In the world of performance cars today, both Mercedes and McLaren, as their own brands, have plenty of awesome machines in their catalog. With Mercedes currently having the awesome AMG GT on sale, and McLaren now selling a wide lineup of their own unique supercars, the early 2000s seems like the far-flung past. At the time though, neither brand had a road-going supercar of their own, with McLaren in particular then being mostly just a race team. Joining forces, Mercedes became McLaren's Formula 1 partner and took the relationship even further by developing this monster.
Debuting in 2003 as a grand touring-oriented supercar, the SLR was a product of the relationship with a focus on Mercedes' illustrious motorsports history. Debuting at an incredible time for supercars, the SLR came about against legendary contemporaries like the Ferrari Enzo, Porsche Carrera GT, and the similarly AMG powered Pagani Zonda, hitting the streets during a new wave of performance car evolution. But, the SLR is often forgotten in favor of those competitors, despite being packed with awesome performance and tech, as well as some wickedly sleek looks.
Formula 1 Partners, And A Glorious Past
Buying a 40% stake in the McLaren Formula 1 team, Mercedes' parent company Daimler-Benz joined them as a partner starting in 1995, helping to develop and supply electronic systems, powertrains, and more for their F1 racecars. But, even with this partnership, Mercedes themselves had a seriously prestigious history of racecar building and championship victories. Calling upon one of their most glorious eras, Mercedes brought their Silver Arrows F1 heritage of the '50 to the drawing board, focusing on one particular car to develop a new and incredible concept on their own.
Debuting at the 1999 Detroit Auto Show, the result of this heritage hitting the modern drawing board was the Vision SLR concept, taking much inspiration from the 1955 Mercedes 300 SLR racecar of Sir Stirling Moss fame. Essentially an F1 car of the time given a closed wheel body, this car won the Mille Miglia among many other races and was an important part of the brand's motorsports history. For the Vision SLR, this inspiration took shape as a Gordon Wagener-designed, carbon-fiber bodied supercharged V8 supercar, earning much attention on its debut, and seeing a roadster version unveiled that same year at the Frankfurt Auto Show.
Enlisting McLaren's help in bringing it to life, Mercedes chose to bring that Vision SLR concept to reality, and after 4 years of development, the production SLR debuted to the world in 2003. With the supercar segment seeing huge growth thanks to spectacular top-end models like the Enzo and Carrera GT, this couldn’t just be a half-hearted attempt, and a unique V8 called M155 SLR was developed from the already muscular AMG based M113 Kompressor engine to give it the power it needed to keep up with the growing crowd. Only offered with an automatic transmission, the SLR hit the scene with a massive 617 hp, making it one of the most powerful production cars of the early 2000s.
Sleek, Powerful, And Advanced
Not meant to be an ultra-nimble track use supercar, the SLR instead had a basis on being a luxurious and supremely fast grand tourer. With a shape calling upon classic GT proportions all while being thoroughly modern, the SLR was an incredibly sleek design, accenting the style with plenty of aggressive details like its side vents and F1 style nose to make it plainly evident as a wicked performance car.
Beyond those looks, the SLR truly was an advanced top-end performance machine, built with a completely carbon fiber body, carbon tub for the interior, and more the SLR was incredibly advanced for the early 2000s, with an aluminum chassis to boot. The first production car to use a fully carbon fiber monocoque, carbon fiber front crash structure, and was also one of the first cars to use carbon-ceramic brakes from the factory.
Furthering the array of awesome and advanced construction for the time, active aero like a speed sensing spoiler, Sensotronic brake control that could automatically wipe the rotors dry, and a flat underbelly with diffusers optimized aero as well as forced the car to use its awesome side-exit exhaust design. Furthermore, that long hood is somewhat deceiving, as the engine is mounted so far back in it, that it's considered a front-mid placement.
Back to the engine though, as the M155 SLR 5.4 L V8 was also the first production engine to be built entirely in-house by AMG and packed a supercharger bringing it up to a massive 617 hp and 580 lb-ft of torque. Compared to the other supercar royalty of the time like the Ferrari Enzo's 651 hp, and the Carrera GT's 603 hp, this was more than enough to give it a competitive grunt. Tipping the scales at 3,858 lbs, the SLR was significantly heavier than those two supercars but still was brutally fast for the time, hitting 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds and on to a massive 208 mph top speed, though it was rather held back by a traditional 5-speed automatic transmission that wasn’t exactly excellent in terms of responsiveness.
