Grand Touring Europe in a Mercedes-Benz SL500 Frankfurt to Paris in an SL500
"Grand Tourer," "Grand Touring," or simply "GT" for short, is an inescapable moniker in automobiledom. Historically, GT cars were big, luxurious sports cars that transported wealthy Europeans rapidly across the Continent. Today, you can find the "GT" badge on just about anything, from a Hyundai Elantra to an Audi R8.
Grand Touring Europe in a Mercedes-Benz SL500
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| Grand Touring Europe in a Mercedes-Benz SL500 |
Grand Touring Europe in a Mercedes-Benz SL500
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| Grand Touring Europe in a Mercedes-Benz SL500 |
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Grand Touring Europe in a Mercedes-Benz SL500
Its cachet may have waned, but "Grand Touring" has a rich history. My research to date hasn't turned up a definitive starting point for the GT label. As best I can tell, the Italians came up with it, and the first car to officially carry the letters was the 1951 Lancia Aurelia GT, a coupe version of the one-year-old Aurelia Berlina sedan with a shorter wheelbase and sleek Ghia-designed, Pininfarina-built body. I likewise have not determined why the GT moniker was applied to the Aurelia coupe. It seems likely that the term Grand Touring was chosen in reference or homage to the English aristocratic tradition of the Grand Tour. Originally conceived and popularized in the 1600s, the Grand Tour was a trip young English nobility and gentry took to Italy, typically through France and Switzerland, in order to become more worldly and cultured and to complete their education in the arts, sciences, and government. The itinerary broadened over the years and the arrival of lower-cost rail travel opened the experience to everyday people, further broadening the definition to simply an educational trip through significant European cities.
With that loose, modern interpretation in mind, we booked a plane to Frankfurt, the financial capital of Germany. We may not be European landed gentry or nobility, but if we were, we'd probably spend time working in Frankfurt. It's the home of the European Central Bank, the German Federal Bank, and a number of major commercial banks. It's also the tenth most expensive city in world, coincidentally or not. Monaco may be sexier, but Frankfurt is where the work gets done. Grand Tours were traditionally undertaken in fancy carriages, another reason Lancia may have picked the name for its new flagship. Being in Germany rather than Italy and in need of a Grand Touring vehicle, we opted for the 2012 Mercedes-Benz SL500 (SL550 in America for marketing reasons). As we've found in past tests, the SL, while not a canyon carver, is a top-shelf long hauler thanks to its relentless 4.7-liter twin-turbo V-8, cloud nine ride, and feature-packed cabin. With 100 miles of mostly unrestricted Autobahn between Frankfurt and the French border, the SL's 429 horsepower, 516 lb-ft of torque, and rock solid high-speed stability were in high demand. Our winter-tired SL was perfectly content to cruise all day at its electronically limited top speed of 155 mph (traffic allowing), and the folding hardtop kept the cabin nearly coupe quiet. This is what it was born and bred to do.
After visiting friends in Waldmohr, Germany (I suspect Grand Tourers of old did their fair share of mingling with other nobility along the way), the next stop on the tour would be Verdun, France. We appreciated the significance of charging into France and to the site of a major World War I battlefield in a German car, but if the French noticed, they didn't say anything. The roads through the hills outside of Verdun are just twisty enough to have a little fun without overtaxing the big Benz, but it's not until you pull off and take a look around that you appreciate why. Through the trees, all of which are younger than the battle, you can see the millions of tiny rolling hills created as rain and wind wore down the sharp edges of the craters. These wooded hills were shelled into a wasteland resembling the surface of the moon during the 10-month battle, claiming the lives of more than 270,000 men and accounting for an estimated total of over 700,000 casualties. The remains of more than 150,000 men, including more than 14,000 Americans, are still buried there today. World War I tends to get short shrift in America, overshadowed by our significantly larger involvement in World War II, but as the monuments in every city, town, and village illustrate, it's still felt deeply across Europe and the point is made especially clear on the grounds of Verdun.
Also deeply felt in many parts of Europe is the need to protect traditional methods of producing everything from balsamic vinegar to wine and cheese. In France, you'll often run into the abbreviation AOC, for Appellation d'Origine Controlee, which means that whatever it is you're eating or drinking has come from a strictly defined region and has been produced under strict guidelines for the ingredients and methods used to achieve the final product. It's a small wonder luxury automakers like Mercedes-Benz haven't come up with something similar yet. AOC certification is a big deal, perhaps no more so than in Champagne. Our next stop would be the cities of Reims (pronounced "rawns," believe it or not) and Epernay, the commercial hubs of the Champagne region.
