German Car Forum

McLaren and partner Mercedes-Benz are preparing to part ways on project SLR as production of the car is scheduled to stop in 2009. The marriage, brought together on and off the F1 race track, produced 261 SLRs in 2006, and 275 in 2007. These are not exactly the 400 – 500 a year figures that the makers were hoping for originally. The 467kW über two-seater’s exploits have been well documented, yet it never quite ignited the blaze its creators hoped it would.

McLaren is on course to start building their own supercar which is codenamed P11 for the year 2009. This is one of the reasons the Ferrari-McLaren saga continues to bite so deep; technologies learnt in F1 are often adapted for road cars by the manufactures concerned and for McLaren to learn so many Ferrari secrets is an endless sore point at Maranello.
http://www.worldcarfans.com/9080402.010/mercedes-ends-slr-production-in-2009

Thats sad.. I really like this car... I heard there will be a Final Edition SLR coupe thats will be limited to the last cars will be produced...

Lets seee what happens..

Geez! I'm getting annoyed with WCF and their so called expertise F1 article?? Who on earth gave them the air to start writing about F1???

Mclaren and Mercedes announced way before the spygate saga that they won't develop a new super car together.

Truly a magnificent machine

Well we knew it had to happen sooner or later. I too would like to see a final edition of both the coupe and the roadster for the 2009 or 2010 model year here in the U.S. Too bad they can't build both the coupe and roadster at the same time. Does anyone have any sales figures on roadster so far? My guess is that it should be a better seller than the coupe ever was.

M

kind of sad to see it go..
it might not be the best performer..or the best value
but damn it looked the part..

True that! The SLR might not have wow'ed people with its performance but its looks, style and engine roar just makes it worth every penny.

*sight* it's actually sad news to hear.

Maybe I can afford one in 20 years LOL

Sad to see it go, though I was never a fan of it's poser nose. But I guess it makes way for SL BS which hopefully will be an all out track monster that the SLR never was.

^ For what it was there aren't very many front engined automatic cars that can go around the Ring as fast as the SLR did.

^ Well, no one forced them to make it a front engined automatic car - except I guess MB forced McLaren.

Oh and I know SMG is not automatic, but CSL is definitely front engined and with 250 lesser ponies it still went faster around the ring.

The SLR definitely did not live up to the expectations, and by far.

The gearbox was a disaster on such a car, not even downshift blips or bridging of the converter. The motor should have been more modified from the SL, to have a sportier character. The suspensions were not very balanced, the steering not precise enough, the brakes very very powerful but not easy to use...

The only thing it had was the look. And the safety-cell/safety concept, which could explain the excessive weight over the competition.

Its biggest problem was that the Porsche CGT has the same price, power and was released at the same time...

I will not regreat it. It is spectacular, made a lot for the image, but that's all. Nothing like the fabulous 300SL Gullwing at his time.

I think the SLR did a fantastic job in bridging the gulf between a Supercar and a Grand-Tourer.

At the end it was destroyed by the politiking between Mercedes, McLaren, and AMG.

The first trouble began when Gordon Murray demanded the SLR to have a completely flat underbody for aerodynamic reasons and that neccesitated the exhausts to be routed to run out of the side-sills behind the front tyres. That caused tremendous headache for the AMG guys as they had to re-engineer many things under the bonnet to accommodate the massive exhaust/catalytic converters/silencers. Under-bonnet heat management and noise suppression complicated many things and added a lot of weight. The AMG guys preferred the traditional out-the-back exhaust system but they were vetoed.

I think Mercedes' decision to use the ageing five-speed autobox also caused some friction. But Mercedes had no other autobox capable of handling the power of the engine and sourcing a gearbox from an external supplier was never an option............................

The interior was another source of grief between Mercedes and McLaren. McLaren presented the car with a minimalist interior and the Mercedes people rejected it out of hand for being cheap and not the standard or expectation of Mercedes. Mercedes brought in its own suppliers and redesigned the entire interior. The addition of proper trimming, electronic gadgets, safety kit, and sound deadening materials is well documented and added nearly 100kg to the final specification.

The world motoring press complained about the SLR's poor steering (it used the steering rack from the A Class) and powerful but dead brakes made it more a GT than a track-ready Supercar such as the Porsche Carrera GT or the Ferrari Enzo. McLaren did came up with some updates such as the use of the steering rack from the SL and a new brake pedal box to solve the problems. But performance-wise, the SLR was able to hold its own against the Carrera GT and the Enzo even if the SLR was designed to be a Grand-Tourer.

At the end Mercedes rejected their updates because sales of the SLR had begun to decline rather rapidly and needed more money to re-engineer the front suspensions to accept the SL steering rack. The dire financial condition of Daimler-Chrylser at the time also made it difficult for money to flow to the SLR project.

Shortly after the separation of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler, Dieter Zetsche gave AMG-HWA the green light to design and build the next Mercedes Supercar.

The forthcoming McLaren P11 will use an updated version of the AMG normally aspirated 6.2L V8. But that would be the limit of the co-operation between Mercedes-AMG and McLaren.

I hope the forthcoming Mercedes-HWA SLC will be a great deal better than the SLR. I'm not in any way saying the SLR is bad. Just look at the performance figures. But the SLR had turned out to be an unresolved car. See the SLR as a German Hot-Rod or a German Corvette and you won't be disappointed.

Also, the goal posts have moved and the Ferrari 599 and the 612 offer similar performance to the SLR for a lot less money.

Nice avtar man

There's no GT in the world that can offer the get-in and disappear ability the SLR has.Period.

True there is no place you can see $465,000 dissapear quicker than in an SLR. Our dealership lost about $80k in selling ours.

What an overpriced failure.

Yep sad news indeed. I liked this car a lot!
I`m not crying though cause the Mercedes image has never looked better than it`s looking today.

Just wait for the 680something hp SL65 BS. I`m sure it will blow the competition out of the water and the coming 700hp SLC will slaughter them.

I'm just speculating here. I don't know anyone at McLaren.

But I think there is a chance we will see the fothcoming P11 using a double clutch sequential gearbox. McLaren has the technical knowhow and capability to engineer and manufacture such as gearbox. The gearbox used in the McLaren F1 racecars for the past few seasons have been a double-clutch design (zero loss transmission).

McLaren may choose to do this gearbox in conjunction with an established engineering firm such as Ricardo or Xtrac. Ricardo designed the gearbox of the Bugatti Veyron and Xtrac is an established motorsport gearbox supplier.

In like a lion out like a lamb.

i did have the pleasure of selling an SLR. It is a great car, it was just overpriced and overproduced.

that's hilarious. I think the fact that this car is more comfortable on the streets of LA than on a racetrack might have turned some people off. If the price was lower so as not to compete with cars such as the CGT or Enzo, I think that would have worked out better

I think the price of the SLR is just fine,from the start MB was clear that this car is an exotic and will cost like one,plus it is made from the most exotic materials in the business.

Very sad 2 see it go, 2 bad when it appeared it had the CGT and ENZO on its tail....SLR Prob 1 of the bst looking supercars ever, and will def b a true classic come 50years time....

Quite agreed, fabulously good looking car and yeah it will be a true classic in years to come

May we never forget and if we do..we shall all ways remember