GTP Cool Wall: 2003-2010 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren

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2003-2010 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren

  • Total voters
    113
  • Poll closed .
White & Nerdy

White & Nerdy

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Wasilla, AK
2003-2010 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren nominated by 6ranTur15m05

View attachment 91282

Stats:
Production: 2003-2010
Style: 2-door coupe, 2-door convertible, 2-door roadster
Engine: M155 SLR 332 ci/5,439 cc supercharged OHC V8 (rated 617 HP & 580 lb-ft in standard form, 640 HP & 600 lb-ft in 722 Edition/Stirling Moss form, and 670 HP & 610 lb-ft in 722 GT form)
Transmission: 5-speed automatic
Layout: Front-mid-engine, Rear-drive
​
My take? Cool, but loses a few points for the use of brake-by-wire.
 
One of the prettiest cars of the last decade and a bit. I've always loved the design, and for that. It's sub-zero... Instantly.
 
Sub-Zero, one of my forgotten favourites of the last decade. Sounds, drives, and looks amazing.
 
You wouldn't be sub zero if you didn't get a special version named by a legendary Stirling Moss.
 
Cool. Very fast comfortable GT that looks good yet is still somewhat understated. Fantastic sound too.
 
Cool, it's those pointless doors that keep it from being sub zero.
 
The SLR is one of the most unsettlingly phallic-looking automotive designs I've ever seen. It's a big glitzy silver dong with a 5-speed slushbox. Very Seriously Uncool.

The SLS AMG is what this car should have been. I don't know what M-B were thinking with this one. It's like they built it as an unironic commentary on elite GT/supercars and the stereotype of the men who buy them.

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I'm surprised this wasn't on the wall before.

I give this car an almost Cool, it is very fast, and it has a very unique sound to it. The brutal hell of the V8 and the loud whine of the supercharger is extremely intense and borderline erotic. And if you drive the convertible version of this at 206 MPH and hit a bird with your forehead, it will go straight it's own ass.*

But...

It misses Cool because it has a 5-speed torque-converter automatic that was standard-issue for Mercedes-Benz at the time, which in a car of this caliber is wrong. And it was pretty damn ugly too.

So it will be a Meh for me.

*(No, I do not endorse bird murdering, I just remember that from Top Gear and thought it was funny.)
 
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Striking looks with performance capabilities which could almost match those of the fastest supercars (Enzo, MC12, and Carrera GT, for example) during the previous decade's first half. Then, it's also a much more civilized place to be when compared to those top tier machines, being a grand tourer with sufficient comfort and drivability when you want it. It's a truly well-made, well-executed high-performance machine, with the stunning theatrics and tangibly potent abilities.

It's also pretty much the culminated realization of the McLaren-Mercedes partnership, outside motorsports and within the realm of supercars, in the midst of the two companies' powerful cooperation in Formula One, for everyone to bask in awe. With the official name incorporating both companies, it also says "Anglo-German" right on the box, which makes things even more wonderful. Nations previously remembered for being polar opposites, for their intense hostility towards each other in both World Wars, producing something so beautiful together in the next century. Great stuff.

But this isn't the 722 Edition. It still deserves a "Cool", at least.
 
I hated this car at first, but it's slowly grown on me. Cool for two related reasons. a) something so striking can't possibly be 'meh'. b) Mercedes/McLaren did the whole hypercar thing totally differently to everyone else's mid-engined route. It might look like one of Siegfried & Roy's slippers, but it gets a cool from me.
 
I like this car but it's still uncool. Mostly due to the conflict of interests between Mclaren and Merecdes. It just doesn't know if it wants to be a hardcore supercar or a comfortable GT. A CLK-GTR successor this is not.
 
Uncool.

Part of me likes the slightly old-school nature of it being front-engined, and the noise is epic too.

But it looks hideous. The proportions are terrible, the detailing is far too fussy, the front end has always looked goofy, and the back end is too pinched. If you're going to buy a supercar, buy one that doesn't look like someone has been let loose with an angle grinder and £15k of used Mercedes SL.
 
I voted cool. Would've done sub zero but only five speed transmission. It would probably get outperformed by similar cars.
 
Barely cool.

Fast, but not particularly good looking. 5 speed auto only?

Plus it brings back frustrating memories of GT4's Mission 34.
 
I hate myself because I LOVE the design of this car. Uncool.
 
This baby is ranked on my personal top 10 of coolest cars ever... it has everything: the looks, the power, the class...

Sub-zero
 
I like it. German engineering at it's finest. But it isn't a SLS. So cool it is.
 
I always liked how they immediately undermined this car by building regular SL-Class versions (one of which wasn't even an AMG!) which had "close enough" performance for like 1/3rd the price.
 
This is an utterly stupid car.

I know, I know... usually when I say that, I list down the car's faults, proclaim it "epic" anyway, and give it a sub-zero.

But this is just... well... it's a McLaren, so it's been built with performance in mind. Lightweight body shell, track-optimized suspension, that neat airbrake-slash-spoiler... the power...

But it's also a Mercedes, so it's been loaded with luxuries and comes with an automatic transmission. At over 1.7 tons, you have to wonder what the hell they bothered with a carbon fiber tub for. The weight and automatic would be fine if it were an SL... but it's a Mclaren, so...

It's a heavy, luxury grand tourer that's stiffer than a box of rocks. Or, contrawise, it's a dedicated track car that's too loaded with luxuries (and an automatic) to fully gel... and with controls that road testers noted were not all that communicative.

In the end, design by committee. Poor compromises. Etcetera. After the McMerc, Gordon Murray resigned simply to sulk and to start building road-going golf-karts with supercar doors.

But really, that's not a measure of coolness.

The design is. And... no... it just doesn't do it for me. Completely overwrought, with that stupid "F1 nose" that they were putting on everything at the time and more gills than a pocketful of sharks. Not quite as cohesive as the classic 300SL.

Which is why it's seriously uncool. The SLS may not be as fast or as hardcore, but it knows what it wants to be... the SLR... doesn't.
 
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I usually don't write why I voted what I did, but I feel as though I need to here. This car is just so hideous, I can't help but hate everything about it. It's one of those things that's hate at first sight.

So I give it a seriously uncool.
 
Meh. This car...it's really just another supercar to me.
 
Classy car with over 600hp what more can you ask for?

Sususu sub-zero
 
Cool, I love it in silver with the propellor wheels. Something cool about it being a big brash GT that could see off almost everything on the road.

I also think SLS being such a good car and getting such race reviews makes this car cooler as it's been forgotten about.

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However the roadster is uncool and the Stirling Moss is seriously uncool, it just looks cack and has none of the class of the original race car.
 
Seriously Uncool. It was a lightweight super/hypercar made by McLaren until M-B got their hands on it and turned it into fat GT car instead. Not to mention that it utilizes the hideos F1-nose styling.
 
Meh. Sure its got balls but other than that I find it uninteresting.
 
Makes an amazing noise (but so do all the Mercs with big V8's), and is clearly pretty fast... but my God, just look at it, it's truly hideous!

Uncool.
 
Looks better in black.

black_mclaren_slr_in_yorkville_1.jpg
 
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This is all I needed to see before I knew I was going to vote uncool.
 
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