{"id":94864,"date":"2014-03-31T22:46:28","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T20:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gtspirit.com\/?p=94864"},"modified":"2014-10-09T15:18:05","modified_gmt":"2014-10-09T13:18:05","slug":"mercedes-slr-mclaren-mso-edition-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtspirit.com\/2014\/03\/31\/mercedes-slr-mclaren-mso-edition-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes SLR McLaren MSO Edition Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n Define \u2018baptism of fire\u2019. No, wait \u2013 I\u2019ll do it for you. It\u2019s a cold January evening, and a man from McLaren has just handed you the keys to a car that looks like this. As you clamber aboard \u2013 inelegantly, it has to be said, thanks to the lifting doors \u2013 a few spots of rain pepper the windscreen. You ease out of the car park, suddenly and painfully aware that you have no idea where the enormous bonnet ends \u2013 or, indeed, how much ground clearance that jutting bumper has. Nor can you easily spot any of the car\u2019s four corners, given that this thing measures a full two metres in width and you\u2019re sitting on the left-hand side in a right-hand-drive country.<\/p>\n Darkness has fallen, and as you slip onto a motorway heaving with jinking, stop-start rush-hour traffic, the shower turns biblical. Wind and rain lash the windscreen, and standing water has reduced both visibility and stopping distances to just a whisker more than sod all. Oh, and if you even think about straying beyond about half throttle, the back end decides it\u2019d like to pop round and say hi. <\/p>\n\r\n Best get to get to grips with the Mercedes McLaren Edition SLR pretty bloomin\u2019 sharpish, in other words. I\u2019ve got the length of the M3 motorway to do so. This will not, however, be a halcyon sunset blast to acquaint myself with one of the most brutal-looking supercars ever to stalk the earth. As you might have guessed already, it\u2019ll be a hellish blend of weather and traffic, garnished with a generous helping of angst and the occasional frisson of genuine, heart-in-mouth terror. Frankly, you don\u2019t want to hear about it. So while I truck on through the Tuesday night rush, let\u2019s find out a little more about this terrifically bonkers creation. <\/p>\n What is it? Well, it\u2019s an SLR. That much is pretty obvious. But this is rather a special one. This one\u2019s been taken in by McLaren\u2019s Special Operations department, which we had a brisk tour of before setting off<\/a>, and subjected to a strict fitness regime. <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The company admits now that the standard car was flawed when it was released; a product of two different visions \u2013 Mercedes\u2019s for a bigger, faster SL; McLaren\u2019s for a supercar successor to the F1 \u2013 but one that satisfied neither. But, MSO says, it\u2019s now gone back to the drawing board, and developed a package aimed at turning the SLR into the car it always hoped to produce.<\/p>\n The catch? Only 25 will be available. And while MSO will sell you certain parts separately, once all 25 of the complete packages have been sold, the company won\u2019t let you build a 26th \u2013 at least, not as it stands today. <\/p>\n\r\n So, what does one of these desperately exclusive packages set you back? Around 134,500 euros, at time of writing. That price is exclusive of British sales tax, which adds another 30,000 euros on top if you\u2019re eligible to pay it. And that\u2019s in addition to the cost of the base car itself \u2013 a decent SLR will set you back at least 180,000 euros these days. In short, it doesn\u2019t come cheap.<\/p>\n Engine<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Under the bonnet, the stock SLR features a heavily-reworked version of the Mercedes M113 powerplant common to many AMG models that were available around the same time. Renamed M155 to take account of its many tweaks, it constituted a 5.4-litre V8, with a Lysholm supercharger bolted on to provide 0.9 bar of boost. So, in short, that\u2019s an AMG V8 with a thumping great supercharger. If that sounds to you like it might have had a bit of oomph, you\u2019d be right. 625PS at 6,500rpm, to be precise, matched by a whacking great 780Nm slug of torque served up at 5,000 revs. <\/p>\n Power, therefore, was never lacking in the original SLR, so it\u2019s no surprise that McLaren has left the engine bay alone \u2013 for the most part. The only difference is enlarged radiators, which don\u2019t increase peak power output but ensure that the SLR\u2019s engine is producing more power across a greater spread of the rev range. There\u2019s also a new exhaust; a ceramic-coated lightweight system that\u2019s been tuned for a more mellifluous engine note. With the exception of those two changes, though, it\u2019s business as usual \u2013 if you can call it that.<\/p>\n Transmission<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Like the engine, the gearbox has remained unchanged from the stock SLR. In other words, you get the same AMG Speedshift R five-speed torque-converter transmission. Five-speed? Yes, that\u2019s right; engineers felt that the brute force of the SLR\u2019s powerplant might prove too much for the seven-speed unit, so a more robust and more mechanically simple five-ratio \u2019box found its home here. <\/p>\n As per the standard SLR, you get the choice between two automatic and three manual shifting modes, the former taking the form of \u2018comfort\u2019 and \u2018sport\u2019, and the latter comprising three progressively harder, faster shift actions, controlled by the paddle shifters mounted on the reverse of the steering wheel.<\/p>\n Suspension & Chassis<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n So far, so SLR, then. But don\u2019t worry: things are just about to start getting interesting. It\u2019s in the chassis department that McLaren\u2019s gone to town most of all \u2013 as you might expect, really. The centrepiece is a new handling package, developed with the aid of the company\u2019s Formula One test rig, and consisting of a mass of revisions to the stock SLR\u2019s suspension. Spring rates and low-speed bump damping have been subject to the most work, the idea having been to make the SLR feel both more pliant and more focussed. Downforce, too, has been increased by 15 per cent compared with the SLR 722 Edition, thanks to a series of upgrades to the car\u2019s aerodynamics. <\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t stop there, though. The steering, too, has been revised, in an attempt to drown out some of the nervousness of the original. McLaren says the turn-in is now much more progressive, and some of the standard car\u2019s less pleasant yaw and pitch characteristics have been eliminated.