Any apprehension I had about driving an expensive German car with German plates into eastern France was quickly dissolved. The French, it seems, love German cars. Everywhere we went the SL drew stares and, in a few cases, camera phones. At one point, several young boys actually chased us up the street with their phones, taking pictures of the car like it was a million-euro exotic. One small champagne producer we visited went so far as to offer a discourse on why German cars were better than French cars. I can't speak to that, but I can attest that the rolling hills and gently curving roads of Champagne are a great place to be driving a big, fast, German car when you're not indulging in the wine. The SL may not be the ideal autocross car, but on a good country road it's planted and confident, unfazed by mid-corner bumps and quick to respond to your inputs. In an earlier review, I called it "a high-performance cloud," thanks to its comfortable and carefree nature even when throttled. It's as if they taught a bullet train to waltz. If I were somewhere in continental Europe and late for the Monaco Grand Prix, this is the car I'd take to get there. Taking a break from the bubbly, we ventured just west of Reims to the village of Gueux ("goo"), home of the defunct Reims circuit that was the site of the French Grand Prix from 1953 to 1966. "Built" on temporarily closed public roads, the circuit held its last event in 1972, but the concrete bleachers, pit stalls, garages, and towers are still there on the sides of the road and maintained by a nonprofit. Greats including Graham Hill, Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, and Juan Manuel Fangio raced there. In fact, it was at Reims that Fangio won the first modern Formula 1 Grand Prix race for Mercedes-Benz behind the wheel of the legendary W196, in the car's first race. He'd go on to win his second of five Formula 1 championships that season and a third the following season, both behind the wheel of the W196. The car Fangio drove, as it happens, was the open top, fully fendered version not entirely different from our SL500. Want more? Fangio owned a Lancia Aurelia GT
As interesting as it was to poke around the remnants of the bleachers and pit stalls, the real thrill was in taking a lap of the circuit. Because Reims was set up on public roads, most of it's still there today. Some of the roadway that made up turns four and five has been demolished, so you have to take a truncated route, and several of the turns today require navigating roundabouts that didn't exist 58 years ago. Still, it's a rare thrill to lap a historic racetrack, no more so than one whose buildings are still intact at the finish line. Roof down, transmission in manual mode and suspension set to Sport, I take off down the D27 and arced right onto the D26. Bypassing what used to be turns four and five, I swing the big Benz on to the N31 highway and charge down the straight towards the sharp corner where it's intersected by the D27. Roaring up the front straight, the road ahead is clear and there are nothing but fields on either side, so seeing no police presence, I gun the rumbling twin-turbo motor and charge towards the start-finish line. For a moment, I feel what I imagine Fangio might have felt has he raced for the checker. It's a surreal feeling. Fangio, of course, was probably driving even faster, may or may not have been wearing a seatbelt, and didn't have heated seats, automatic climate control and "Air Scarf" vents blowing on his neck to keep him warm, but then he wasn't lapping Reims in late November, either. Leaving behind Champagne's rolling hills and Gueux's open-to-all racetrack, we settle in for the longest single day of driving. We're headed for the Loire Valley southwest of Paris. While it's possible to drive in a more or less straight line from Reims to the Loire (pronounced "lwah"), it's much faster to simply pay the tolls and stick to the motorways where you can cruise at 130 kph (just shy of 81 mph). It may not be Autobahn fast here, but it's a good clip and the SL's adaptive cruise control and million-way adjustable seats make long drives pass easily.
The Loire is famous for its chateaus, massive country homes of royalty and nobility where they could get away from the hustle and bustle of Paris. Despite their fortress-like appearances, most were hunting lodges and used sporadically. Most are museums today, though one, Cheverny, is still owned and occupied by the descendants of the original owners. The Loire is fairly flat, as valleys can be, and the roads are mostly straight, so there's little to do behind the wheel but enjoy the force-fed V-8's grunt each time the speed limit jumps from 50 kph or less (31 mph) to 90 kph (56 mph) as you exit the innumerable villages that dot the French countryside. The real experience to be had here is rolling up to the towering chateaus in a car worthy of their former owners, even if you can't pull right up to the front door. If you want the real royal experience, though, you must venture back towards Paris. 12 miles (by car) from the center of Paris sits the Palace of Versailles, the French throne for more than 100 years. Aching to get out of Paris, King Louis XIV moved his court from the Louvre to Versailles in 1682 and the center of government remained there until it was overrun in 1789 by protestors who forced Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette back to Paris. The massive palace has maintained its significance through the centuries both as a site of national heritage and of political significance. It was where the famous Treaty of Versailles was signed, officially ending World War I. Arrive in on a weekday in the off-season and you can park right up front like you're visiting royalty.
Leaving Versailles, it's a 30 minute drive into Paris if you don't hit much traffic. While SL may have felt bigger than some of the country lanes we traversed earlier in the trip, it feels positively huge on Paris' busy streets. If that's not enough to make you nervous, try driving it through the roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe. It's nothing less than controlled chaos and a frightening place to pilot an expensive car that isn't yours, but the traffic moves organically and with equal parts assertiveness and patience I get through it.
While an essential stop on a Grand Tour, what with its museums and cultural and historic places, Paris is clearly not a city to drive in. Parking a car of any significant size is likewise unpalatable, so it is with a sigh that we return the SL, much the way Grand Tourers sold their coaches at the end of the journey. It has been a faithful traveling companion, moving us quickly and relatively efficiently from one historically or culturally significant site to another in complete comfort and providing its own attraction on any occasion the road allowed. Certainly, you can tour in any mode of transportation, but if you're going grand, it's worth having a coach that's up to the task.
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