
The thin disguise does little to hide the shape and dimensions of the 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS.
Automakers typically go to great pains to keep their future products concealed from the prying eyes of the press. But sometimes, a simple bit of serendipity comes into play – as happened today, when Mercedes-Benz engineers just happened to take a break during testing, parking a convoy of cars along the legendary Cannery Row, in Monterey, California.
They just happened to pull over in front of the Clement Hotel, where a number of us in the automotive media just happened to be holed up for a preview of the latest Mazda line-up. The resultant spy shots, shown here, were snapped before the men from Mercedes could get back behind the wheel and move on.
What you see is the thinly-disguised 2011 Mercedes SLS AMG, the replacement for the German automaker’s SLR supercar, which never came close to living up to its initial expectations – Mercedes hoped to sell 4,000 SLRs during its lifetime, but has to come up with a variety of variants to come close to meeting that demand, including the 722 and a convertible version.