<\/p>\n Design<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Is there much to say about the McLaren Edition that a picture of the thing doesn\u2019t? I mean, just look at it. With the possible exception of the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, there can be few more brutally, overtly, deliberately aggressive-looking supercars than this. The stock SLR is a deeply attractive car, and pretty meaty in its own right \u2013 but park one next to a McLaren Edition and it looks almost effeminate by comparison. <\/p>\n In the flesh, the latter car\u2019s even more striking. From the side, the long, diving nose leads over wheels that look almost too small, to an almost comically small cockpit and a chopped-off tail end; at the rear, the huge, grey-tinted lights glow above a beefy diffuser. But it\u2019s up front that the McLaren Edition\u2019s at its most striking. The gaping front air dam and razor-sharp bumper look as though they\u2019d sooner chop your legs off at the ankles than aid in any sort of impact protection. This is, in short, a car with a serious sense of menace about it. <\/p>\n Interior<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n That sense of menace, however, doesn\u2019t continue to the interior. That\u2019s a good thing, because what you get instead is welcome familiarity. The SLR\u2019s dash and switchgear architecture haven\u2019t changed, though some carbon-fibre trim and a special plaque remind you exactly what flavour McMerc you\u2019re sitting in. The seats, however, are new one-piece items finished in quilted Alcantara. But the majority will be recognisable for anyone who\u2019s spent time in a modern Merc; well laid-out, easy to Driving experience<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n For full disclosure, I have to point out from the off that I haven\u2019t had the pleasure of driving the standard SLR. Here, then, is not the place to read a true comparison between that car and this. What I can tell you, though, is how the McLaren Edition stands up as a supercar in its own right. And the good news is, it\u2019s everything its looks would have you believe. <\/p>\n With the night terrors of the M3 at rush hour just a distant memory, I\u2019m able the following morning to find some reasonably dry tarmac to give the McLaren Edition its head. But not before I\u2019ve nosed it out of town. Here, having adjusted to its sheer size, it\u2019s actually a pretty docile thing to smooch around in. The auto box means there\u2019s no heavy clutch to deal with, and the steering\u2019s light and easy. It\u2019s not perfect, mind; the ride, while lacking the crashiness I\u2019m told was a factor in the original, is still rather firm, which can grow wearing after a while. And the brakes are a struggle to get used to; the pedal is incredibly stiff, which makes moving it incrementally a real test of leg control. <\/p>\n But once the road opens, these quibbles are forgotten. I find a straight bit of tarmac long enough to hoof the throttle, and do it. Right the way down to the kickdown switch. The box obliges, dropping down two cogs, and that exhaust barks into life. No, actually, \u2018barks\u2019 is the wrong word. This isn\u2019t so much noise as air being punched violently into your eardrums. Fitted with this exhaust, the SLR doesn\u2019t grumble or howl so much as it thuds; insistently, repeatedly and relentlessly, punching you in the gut and in the head simultaneously with each walloping stroke of the engine. And with full-bore acceleration, the endless bass note is overlaid with a shrill scream; the supercharger wailing torturously as it pours air into the cylinders. These are not the musical notes of a Ferrari or a Lamborghini; this is the guttural, bludgeoning soundtrack that only an AMG Merc can make, except here it\u2019s turned up to 12. <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n You\u2019d spend your time revelling in the noise, but frankly, you\u2019re too busy holding on for dear life as the SLR hurtles off down the road, feeling like it\u2019s been hit up the jacksy by a rocket sled. There\u2019s a touch of squirming at the rear and you grip the wheel to make sure things don\u2019t get out of shape; mercifully, unless the road\u2019s wet, they don\u2019t. This isn\u2019t acceleration that builds to a divine sweet spot, urging you to wring the best out of it. This is acceleration that matches the way the car sounds; a huge, brawny, thumping slab of it, delivered whatever the revs. <\/p>\n Arrive at a corner, and things only get better. Well, for the most part. Haul on the fantastically strong carbon ceramic brakes \u2013 that pedal stiffness suddenly isn\u2019t an issue when all you want to do is stop as hard as you can \u2013 and the SLR draws up short in an astonishing distance. But that gearbox is a fly in the ointment, lacking the crispness and precision you\u2019d desire, even in the harshest manual mode. With a bit of familiarity it\u2019s possible to work with it, pulling the paddle earlier in order to time the actual shift correctly, but it isn\u2019t ideal.<\/p>\n\r\n Once you get used to it, though, and get into a rhythm with the McLaren Edition, the way in which it bursts from corner to corner in a manic whirlwind of noise and power, as you grip the wheel and hold on for dear life, is astonishing. At each bend, there\u2019s poise on the way in, thanks to deliciously quick steering and huge front-end grip, both of which translate into a sharp and precise turn-in. Then, brutality on the way out, as you stoke the throttle as much as you dare, feathering it earlier than you think as you feel the rear wheels start to shift sideways. That back end is, it has to be said, flighty; get carried away, and there\u2019s no doubt that it\u2019ll bite you \u2013 though what more would you expect from a car that looks like this? Crucially, though, there\u2019s none of the uncertainty I\u2019m told is a factor in the standard car. The McLaren Edition might be wild on the limit, but it certainly isn\u2019t unpredictable. <\/p>\n
\nuse, and notably in this hard-driven 76,000-mile demonstrator, extremely well put-together. <\/p>\n