, but for a certain kind of British buyer, France still has that je ne sais quoi, which is, at the right price, quite irresistible.
CONTACTS: Château de Vigiers: www.vigiers.com Golf Du Médoc: www.hotelgolfdumedoc.com Golf de Gassin: www.knightfrank.co.uk/international Pont Royal: www.sextantproperties.com Golf de Sologne: www.cluttonsresorts.com Les Bordes: www.lesbordes.com
6. The Concession. Only a player like Nicklaus, in fact maybe only Nicklaus could have done it. The Ryder Cup, the European Tour and the game of golf have been the richer for one con ceded two-foot putt, for a shot that was never played. 7. Sandy Lyle’s seven-iron out of the fair way bunker, 160 yards uphill to the flag, on the 18th at Augusta in the 1988 Masters. He couldn’t see the pin, so he lined up a cloud and hit it so close, the winning putt was al most a formality. That shot from that lie in that tournament was pure genius. 8. This year’s Open at Royal St George’s is a reason to celebrate one of the club’s former Presidents, and quite simply the best old-school golf writer of them all, Bernard Darwin. For 45 years from 1907, the grandson of Charles penned a golf column for The Times but his greatest achievement is the 1910 Golf Courses of the British Isles, a tome that did for Muirfield, St Andrews and Sunningdale what Vasari did for the Renaissance masters. No golfing library is complete without it. 9. Tiger’s affair with a fire hydrant. OK, so he’s brilliant but the last 15 months without him (he’s been around in body but hardly in spirit) has seen a spec tacular resurgence in European golf, and British golf in particular. The event reminded us all that he’s only human and now he’s back, well, who isn’t looking forward to this year’s majors? 10. When all else fails, my ‘go-to’ club, my Callaway 24 degree rescue. Rather like Viagra, it gets the ball up in the air faster and keeps it up longer...
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Right, who will start the bidding? HISTORIC GOLF MAGAZINES
I am having a clear out; are these golf magazines worth keeping? I have about 30 of them. Elizabeth Pelham, Wolverhampton It is rather apt that as Golf International celebrates its 100th issue we should receive your letter and images of one of the very earliest golfing publications – Golf Illustrated. The very first golf magazine of its type first appeared on 19 September 1890 and was titled, ‘A Weekly Record of ‘Ye Royal and Ancient’ Game’. In 1899 the title was rebranded ‘Golf Illustrated’ and so the stage was set for this pioneering title to become one of Britain’s most respected and enduring golfing journals. Week after week it proclaimed that it was ‘The Only Weekly Golf Journal in the World. Established in 1890’; and even up to the start of World War II its cover price was 6 old pennies. The contents of these early magazines (1900 to 1930s) would often include a diary of golfing events; book reviews; advice to younger golfers; letters to the editor; questions on rules and competition results – so not a million miles from the content you expect to find in the leading titles today. All in all, good reading and certainly great research material for golfing historians. Our reader’s pre-war Golf Illustrated magazines measure 12 x 9 inches and each contains 30 or so pages. Front and rear covers are in reds and blues and the inside front cover is devoted to ‘Forthcoming Events’, comprising mainly Amateur events, both international and national. 136 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM MARCH/APRIL 2011
Now in his 10th year as a contributor, Gi’s auction-room expert Kevin McGimpsey answers more of your letters and emails, this issue contemplating the provenance and value of a mixed bag, including a collection of historic golf magazines, a signed print from last year’s Open at St Andrews and a highly collectible ceramic Scottie dog...
And where today we see glossy adverts for Tag Heuer, Ralph Lauren and Serengeti, in the 1930s the equivalent full page adverts were from Mappin & Webb and their silver golfing trophies; Lillywhites of Piccadilly Men’s Wear and Tuborg Lager. Towards the rear of the magazine there’s a ‘Where Golfers Stay’ section and also quite a selection of ‘classified's’. They still make for a fascinating read with editorials on new golfing inventions, advertisements by club and ball makers – often with rudimentary graphics of the products. Regular writers in the 1930s included such golfing journalists as Charles Ambrose, P.B. Lucas, Guy Farrar and P.A. Vaile. Historical golf enthusiasts – especially Bobby Jones fans – would be particularly interested in the 1930 (6 June edition) magazine with its centre-spread photograph titled ‘The scene at the eighteenth Green in the morning round of the final’. There are a further four photos of Jones in that particular magazine.
VALUE: Surprisingly these wonderful old magazines do not fetch as much as you might imagine; however they are sought after and do have a worth, especially to golfing researchers. At auction I’d expect them to fetch between £8 and £10 each.
