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

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2003-2010 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren

  • Total voters
    113
  • Poll closed .
I don't think people get what cool is about, without mentioning anyone in particular, cool has nothing to do with how it drives, or its performance, its about the whole car as a package for what it is designed to do, this is meant to be comfortable and fast, and I dare say it'd be a difficult bet to beat today on BOTH of those fronts. I mean you have the F12, the new Vanquish (maybe), much else? Even still, we're talking nearly 10 years after the fact.

C'mon 9 more votes for sub-zero, this car is worth it, look at it, it's magnificent.
 
I still don't think you've understood what cool is either in my opinion. It's nothing to do with the car 'as a package' performance doesn't really have much to do with it.

It's about looks, style, and the image as a whole that the car gives off.
 
To me, cool is 15% "What car guys would say", 15% "what non-car guys who are your homies" would say, 10% "what the general public would think" and 60% "what your prom date would say"

Sub-Zero.
 
Conza
its about the whole car as a package for what it is designed to do, this is meant to be comfortable and fast, and I dare say it'd be a difficult bet to beat today on BOTH of those fronts.
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With a firm ride, twitchy steering and hyperactive brakes... the word "comfortable" isn't the first adjective most people would attach to an SLR.

And if you ask both parties now what the McMerc was designed to do, you'll likely get wildly different answers. McLaren wanted one car, Mercedes wanted another. It was a big source of frustration for both.
 
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Paris Hilton drove an SLR. And got a DUI.

Uncool. Didn't get it serious uncool but reconsidering it now.

@niky, change my vote. Now.
 
So clubbing baby seals isn't a thing, anymore?

Azuremen
Paris Hilton drove an SLR. And got a DUI.

Uncool. Didn't get it serious uncool but reconsidering it now.

@niky, change my vote. Now.
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No problem.

You're now seriously uncool. :D
 
Cannot give it any higher than a Meh, cannot go lower than that either. As much as I can respect the capabilities of the car, there are two main things that make it a true meh for me.

Looks. This, to me, is one of the cars that says, "Look at me! I'm a successful rich 🤬 and you're not!" Granted, Lamborghinis are the common standard for that class of people... but the design of this, plus the price tag (and those silly doors...) lump this in with the common rich tools. (or whatever you'd call those people.)

Second... it's a cross-breed. A fat McLaren, or a Mercedes on a slight diet (that doesn't even seem to be having an effect.) It may have been a good partnership/a good idea at some point, but this... doesn't work. If you wanted a good grand tourer, then by all means take this. But, if you want a track machine... you're better off buying something far lighter. (Or an SLS AMG! :dopey:)

If I wanted a grand tourer, I would assuredly not take this... (I'd take an Aston Martin V12 Vantage.)
 
I'm starting to regret how I voted.

@niky, can I change my vote to seriously uncool too?
 
How many people want to be on my seriously uncool list? There aren't enough spaces on my fridge... :lol:
 
Clark
I still don't think you've understood what cool is either in my opinion. It's nothing to do with the car 'as a package' performance doesn't really have much to do with it.

It's about looks, style, and the image as a whole that the car gives off.
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Well, if they tried and failed to do what they set out to do, that would be uncool, but since they've achieved it (among many other things), then that aids it being cool. But I would say, what the car is and what it gives off aren't mututally exclusive. It has to all match, if a car was super slow, but looked like a super car, imo, that would be uncool. Anyway.

niky
With a firm ride, twitchy steering and hyperactive brakes... the word "comfortable" isn't the first adjective most people would attach to an SLR.

And if you ask both parties now what the McMerc was designed to do, you'll likely get wildly different answers. McLaren wanted one car, Mercedes wanted another. It was a big source of frustration for both.
Click to expand...

I've just been going from car reviewers of the time, would be interesting to read others I might've missed, (Car and Driver thought it handled great, as did Jeremy Clarkson), but even if more agree with you (or me) it still doesn't make it uncool... At any rate, I don't think it was a failure at all.

hawkeye122
To me, cool is 15% "What car guys would say", 15% "what non-car guys who are your homies" would say, 10% "what the general public would think" and 60% "what your prom date would say"

Sub-Zero.
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Actually forget some of what I said above, it is the prom date/ girlfriend / wife / kristin scott thomas test, a woman with class (I guess it'd work the other way around for girls and cool cars?).
 
Conza
Well, if they tried and failed to do what they set out to do, that would be uncool, but since they've achieved it
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Hold on. According to who? Certainly not the Mercedes Benz beancounters, who barely sold half of the cars that they expected to sell even after funding a plant entirely for the purposes of building it. Definitely not the Mercedes Benz engineers, who responded to the collaboration with McLaren with increasingly powerful entirely internal SL-Class cars before directly thumbing their nose at it with the SL65 Black (regardless of if that was any good). And not Gordon Murray, who spared no effort in raking the final car over the coals from being different from what he wanted it to be when he was brought on to design it.
 
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The car barely musters a "cool" from me. While on the one hand it doesn't look as good as the SL it was based upon, and it's pricing was downright ridiculous considering those performance differentials... The engine is fantastic, I like the interior, and I like the stupid aero brake spoiler on the back. Still not as cool as the SL600, though.
 
Tornado
Hold on. According to who? Certainly not the Mercedes Benz beancounters, who barely sold half of the cars that they expected to sell even after funding a plant entirely for the purposes of building it. Definitely not the Mercedes Benz engineers, who responded to the collaboration with McLaren with increasingly powerful entirely internal SL-Class cars before directly thumbing their nose at it with the SL65 Black (regardless of if that was any good). And not Gordon Murray, who spared no effort in raking the final car over the coals from being different from what he wanted it to be when he was brought on to design it.
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How about the public? How about the car reviewers? How about the few customers who could afford to buy one? And lastly, how about me, just because 'I' think it works?
 
Looks awesome (from some angles), sounds fantastic. Performs pretty well.

but..

Well, didn't DC have something to do with developing it? :( I don't think anything connected to David Coulthard can ever be cool.
 
It does look kinda nice but it's just too heavy for what it's supposed to be, although it is physics defyingly fast for a machine of it's size.

I'll give it a meh.
 

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