Apparently not satisfied with the 420kW and 650Nm of the standard Mercedes SLS, the performance junkies at AMG are working on a hard-core Black Series version.
Mechanically, what we're looking at is a slightly lowered SLS with some carbon-fibre body kit and special Black Series, powered by something very close to a full-race, GT3-spec, 6.3-litre engine, trimmed (of course) in black, with lashings of carbon fibre, alcantara and maybe some fancy wood veneer trim.
Having seen photos of a standard SLS in black, all we can say is that it is going to look menacing just standing still. Since the Black Series is not (officially) a separate model, it won't need to be re-certified and it will be available anywhere AMG's are sold.
The same does not, unfortunately, apply to the street-legal version of the SLS GT3 racer, which won't be sold outside Europe, where it must be offered in order to homologate the track version for the GT3 championship.
Head of vehicle development Tobias Moers has admitted that it would be prohibitively expensive to re-certify the GT3 for the road in markets such as the US, given the low predicted volume of sales.
"AMG does not do money-losing projects," he said. "We can't afford to."
It's the same story with the SLS E-Cell, which Mercedes is planning to launch (in Europe, anyway) at the end of next year as a 2013 model. AMG is developing both gull-wing and roadster variants but the decision whether to launch them together or separately (or indeed, whether to launch the roadster at all) will depend on the results of research that Mercedes is quietly carrying out among customers who either own or are looking at buying Teslas, in order to gauge what the buyer of a high-performance electric car actually wants.
The E-Cell powertrain is now reportedly dishing out about 385kW and 880Nm, but it weighs half a tonne more than the petrol version, making Moers' statement that the E-Cell "is not far away from the standard SLS on the track" a little hard to swallow.
The big stumbling block, however, is likely to be cost: Moers wouldn't quote a price for the SLS E-Cell, but did say it would be "less than double" the cost of a petrol SLS, which given the ex-factory price of an SLS, means it will probably leave the works at €180 000-€260 000 (R1.9-R2.7 million).
Add shipping, import duties and VAT, and that comes down to one very pricey milk float.