SIGNED GRAEME BAXTER OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP PRINT
The R & A donated to the St Andrews and St Andrews Kilrymont branch of the Rotary Club one of only 2 prints signed by all 156 of the competitors at last year’s Open Championship. Obviously our goal now is to realise as much money as possible for our charity causes and to that end would appreciate your opinion on how best to do this. Maybe one of your readers would like to buy it? Interested parties are welcome to contact me via the email address below. Brian Gray, St Andrews brianwgray@tiscali.co.uk In recent years the R & A has seen to it that a couple of limited edition prints (painted by the official Open Championship artist – in this case Graeme Baxter’s rendition of the 18th hole on the Old Course) are on display at the players’ registration area. Once the official paperwork has been taken care of every single player in the field is invited to sign the mount surrounding both prints in pencil. (Why pencil? Because ink fades, especially if it is subjected to direct sunlight.) It’s a simple request that results in the R & A having at their disposal two virtually identical signed prints (I say virtually because the signatures on each do vary, and so each print is actually a unique piece of commemorative art). Last August the R & A presented the two prints to the two local St. Andrews Rotary Clubs to help them raise monies for their charities. VALUE: Should this piece come to a traditional golf auction I don’t believe it would fetch more than £5,000. A lot of money, certainly, but I am convinced that your Rotary Club would do much better by going down the Charity Dinner route, where there’s always a good chance a benefactor might offer several times that figure for the print. A traditional golf auction generally caters for golf memorabilia dealers, collectors and enthusiasts and
MEMORABILIA
Among the highlights this issue, this silver plate inkstand would be highly sought after, fetching up to £400 at auction; the Scottie dog ceramic was used as a point-ofsale advertising for a golf ball company, and is highly valued at around £800
the values of the programmes? Ernest Highes, Prestwick, Scotland
cannot compete with a typical sports charity auction.
SILVER-PLATED INKSTAND
I recently bought this silver-plated golfing inkstand in an antiques shop in the Cotswolds for £350. Was this about right? Terry Parker, Conway N. Wales This impressive decorative electroplated golfing inkstand measures 11 inches long and 8 inches high. It was made around 1910 by James Dixon & Sons of Sheffield who were in the business of manufacturing silver, plate and Britannia metal decorative pieces. It is a well thought of company and their quality was always good. For example J.D. & S exhibited at the Great Exhibition in 1851, being awarded several prizes in different classes for silver and Britannia metal. From 1848 they excelled in producing a varied range of electroplated metal-ware. Few readers would object to owning this inkstand complete with its centre piece Edwardianstyle golfer still with his club and two glass inkwells with hinged lids. It appears to be factory fresh in condition and there are no defects to the glass inkwells. VALUE: Golfing collectors eagerly seek out such beautiful pieces. Obviously the ultimate is one made in solid silver but from a distance it is sometimes hard to differentiate plate from silver. I am often asked whether an inscription to such an object adds to or detracts to its value. To an extent it will depend on the importance and significance of the Club or the player in question. At auction I would expect bidding to begin at £250 and conclude at £400.
CERAMIC SCOTTIE FIGURINE
I bought my Scottie Dog at a golf auction in the early 1980s. I think I paid £125 for it. What is it worth in today’s market please? Toby Elswis Worthy Down, Hants During the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s British ball manufacturers supplied club professionals who sold their product with countertop advertising figurines. These were provided free for display on the shop counter, with the aim of encouraging sales. In previous issues of this magazine we
have covered the ones advertising Dunlop and Penfold golf balls. The North British Rubber Company commissioned the Sylvac Company in the 1940s and ’50s to create black pottery replicas of their logo, a Scottie dog, holding in its mouth one of their round dimple balls. Sylvac already made both black and white Scotties for a whisky company and the mould was altered so that the dog held a golf ball. The ceramic dog so made measures 11 inches high; some were presented on 2¾ inch high blue plinths with the slogan: ‘North British: The Choice of Champions’. These are rare. The colour of the tartan dog collar is either red or green and some balls feature the words ‘North British’. VALUE: Good news for our reader! In this mint condition at auction it should fetch near to £800. The ones fitted to plinths are very rare indeed and should fetch over £1,000. So a very good financial return.
SIGNED OPEN PROGRAMMES
About 10 years ago I was fortunate enough to get my two Open Championship programmes signed in person by Peter Thomson. Does his autograph increase
These 1956 and 1958 Open Golf Championship programmes appear to be in a good clean condition without stains or tears. As you are no doubt aware, Peter Thomson won the 1956 Open at Royal Liverpool with an aggregate score of 286 and in 1958 at Royal Lytham with an aggregate score of 278. Having already claimed the ’54 and ’55 Championships, Thomson would ultimately secure a total of five wins with his fifth and final victory at Royal Birkdale in 1965. VALUE: If they came to auction unsigned they would probably be offered as one lot with an estimate of £150. However because they are signed that low estimate would rise to £200.
