McLaren should disavow the SLR

3629 Views 9 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Zonda, Feb 24, 2012

RoadTripper

Discussion Starter · Mar 11, 2011

McLaren must have been desperate for cash flow to bid for the SLR business. The weight challenged (okay, beefy) SLR seems to go against such a core tenant at McLaren. Light weight. Like Colin Chapman's famous "add lightness" line, McLaren also strictly follows the weight watchers diet. So what were they thinking getting involved with Mercedes-Benz and doing a heavy weight?

I guess that is why it was a strained relationship that ended poorly. I am not even addressing the unbecomingly awkward design of the SLR.

Is anyone else thinking this? I could go so far as to say the SLR is a dog, but I won't go quite that far. It just doesn't seem to have much McLaren in it. I guess M-B had 99% of the DNA.

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RWD

· #2 · Mar 12, 2011

Saying it is a dog is a stretch. Top Gear lined it up against the 640 hp Diablo on a road in either Bahrain or Dubai and the SLR had no troubles keeping up. On the track might be a different story.

It was part of this episode, I can't find the other clip, if I do I'll post it.

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SSO

· #3 · Mar 12, 2011

It was a bad marriage. Neither MB or McLaren got what they wanted in the SLR. At the time MB had about a 40% shareholding in McLaren.

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RoadTripper

Discussion Starter · #4 · Mar 13, 2011

I mean dog as in odd ball super car, not dog as in slouch. I think the SLR looks awkward. The prototype looked great - saw it at the Detroit Autoshow. But the model they built took on some strangeness. And it is a heifer on the scales.

The coolest feature in my book is the side exhaust. Of course it has other good features, I'm just being critical because it was supposed to be the ultimate sports car.

Good, err, Great video. Top Gear and Lady Hammond did an awesome job on that segment - as always. The F1 was faster out of the gate even with a manual transmission. Wicked. The Veyron is a keeper too, even if beastly heavy.

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AugustWest

· #5 · Oct 25, 2011

RWD said:
Saying it is a dog is a stretch. Top Gear lined it up against the 640 hp Diablo on a road in either Bahrain or Dubai and the SLR had no troubles keeping up. On the track might be a different story.

It was part of this episode, I can't find the other clip, if I do I'll post it.

I love this video. The insane speed is really obvious at the end. Oh and yeah I have this thing about F1s. The Veyron seems like an Audi by comparison to it.

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TAG

· #6 · Feb 15, 2012

Two fantastic automobiles! Price for the F1 is about 7 million $ despite the financial meltdown on the stock market! Count on this car being the best investment since the Bugatti Royal or the Ferrari 250 GTO!

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Senna

· #7 · Feb 24, 2012

TAG said:
Price for the F1 is about 7 million $ QUOTE]

if you can get me a buyer at $7 mil i have 2 to sell you right now, and they come with some really special swamp land in Florida

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Peloton25

· #8 · Feb 24, 2012

The last F1 transaction I am aware of occurred about two weeks ago in Switzerland for a road car which was not in the best condition. The buyer paid €3.1M, or about $4.15M US. It will now be off to the factory for a full service and any updates or changes the new owner might wish to make. Those costs, depending on requests, can stretch into several hundred thousand as well.

We're not quite at $7M yet, but I don't think it will be too many years before we see a road car sell for $5M.

>8^)
ER