by Ross Finlay (11 Jul 03)

You could hardly beat "a vehicle blessed with inimitable charisma, where legend and sophistication meld together in a thoroughly masterful Mercedes synthesis" as a piece of automotive purple prose, but that’s how Stuttgart regards the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.

Due to have its international launch in the autumn, with a £250,000-plus price tag which didn't raise an eyebrow among the potential buyers who have already slapped down a sizeable deposit, this is a genuine-article no-nonsense supercar, and its links with the McLaren-Mercedes Grand Prix team certainly won't hurt. It also rather transforms the reputation of Surrey as a car manufacturing area.

As so often, Mercedes has gone back to the great days of the 1950s for design cues linking the McLaren to the 300 SL, the road-going supercar of its own era, and the SLR sports-racers which obliterated the opposition in all the races they entered in 1955, not forgetting Rudolf Uhlenhaut's road-going SLR coupé, which never made it to production.

The new car had its world première in the form of the "Tomorrow's Silver Arrow" concept which made the headlines at the 1999 Detroit Show. Moving that prototype to production status has taken quite a while, but the customer car will make its first show appearance in September.

From the 1950s the SLR McLaren has borrowed gull-wing doors, although they're pivoted at the A-pillar rather than, as on the 300 SL, being hinged at the roof. The huge air openings behind the front wheels are also a nod in the direction of retro, serving the same purpose as they did in the 1950s, to ventilate the engine compartment.

21st-Century Improvements

More modern elements in the design include a Formula 1-style twin-fin front spoiler, twin headlamps as used in Mercedes road cars since 1995 (although the SLR's are very powerful projector types), and a realisation from wind tunnel testing that the downward slope of the body towards the rear, a feature of the 1955 cars, had to be changed in the interests of aerodynamic stability. The SLR McLaren body line stays high, and there's an adaptive rear spoiler to go with the six-channel diffuser built into the rear bumper.

The rear lights and brake lights are something out of the ordinary. On each side, they're made up of 51 LED units, and nobody in a vehicle behind will be in any doubt about the message being conveyed when the brake lights go on, twice as bright as normal.

From inside, the driver looks along a bonnet with a familiar power-dome effect. The themes here are high-quality aluminium for the centre console, some additional carbon trim, chronometric dials and a three-spoke steering wheel with a push-button gear change.

Even the seats are effectively bespoke. They have removable items of interior padding, which can be left in or taken out, to adjust the seats to the dimensions of the driver and passenger.

There are other supercars here and in the offing. For looks, heritage, engineering and equipment, they'll probably be hard put to match the latest SLR.

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