The finest things in golf?
MY PERSONAL TOP 10 1.
Caddying at Augusta (see page 102)
2.
Adding a Haskell golf ball to my golf ball collection
3.
Being photographed with the rarest golfing point of sale figurine, the Silver Queen
4.
Standing on the 1st tee at Nefyn Golf Club
5.
Driving you car into St. Andrews
6.
Having a great lunch at Muirfield before playing
7.
Receiving an invitation from Mr Patino to play Valderrama
8.
A tour of the St Andrews Golf Museum
9.
Listening to my brother’s victory speech at the 2003 Walker Cup at Ganton
10. Writing for GI for 10 years and the thrill of opening a magazine to see your article
Do you have an item of golfing memorabilia you would like Kevin to appraise? If so, send your letter and best photographs to Kevin McGimpsey at this address:
PO BOX 120, Deeside, Flintshire, N. Wales. Alternatively, email him with with jpegs: kevin.mcgimpsey@bonhams.com Don’t miss Kevin’s personal account of a rather special practice round during the Masters at Augusta in 1986 – see page 102.
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MERCEDES-BENZ SLS AMG, 6.3 litre V8 GULLWING
U
Merc’s ultimate flight of fancy nlike Volkswagen, who recently wheeled out Le Mans 24 Hours legend Jackie Ickx as their new ambassador at a Jetta launch on the somewhat spurious basis that he, erm, keeps a Caravelle camper van at his home in South Africa, Mercedes-Benz can lay a rather more genuine claim to a working relationship with Stirling Moss. Moss, relentlessly lauded as the greatest driver never to win a World Championship (In Formula 1 he finished second to Fangio three years in a row and then once, in 1958, to Hawthorn), started racing for Mercedes in 1954. Back in those hilariously brave, open cockpit and goggles days, a driver’s face would quickly be thoroughly black and white minstrel’ed by a heady blend of exhaust soot, unburned fuel and shredded rubber. On their return to the pits, drivers were accustomed to reaching for the oily rag to try and remove at least some of the accumulated detritus. When Moss pulled in after his first trial for Mercedes, he was met – with a Prussian click of the heels – by a man at attention holding a porcelain bowl of steaming hot water, a bar of soap and an Egyptian cotton towel. ‘Well, if that’s how it’s going to be’ he thought, ‘I’d better sign up…’ There followed perhaps his most famous race victory; the 1955 Mille Miglia, in which, armed with an open-topped 300 SLR, he dispatched 1000 miles in a cool 10 hours, 7 minutes and 48
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In the shape of the gullwing SLS, a racing thoroughbred 55 years in the making, Mercedes Benz has fused historical open-cockpit motoring with the sort of technology usually associated with Formula 1. Sadly, Anthony Ffrench-Constant had just 250 miles to give his verdict seconds, for once beating Fangio in the process. In the same year, Mercedes produced its first road-going iteration of that car, the gullwingdoored 300 SL. This SLS, the natural successor to that legendary brute, has been 55 years in the making, and I have one weekend and just 250 miles to find out whether it’s been worth the wait… Now, whilst you’ll inevitably find yourself regularly clocked if driving Italian exotica, a Ferrari or Lamborghini eyeballing these days tends to take the form of a confirmatory glance rather than a protracted stare. But sit in an SLS, and so relentlessly will you be ogled that you’ll begin to fret about having inadvertently left the house without trousers. Never before have I experienced such pressed metal spectator persistence. To me, the SLS is something of a hymn book on wheels; an extraordinary meld of ancient and modern. In profile, the ancient prevails, with a bonnet long enough to accommodate a family of four on a fortnight’s holiday and the cockpit so far astern that you sit pretty much as far back as possible without actually being on top of the rear axle. The cab itself is entirely reminiscent of the original car, quite bulbous and rounded, with a remarkably upright windscreen pillar by today’s su-
percar standards and relatively small door glazing. Indeed, that cabin is so small and low in relation to the overall size of the beast that you’d be forgiven for thinking it had spent time in a classic, earl Harley-style American chop shop. From dead ahead, though, the presentation is far more modern, and from dead astern (my favourite viewpoint and that most common to other road users) it’s positively futuristic by the standards of the rest of the car, and also reinforces just how massively wide this machine actually is. That chop shop imagery is heightened by the use of a bespoke, semi-matt paint intended, presumably, to be reminiscent of a bare aluminium racing finish and nod at the cars all-alloy construction. I had to sign a document promising not to take it through one of those threshing mill car washes… Huge alloys with gold brake callipers denote the presence of ceramic composite discs so large they almost fill the front wheel. Massive stopping power is assured, but you might want to think twice about ticking that £8,140 option box, since they need to be up to operating temperature to work most effectively, and that sort of temperature is achieved only by driving so fast you might as well simply sear straight down to the nearest
