Mercedes-Benz paints it black with hard-tuned SL65

Mercedes-Benz has lifted the covers on its super-exclusive SL65 AMG Black Series.

It's undergone a serious facelift and now features markedly pumped-up guards and yawning air intakes to offer a more accurate depiction of what lies beneath - all 493kW (670hp) of it.

Using AMG's tweaked six-litre V12 biturbo, the Black Series wallops out a massive 1000Nm of torque, and is capable of sending it to 100km/h in just 3.9 seconds. It takes a rapid 11 seconds to double that speed, and tops out at 320km/h - electronically limited, of course.

With only two seats, the GT-styled monster is unlikely to wrench cash from mid-life crisis Dads' wallets, although exactly how much wedge the SL63 will cost is yet to be confirmed from the factory, according a Mercedes-Benz spokesperson here.

The unmolested version of the Black's engine generates 450kW, so brand new turbochargers were designed to extract maximum grunt. It delivers this at 5400rpm, with the torque sweetspot between 2200 and 4200rpm. Mercedes' engineers reckon that without the limiter, the 5980cc engine would reliably produce 1200Nm.