Luxury, And Compromises
Jointly developed, the SLR suffered from the drawing board with a disagreement in goals between the two brands, with Mercedes wanting to focus on a soft and comfortable luxury-forward design, and McLaren wanting a rigid and lightweight performer. While in the end the SLR was positioned mainly as a grand tourer, several aspects remained that made this compromise in goal evident. Among these, the suspension was nothing special, being a traditional coil spring setup with no ride control or adjustable dampers in sight. While great for a handling-oriented car, this lent the SLR a rough ride that belied its luxury-focused interior, and with its relatively heavy weight lacked the design to make full use of it. Not fully handling focused, and compromising the GT luxury experience, the 5-speed conventional automatic transmission brought things down further, as it wasn’t impressively responsive, and while good in the S-Class it was borrowed from, just wasn’t a great choice for the monstrous power the SLR had with its laggy shifts - though it was that power that forced Mercedes to chose the 5-speed over a 7-speed design thanks to its durability.
But, when focusing just on the luxury aspects, the SLR is an incredible car, and just from opening the butterfly doors, the interior makes that clear. Leather-trimmed with snug but comfy carbon-fiber bucket seats, the SLR’s interior is as high quality as it got, and also was a surprisingly analog design. Advanced tech was present inside though, like a sensor for measuring sun intensity and temperature to automatically adjust climate control among many other features. A radio hides behind the SLR logo-emblazoned center console, but otherwise, this is a forward interior, with a minimal amount of tech and driver’s assists compared to today’s supercars making for an almost classic-looking interior. That being said, practicality was terrible though, with no real interior storage, and a tiny trunk of 7.2 cu-ft, losing out to GT-oriented competitors later in its production like the Ferrari 599 GTB.
The Most Special Of Editions
Produced from 2003 until 2009, the standard SLR did remain on sale, but was accompanied by, and practically overshadowed by several awesome special editions along the way. Firstly, like the Vision SLR concept, the production SLR had a roadster version. Going on sale in 2007, it was a rather straightforward change but did bloat the weight and make the handling even worse, though not the worst thing in the world for a GT car.
Before that, an amazing performance-based special version called the 722 edition was released in 2006. Made as a tribute to Sir Stirling Moss' 1955 Mille Miglia victory, and his 300 SLR which wore the "722" number, the 722 Edition was a badass car. Outfitted with 722 badges, the 722 edition focused on a sportier carbon fiber and Alcantara trim for the interior, stiffer and lower suspension, bigger brakes, and revised aero work, as well as a power boost to 641 hp - a roadster version of the 722 edition also was offered starting in 2009.
By far the most incredible and iconic though, the SLR Stirling Moss (pictured above) was a complete overhaul of the car, designed by Yoon Il-Hun as a speedster, the car went on sale in 2009 as a limited edition of just 75 units, costing $1 million each. Lightened by 441 lbs, boosted to a power rating of 651 hp, and bestowed with a top speed of 217 mph, this was one of the most incredible supercars of the late 2000s, and still looks and performs like an incredible modern machine today.
After the SLR’s production end, McLaren’s MSO offered a McLaren edition of the car for current owners, fitting them with a new, somewhat controversial body kit, titanium exhaust, new suspension, and more customization options, only 25 of these were made.
Pricing, Then To Now
An incredibly advanced and powerful car, the SLR's intense development to make its virtues a reality was another problem. Originally intended to sell with a base price of $200,000 on release ($288,000 in today’s money), all the advancements ended up bloating this massively and bringing it into much, much higher-end territory.
Selling a total of 2,157 units through its ‘03-’09 production, the SLR sold with a list price of around $450,000 in 2005 (around the equivalent of $610,000 today). Collectible and rare today, the standard SLR sells for around $250,000 to $400,000 depending on spec and mileage, while the limited edition 722 goes for as much as $850,000. Rare and already a million-dollar special beast when new, the SLR Stirling Moss today goes for around $2 million when one does come up for sale or auction.
Sources: Car and Driver, MotorTrend