Rare Rides: The Elusive 2010 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Stirling Moss
You may remember when Mercedes-Benz worked with McLaren to develop the SLR McLaren in the early 2000s. The supercar birthed from those creative loins trumped most everything else on the market upon its debut. As expected, it was very rare and very expensive. But did you know there was a further development of the car that was even rarer, and off-limits to all but a select few?
Presenting the SLR Stirling Moss.
Toward the end of standard SLR production, the German-British team behind project SLR dreamed up a swan song. Their inspiration was the Mercedes 300 SLR racing driver Stirling Moss drove in the 1955 Mille Miglia. A stunning victory for man and machine, that original SLR took on Ferrari and won the race by an incredible 30 minutes. Fittingly, the tribute car needed to be very special.
Mercedes hired two new designers to change the exterior and interior of the SLR into the Stirling Moss. The exterior was reimagined as a speedster (sans roof and windshield) for the sake of racing looks and lightness. The interior was redesigned as well, distancing it from the standard car while adding some vintage racing touches.
Changes underneath included carbon fiber construction, which meant a weight decrease of 441 pounds over the standard car. Power also increased: the supercharged 5.4-liter SLR AMG engine was massaged from 617 to 651 horsepower. That immense power, combined with lighter weight, meant 62 miles per hour arrived in just three seconds, and the speedster traveled on to a top speed of 217.
Introduced at NAIAS in 2009, production began in June that year — a month after the standard SLR’s discontinuation. The plan was for 75 of these special cars, and all were completed efficiently and on time by December 2009. Meanwhile, offers went out to prospective buyers who were hand-selected by Mercedes for the special opportunity. Requirements were two-fold: A bank account to cover the $1 million-plus cost of the car, and current ownership of a standard SLR McLaren.
The cars were of course snapped up immediately by collectors. With just over 300 miles on the odometer of today’s example, it sold at auction in Abu Dhabi last November. Estimated sale price was between $2.5 and $2.75 million. A small price to pay for such precision-crafted exclusivity.
[Images: seller]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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The third picture (rear view) made me think of the 2010MY Saturn Sky. https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/saturn/sky/2009/photos-exterior/rear-view But of course the 2010MY Saturn Sky was much more exclusive - only *8* vehicles produced (and none in silver or white, so we used a 2009 picture). Many people find it hard to believe that a vehicle which sells for over $1 million can be unprofitable for the OEM. But low low volume can kill a business case. (See the original Bugatti Veyron.) http://carsalesbase.com/european-car-sales-data/bugatti/
It's a beautiful car, and very well executed. Automakers should learn from the styling - cars don't have to be hideous. On the other hand, this isn't really driveable for long, with practically no windshield. That fantastic leather-wrapped gear lever... belongs to an automatic transmission. This is made for collectors with more money than brains, not for actual driving, except for a gushing 2-minute blurb on Top Gear.