The 2024 SEMA Show is now less than three months away, and as always, we can’t wait to see what new buildings will pop up at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
At SEMA 2013, a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG immediately piqued our interest – and for good reason. The supercharged, wide-bodied Speedconcepts SLS wasn’t just a showfloor looker – it had the performance to prove it, having been built to compete in the One Lap of America. For this week’s throwback post, we’re revisiting Mike Garrett and Larry Chen’s 2014 feature…
2014 function
I spend a large portion of my day thinking about cars. Probably a lot more than is healthy. Of course I can be forgiven, because cars are my career, but it seems like cars are on my mind almost all day long. Often I’m thinking about a feature I’m trying to write or a story I’m trying to pursue. Other times I’m scheming about parts and plans for my own project cars.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been so busy thinking about other things, but I haven’t had much time lately to really dream about cars. You know, throw out all the constraints of the real world and imagine the cars we’d love to own and drive.
And as rare as those moments are for me these days, it’s always fun to just sit back and think about what we’d be driving if money were no object. When you throw the financial factor out the window, it’s natural for your thoughts to wander to supercars and exotics. After all, they’re the ultimate form of automotive fantasy for many people.
So in this fantasy world, what kind of car would you want to get into? A Ferrari? A McLaren? A Lamborghini? Maybe something as modest as a Porsche? It’s a fun but difficult choice, isn’t it?
While it’s probably impossible to narrow it all down to one car, the one model I find myself coming back to over and over again is the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. It may not be at the top of most people’s exotic car lists, but there’s something about the SLS that just pushes all the right buttons for me.
For something you’re going to drive every day, the SLS just seems so right. It looks exotic, but it’s not at exotic that it will bump into spectators wherever you go. It has all the luxury you would expect from a top-of-the-line Mercedes, and all the horsepower you could ever want.
But most of all, I think there’s just something that sets the SLS apart from other cars in its class. Whether it’s those iconic gullwing doors or that classic long-hood, short-deck design, it’s a car that’s easy to dream about.
So yes, the SLS is a fast, unique, and versatile car – one that I’d happily have in my own garage. But what about modifications? When a car is this impressive from the factory, it can be a real challenge to improve it with aftermarket parts.
Which brings me to the Speedconcepts SLS, which we had the pleasure of using during the 2013 Optima Ultimate Street Car Shootout after the 2013 SEMA Show. Let this serve as an example of how to take an already damn good car and make it even better.
Speedconcepts is a full-service racing and fabrication shop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that works with all types of high-performance vehicles, including the Nissan GT-R. With a modified GT-R, Speedconcepts participated in the famous One Lap of America, an eight-day endurance event that spans some of the best race tracks in the US.
For the 2013 One Lap event, Todd Treffert of Speedconcepts decided to do something different and compete in his 2012 SLS AMG. As the days counted down to the event, the stock SLS was transformed into the car you see here in just eight weeks.
The most significant change to the car is undoubtedly the widebody kit, which was designed and built entirely by Ty from Speedconcepts over the course of those two short months.
The kit is heavily inspired by the SLS GT3 race cars, with the front fenders being an inch wider than the stock fenders and the rear fenders being two inches wider. The only parts of the bodywork that were not The famous gullwing doors were modified.
The result looks very much like a slightly slimmed down race car. It’s incredible to think that the entire kit was built from scratch in just two months.
But as you probably know, One Lap of America is not a competition about which car looks like The best part is that it’s all about performance and the conversion to a wider body is just one part of the car’s transformation.
Under the hood, the guys fitted the double overhead cam V8 with a supercharger kit from Mercedes wind specialist Kleeman from Denmark.
Combined with a matching Kleeman exhaust system, the Speedconcepts SLS now delivers almost 800 hp, which is a perfect leap over the already impressive standard output.
Underneath the car, the team fitted a set of KW Clubsport shock absorbers with three-way adjustable springs, along with a custom air suspension kit that allows the car to be lowered by up to two inches during track days.
The aggressive bodywork is wrapped in a set of Forgeline GA1R wheels, 20×11-inch front and 20×12-inch rear, wrapped in 305/30R20 and 335/35R20 Michelin tires respectively.
Because the car would be subjected to a lot of abuse, the factory seats were replaced by fixed Sparco bucket seats with SCHROTH Racing belts and a harness bar.
Surprisingly, the race-ready Sparcos really come into their own in the matching red interior, ensuring the cockpit strikes a good balance between functionality and comfort.
Although the car was finished just in time for the 2013 One Lap event, there was unfortunately no time for on-track testing before the big show, making last year’s event essentially a shakedown for the car.
On the penultimate day, the SLS was running in seventh place, but an off-course excursion at Virginia International Raceway damaged the front end, oil cooler and blew a tire. For Speedconcepts, the event was over.
This was followed by the 2013 SEMA Show and the subsequent Ultimate Street Car Challenge.
With limited experience with the car on the track, Todd managed to place the SLS in 12th place out of a total of 60 entrants at the USCC.
It certainly wasn’t a bad result, but Todd says with more track time a podium finish should be within reach.
So what’s next for the car? For now, the plan is to return to the One Lap of America in 2014 with the car all set up and ready to attack – with a podium finish the clear target.
After that, the car will live a relatively quiet life in Florida, where it will serve as Todd’s daily driver, as well as the occasional weapon on the track.
Todd says the car itself is ready to go, with no future modifications planned. He just wants more track time so he can feel comfortable extracting every ounce of potential from the SLS.
With the looks and performance of a race car and the style and class that make the SLS AMG such a special machine, I dare say that Speedconcepts has set the perfect example of how to modify a dream car.
Mike Garrett
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Photos by Larry Chen
Instagram: larry_chen_photo