Bond Bound: The Mercedes McLaren

By James Gilbert Pynn

To say the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren is a stunning piece of engineering would be a marvelous understatement. Developed jointly between the respective automotive powerhouses, the SLR Mclaren is a shining example of automotive design. It was manufactured, in part, in Portsmouth and Woking, England. Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes, also has a significant stake in the McLaren Group. Therefore, it seems it was only a matter of time before the two companies would join forces.

To date, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren boasts the fastest automatic transmission of any sports car anywhere in the entire world. The initials SLR stand for "Sport, Leicht, Rennsport," which translate from German as "sport, light, racing." Over the course of seven years, Mercedes announced it would only build 3,500 models, translating roughly to 500 cars a year. The base price? Approximately $495,000.

The Mercedes SLR McLaren sports carbon-ceramic brake pads, which provide superior stopping power. The company claims that these discs happen to be fade resistant to a temperature of 1,200 degrees Celsius. The front disc brakes are 370 mm in diameter and are internally vented. Eight piston calipers are used. In the rear, the discs are 360 mm in diameter and four piston calipers are used. When conditions on the roadways are wet, the calipers automatically skim the discs' surfaces to keep them dry. There is an automatic air brake that ultimately improves braking performance. When this brake is engaged, the rear spoiler assumes a 65 degree elevation angle.

The hand-built 5.4 liter V-8 engine is supercharged, with an engine bore of 97 millimeters and a stroke is 92 millimeters. The engine puts out a maximum power of 626 PS at 6,500 revolutions each minute. The engine of the SLR McLaren is front-mid mounted. McLaren thought that they would take the original concept of the car, which was designed by Mercedes, and improve it by moving the engine one meter behind the front bumper and approximately 50 centimeters behind the front axle.

A carbon fiber body has kept the SLR's total weight remarkably low. Tests have shown that the SLR is able to achieve a 0-60 mph in a time that was really under the claimed 3.8 seconds, and the car reached a maximum velocity of 208 mph. Car and Driver actually achieved a 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds and a quarter-mile time was equal to 11.6 seconds at the velocity of 125 mph. It is hard to believe that in the category of luxury cars, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren sports car was able to reach such incredible speeds in such a short amount of time. Used cars for sale seldom include this exemplar of engineering and craftsmanship. - 20605

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