McLaren SLR Benz: The Strangest ‘Supercar’ of the 2000s?
Jalopnik’s video series explores the bizarre story of Mercedes’ halo car.
Sometimes, things are, and also aren’t. Like Schrödinger’s cat, or quantum mechanics. Or, the 2003-2010 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. Jalopnik recently focused on the future classic for their video series Know This Car. In it, they posit that the SLR both was and wasn’t a supercar. We couldn’t agree more.
First, we have to remember that the world of the SLR was a very different place. Back in 1999, Mercedes showed off a concept for a next-generation halo car: The Vision SLR concept. To build it, they partnered with their Formula 1 partner McLaren, who were interested in building a road car after production wrapped on their first-ever production model, the legendary F1 hypercar.
An Automotive Origin Story Like No Other
McLaren’s proposal to Mercedes for a joint supercar followed in the footsteps of the F1 and was in line with the cars they would eventually go on to produce. They wanted to build a mid-rear-engined supercar with a manual transmission. In hindsight, that would’ve made the car even more of a direct competitor with contemporary supercars like the Ferrari Enzo and Porsche Carrera GT. Mercedes, on the other hand, wanted to stay close to the SLR concept while keeping the car accessible to their clientele.
the result, on paper, is truly bizarre. The production SLR had a supercar-esque carbon fiber body tub, butterfly doors, and made a whopping 617 horsepower from its 5.4-liter supercharged V8. But it also was only offered with a five-speed automatic transmission. It weighed nearly two tons. And to mitigate Mercedes’ insistence that it be a front-engined car, McLaren engineers shoved the big V8 as far back in the engine bay as it could, creating the need for an air intake that was nearly as long as the engine block itself.
The result was something that’s arguably more interesting than the Carrera GT and Enzo. It’s a brutally fast, exotic, fantastically expensive (for the time) performance machine. What’s more, it proudly wore the names of two of the most storied automakers in the world. But it was also designed to be a comfortable, driveable luxury car – with a plain-jane 5-speed automatic to boot. It’s a supercar-meets-GT car in the best way possible.
Despite signing a 10-year collaboration contract in 1999, Mercedes and McLaren split in 2003 when the company decided to focus on building their own road cars. The rest, of course, is history. It’s likely we won’t see another high-profile collaboration of its kind again. But the SLR is undoubtedly a legend. A fantastically-strange legend that both is and isn’t a supercar.
Photos: Jalopnik
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