police station and surrender. Actually, such self-sacrifice is unnecessary, because most of the boot is a spoiler which pops up automatically when you pass 70mph, thus making it a particularly useful flag for lurking constabulary. Those eye-catching gullwing doors work surprisingly well, too; a handle oozes from low on the door when you plip the key, and minimal effort raises the door. You can’t stand under it, but it’s no aerobic chore to stoop down and clamber over a wide, carbon-fibre dressed cill which already displayed signs of heel scuffing on the car I drove. Not only are Blakeys Segs wearers advised to steer well clear, but the rest of us might consider the wearing of carpet slippers to get over this issue. Just don’t park in a puddle. And before you ask, the doors are designed specifically to work in Tokyo’s tightest multistorey car park, which means they open to a height of just 1.8 metres and, with both doors fully open, the car is only 36 cm wider overall. Sadly, after an entry of veritable street carnival stature, the interior leaves one feeling a tad too village fete for my liking. It’s all beautifully made, of course, but lacks real drama. The only retro touch is howitzer-style air vents finished in a cunning plastic called Noble, which has enough metal in the mix to not only look the part, but also feel cold to the touch first thing in the morning. Least wholesome is the driver’s instrument binnacle, which shuns traditional Mercedes black-onwhite clarity in favour of all metal finishes which, as in an Aston Martin (though we are mercifully spared lilac back-lighting here), do the user no favours and aren’t as clear as one would like. Sitting so far back beneath the bonnet that it’s entirely behind the front axle to give the best possible weight distribution in a front engined rear drive car, the most powerful naturally aspirated V8 in the world barks into life with a burst of unsolicited throttle in the manner of all modern performance cars. Start up stealth is out of the question. AMG’s 6.3 litre V8 has been even further tweak for installation here, now developing a wholesome 563bhp and 479lb ft of torque. Via a dualclutch, seven-speed automatic transmission with flappy paddle override, this will fling the SLS at the horizon, from a standstill to 62mph in just 3.8 seconds, and on to 197mph. Sitting this far back, you hear everything from the exhaust and surprisingly little combustion noise from the engine itself. Even at full chat, with the exhausts doing their best to replicate the sounds of the 7th Cavalry laying siege to an overamplified bowl of Rice Krispies, little but the oleaginous threshing of expensive metal leaks aft. On the move, the dual clutch makes for super smooth progress, though manual paddle shift mode finds it a little slow on the uptake by supercar standards. Smooth throttle inputs can be novice-challenging at low speeds too, most noticeably when pulling onto roundabouts from a standstill. Too little throttle leaves you growling
The figures are as you’d expect of the world’s most powerful naturally aspirated V8 – 0-62 in just 3.8 seconds, while the ‘197’ plate fitted to this model is a most specific reference to the car’s maximum speed. And while the driver’s instrument binacle is relatively basic, given the SLR’s supercar staus, the retro interior works beautifully in the context of the overall package – a roadster with a pedigree heritage
nowhere and missing the gap. Too much, by way of compensation, finds you yelling away like a boulder slung from a trebuchet. At all times, power is, of course, gloriously absolute on demand. But the SLS is at its magnificent best under a somewhat modulated throttle, wherein performance is still sufficient to see off pretty much anything else but progress becomes utterly, deliciously fluid, smooth and effortless. Artfully putting the whole dubious concept of even Mercedes’ own adaptive trick suspension to the sword, the SLS rides on conventional shock absorbers and double wishbones all round. Though undeniably on the firm side, this set-up offers precisely the long-haul-comfort level of compromise between information and suppleness you’d expect from a car with these capabilities. Though its balance is sublime and levels of grip and traction are predictably astonishing, the SLS
doesn’t, in fact, encourage you to hoon around in the manner of a mid-engined Italian. Rather, it offers the very grandest of gran turismo experiences; get in and devour Europe at relentless pace, making absolutely sure you go anywhere via a considerable chunk of Germany for an extended bout of de-restricted face bending. Destined, I suspect, to remain rare as Hannibal Lecter’s steak, an SLS may be afforded for as little as, um, £168,345. The car I drove was so laden with AMG options and accessories that its price tag actually overhauled its maximum speed, topping out at a thumping £205,680. However, apart from the £5,055 Bang and Olufsen stereo – which is always going to lose out to those bellowing exhausts – I probably wouldn’t bother with any of the extras (£3,425 for a carbon fibre engine cover you’ll never see?). Then again, if you’re in the market for a car such as this, you probably won’t quibble over the odd thirty grand here and there. MARCH/APRIL 2011 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM 139