To compare this model to the first modern sports car is unfair. This one has a low center of gravity and explosive bolts in the doors, but that one was a minor miracle. By Dan Neil

Reporting from Monterey, Calif.

It goes about a zillion miles an hour, looks tougher than jailhouse steak and has explosive bolts in the doors, but before getting to the new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Gullwing, if I may, a nod to the old (1955-1957) Gullwing.

Some years ago I drove a Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing in the Mille Miglia, the 1,000-mile road rally around the heart of Italy, and left the tattered bits of my blown mind all over the ceiling. By that time I had driven a fair number of vintage sports cars -- Alfas, Aston Martins, Jaguars, Ferraris -- and found most of them to be poor to downright horrible and spectacularly dangerous. I once drove an Aston Martin DB Mark III in the Bavarian highlands and remember thinking the sensation was like grappling with a crazy old man who meant to throw me out a penthouse window. (more...)