Mercedes-AMG SL 65 Black Series
Why 4.0: AMG welded the SL65's folding roof shut, stiffened everything, and stuffed in 661hp — the most extreme thing AMG did with the R230 chassis. DougScore 62 (fun 39, daily 23) reads exactly like that trade: brutal weekend car, difficult everything else.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
The Black Series lets far more of the 6.0 twin-turbo V12 out than any other 65 — a hard, layered roar with audible wastegate flutter. But it is a boosted V12 stopping at 6,000 rpm, so it never climbs: enormous presence without the top-end reach this scale rewards.
12-cylinder · turbocharged · 6,000 rpm redline · rated 6.3 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €276k (2009) → €423k (2026), trending up · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
There aren't any — strict two-seater.
No ISOFIX on the front passenger seat. Shares the R230 SL's AKSE system — a Mercedes-approved child seat is seatbelt-mounted and recognized by transponder, switching the airbag off automatically.
What looks like a rear bench is a parcel shelf — no child restraint is legal back there.
R230 SL owner-forum consensus (BenzWorld, MBWorld) on ISOFIX/AKSE fitment (owner-community sourced, not manufacturer documentation)
The long version
AMG built the Black Series by cutting the convertible mechanism out of the SL65 entirely, welding on a fixed carbon roof, and pointing the changes squarely at lap times rather than boulevard cruising — a fixed-roof answer to a car that was never meant to have one. Only a few hundred were built worldwide, and the combination of rarity, six-figure new pricing and a biturbo V12 that costs real money to maintain has kept mileage low since day one; this was a car bought to own, occasionally driven hard, rarely used up. Values cratered after the financial crisis like every SL65 variant did, then recovered hard once the fixed-roof Black Series was recognized as the rarest, most track-capable R230 AMG built. The 5-speed automatic is the one component AMG didn't replace, and it is exactly the kind of gearbox the DougScore's low daily-usability number is describing.