Car Gazing
Mercedes, McLaren make mechanical marvel
By Derek Price
Mercedes-Benz has nothing left to prove. It's one of the few companies that could probably turn a profit without doing a lick of advertising, thanks to the mystique and reputation it's built over the last century of racing and coddling its high-income customers around the world.
Nonetheless, Mercedes has decided to push the envelope once again by producing a no-holds-barred, tire-shredding, Ferrari-beating, fabulous-looking supercar called the SLR. Introduced in its production form at the Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany last month, it draws on the heritage of Mercedes' famous SLR racecars of the 1950s, the legendary Formula 1 Silver Bullets, the gorgeous "gullwing" 300SL, and...
Aw, forget that heritage crap. Just look at the thing! It makes 626 horsepower with a supercharged V8 engine wrapped in a lightweight, carbon fiber body with sexier curves than J. Lo.
When it goes on sale in Europe this fall and in the United States next summer, the SLR will compete with the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, and Porsche with a price somewhere around $350,000. Mercedes hasn't settled on the exact sticker price.
What that will buy is a vehicle with some of the most advanced technology in the history of the automobile.
Mercedes teamed up with its modern Formula 1 partner, McLaren, to make the high-tech body from layers of carbon strands. Like the McLaren-Mercedes racecars, the body is significantly stronger than steel with only a fraction of the weight, giving it a handling and performance advantage that not even aluminum can match.
But the heart of this refined beast is its newly developed V8 engine. Mercedes claims the 5.5-liter, supercharged powerplant will rocket that SLR to 62 miles per hour in 3.8 seconds, nearly a full second quicker than the wild SL55 AMG. Equally impressive are the claimed times for 0-to-124 mph (10.6 seconds) and 0-to-186 mph (28.8 seconds), with an estimated top speed of 207.5 mph.
These ethereal speeds aren't just because of the big engine. Mercedes worked closely with McLaren to hone the SLR's aerodynamics for high-speed driving with extensive wind-tunnel tests, which resulted in a smooth underbody that produces downforce at triple-digit speeds to keep it firmly planted on the pavement.
Of course, stopping the SLR from 200 mph requires massive brakes, and Mercedes uses fiber-reinforced ceramic discs designed to resist fading and offer a very long life.
"Just what we need," you're probably thinking. "Another outrageously expensive, hyper-powerful sports car that will make a few rich guys happy and leave the rest of us drooling with envy."
Actually, that's just the way it should be. While few people have enough luck and cash to purchase one – Mercedes is only making 500 for sale worldwide in the first year, all of which are already sold – the rest of us can find inspiration from this expensive marvel. Like all cars in this rarefied class, it motivates us to achieve greatness and gives us something good to dream about when good dreams are hard to find.
That's the magic of the supercar.
(Derek Price is a newspaper editor and freelance writer living in Texas.
Contact him at dprice@cargazingonline.com)
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