The Mercedes SLS AMG Owes Its Existence Partially To A Dodge Viper

So, Mercedes SLS, your DNA test is back. It shows you possess some genetic material from the Dodge Viper, just as you'd thought. However, it's more complicated than you being long-lost siblings. Yes, you share some ancestry thanks to your common forebear, DaimlerChrysler. But we'd suspected that your similar proportions and long snouts were more than a coincidence, and our testing uncovered that deeper connection.

Now, we want to be clear. Your structures are entirely different. The Viper uses a tubular steel frame surrounded by fiberglass panels, while you, Mercedes SLS, feature an aluminum space frame covered with aluminum body panels, along with polyurethane bumpers and sill covers. The Viper has a frankly gargantuan pushrod V10 and a manual transmission, which is about as different as it gets from your double-overhead cam V8 and dual-clutch automatic transaxle. Then there are your gullwing doors, a trait found in zero Vipers.

Here's the truth. You were born from the remnants of 14 Dodge Vipers, torn apart by AMG's engineers to test the parts that would create you and all other Mercedes SLSs, including brakes, axles, and power trains. The Viper's tubular chassis made such part-swapping child's play. Each of these Frankensteined Vipers, which the AMG designers called "T cars," was taken to the Nürburgring Nordschleife for instrumented testing. Later, there also was testing in other parts of the world.

I hope this puts your mind at ease. You were never meant to be the next generation of Dodge Viper — you were always destined to be your own car. But you do owe a debt of gratitude to the Vipers sacrificed to give you life.

If you followed car news in mid-2010, you might remember the Edmunds blog Inside Line reporting that the Mercedes SLS was supposed to be the next Dodge Viper. (Don't bother looking for it; it's not up anymore, even on the Wayback Machine. However, it was widely referenced at the time, with plenty of coverage from outlets including Motor1, Motor Authority, Autoblog, and Newsday.)

AutoEvolution's Alex Oagana contacted Daimler AG (now just Mercedes-Benz) and Chrysler in June 2010 to ask about the rumor. It turns out it's half true: The SLS isn't really a Mercedes! In a twist ending that deserves a "dun dun DUNNNN," the SLS is an original product of Aufrecht Melcher Grossaspach. Better known as "AMG."

Is this splitting hairs since Mercedes signed a cooperation contract with AMG in 1990, and has owned it since 1999? No, it seems necessary because AMG operates in many ways like its own entity. It has its own CEO, factories, and engineers. According to the design timeline described on Mercedes-Market, the genesis of the SLS began in 2005 with AMG's then-CEO Volker Mornhinweg, and it wasn't to build a sports car for Dodge. Rather, he wanted AMG to build its own car from the ground up. It's just that the ground had a lot of Dodge Vipers planted in it.

In December 2006, Mornhinweg presented his idea to the Daimler executive board. Yeah, notice that's not "DaimlerChrysler executive board," because by 2006, Chrysler was persona non grata to Daimler thanks to a loss of $1.5 billion. Dieter Zetsche, Daimler's chairman thought the AMG sports car looked awesome. It was as good as greenlit.

There's probably not a single reality in the multiverse where Daimler was going to approve a Dodge Viper at the end of 2006. It would only be a few more months until May 2007, when Daimler chucked Chrysler out a window onto the heads of Cerberus Capital Management. If you think the "Ask Dr. Z" guy was going to put a Dodge badge on AMG's finest, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell to you. 

But what about the "Death Valley test mules" and the aluminum chassis Dodge supposedly developed for the Viper? Right, Mercedes reported AMG was in the desert testing the engine, transmission, air conditioning, cooling system, and fuel system in 2008. Motor Authority reported that year that it was a prototype wearing "mock Dodge Viper panels."

As for the chassis, though, the only original source claming Dodge developed an aluminum Viper frame is that one Inside Line blog, and there are no "whistleblower" reports from angry Dodge engineers claiming DaimlerChrysler stole their progress on a new Viper. The wheelbases of the then-current Viper and the photographed test mules are different, too, and unless you believe Daimler was planning on pumping a boatload of cash into completely redesigning the Viper inside and out, that was no Viper or future Viper in Death Valley. Plus, if Chrysler wanted an aluminum frame, why did the Dodge Viper go to its grave in 2017 with a steel one?

The Dodge Viper and Mercedes-AMG SLS are both brilliant cars, as different as lightning and lightning bugs. One (well, 14) had to be ripped apart to create the other, but each has its own legacy. Daimler may have not treated Chrysler like an equal, but it didn't steal a next-gen Viper and slap SLS badges on it.