• Offered from The Carrera Collection
• The remarkable roadgoing result of the two-time F1 Championship-winning partnership between Mercedes-Benz, AMG, and McLaren
• Acquired in March 2017; odometer reads less than 11,000 kilometres
• Stylishly specified in Crystal Laurite Silver Metallic over Exclusive Anthracite Silver Arrow leather with Orion Grey contrast stitching and dark grey soft top
• Delivered new to Switzerland
• Engineered by Gordon Murray and built by McLaren; one of only 670 produced

Please note this car is titled as 2010.

Bitte beachten Sie, dass dieses Auto mit dem Jahr 2010 zugelassen ist.

Jointly developed by Mercedes-Benz, AMG, and McLaren Automotive, the SLR McLaren sought to bring something different to the supercar arena. The three companies had been involved together in Formula 1 since 1995, and the notion of this working relationship leading to a limited-production supercar was greatly anticipated. The Vision SLR Concept was unveiled at the 1999 Detroit Auto Show just a few months after McLaren-Mercedes driver Mika Häkkinen had secured the partnership’s first Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship title.

The road-going version of the SLR concept followed for the 2004 model year, with orders beginning in early-2003. The Chief Engineer of the 450-person team that was charged with developing the Vision SLR Concept into a successful production supercar was none other than well-respected designer and engineer, Gordon Murray. To this end, McLaren handled all production duties for the model at their factory in Woking—the same factory that had made Murray’s world-beating F1.

Rather than pursue all-out performance, Mercedes-Benz and McLaren sought to create a car that could easily outperform Porsche’s Carrera GT, Ferrari’s 599 GTB Fiorano, and Lamborghini’s Murciélago while also serving as a capable, comfortable, and luxurious high-speed grand tourer. The compromise required between Mercedes-Benz, AMG, and McLaren to create the SLR resulted in a model which offers the best of both worlds. That is to say the SLR is a beautiful brute—a carbon fibre, 300 km/h fist sheathed in the finest leather glove.

AMG developed and assembled the model’s fire-breathing 626 brake horsepower, 5.5-litre supercharged V-8 engine and five-speed Speedshift automatic transmission. The SLR can sprint from 0–100 km/h in just 3.8 seconds, peaking at an astounding maximum velocity of 332 km/h. To halt its prodigious high-speed capabilities, the SLR is equipped with Mercedes-Benz’s Sensotronic “brake by wire” system, along with 370-millimetre carbon-ceramic disc brakes and an automatic airbrake which is cleverly integrated into the rear decklid. These systems working in unison can bring the car to a stomach-churning halt from nearly 200 km/h in less than 75 metres. One of Murray’s most incredible suggestions, gleaned from his Formula 1 expertise, was a set of underbody panels that not only seal the SLR’s undercarriage from aerodynamic turbulence, but also generate a healthy dose of downforce.

Murray also reportedly demanded that the AMG V-8 powerplant utilise a dry-sump lubrication system, which thereby allowed his McLaren team to mount the unit as far back, and as low, as possible into the SLR’s carbon-reinforced-composite monocoque chassis. The results of this practice endowed the SLR with a near-perfect weight distribution, exceptionally pleasant road-handling dynamics, and also its characteristically long bonnet.

THE SLR ROADSTER
To ratchet up excitement of the SLR even further, the roadster version gained a power-operated, insulated soft-top and was introduced in 2007. Ascendant McLaren-Mercedes Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton helped publicise the new model, even specifying his own example. In November 2008, just a few months after customer deliveries began, Hamilton claimed the first of his seven Drivers’ Championship titles. Only 670 SLR McLaren Roadsters were produced at McLaren’s factory between August 2007 and May 2009, and they remain especially coveted today.

Reminiscing about the project in his 2019 book, Formula One: 50 Years of Car Design, Gordon Murray notes that the SLR was ‘the most expensive car they [Mercedes-Benz] have ever made. And it was made in a completely different way with structural composites. We [McLaren] got to do everything, and I mean everything, apart from the styling. We did all the design, the engineering, the packaging work, all the vehicle development, crash-testing, and durability. We designed and created the manufacturing facility, the paint shop and the end-of-line testing and built every car and passed it to sales.’

This striking Swiss-market SLR Roadster was acquired by The Carrera Collection in March 2017. It is presented in the model’s signature shade of Crystal Laurit Silver Metallic over a sumptuous cabin trimmed with Exclusive Anthracite Silver Arrow leather, Orion Grey contrast stitching and high-gloss carbon fibre trim—all ensconced beneath a convertible soft top rendered in matching dark grey fabric. Additional factory specifications include a pair of extra-large carbon shell seats with “SLR”-embossed headrests, and 19-inch turbine-style wheels that house a set of silver-painted brake calipers.

This SLR Roadster indicates just 10,977 kilometers on its odometer at time of cataloguing, of which approximately 500 kilometres have been added by the consignor during their six years of ownership. Curiously, this SLR’s accompanying Swiss documentation indicates that McLaren did not deliver the car to its originating dealer, Mercedes-Benz Centre Schlieren, until 15 December 2009; it subsequently received its initial registration in Geneva on 27 January 2010. Invoices on file from authorised Mercedes-Benz service facilities indicate nearly CHF 14,000 were spent on routine maintenance within the last 1,000 kilometers of use.

This SLR Roadster is an exemplar of the famous—and only—roadgoing model developed jointly by the three titans of motorsport, Mercedes-Benz, AMG, and McLaren. Finished in a striking colour scheme and benefitting from seven years of residence within the consignor’s climate-controlled and finely curated collection, this SLR would be a significant acquisition for Mercedes-AMG and McLaren Formula 1 devotees, or any collector of 21st Century halo cars. Hailed by Mercedes-Benz as “the Silver Arrow of the 21st Century”, the SLR is a remarkable piece of engineering with a notably broad driving repertoire, offering higher levels of luxury and comfort than any of its elite competitors.
To view this car and others currently consigned to this auction, please visit the RM website at rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/cc23.