Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren

Posted by admin on May 7, 2008

Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren is a sports car made by Mercedes-Benz and McLaren Automotive. The Anglo-German powerful sports car was built in Portsmouth – United Kingdom and the McLaren Technology center in Woking, Surrey in the UK. Daimler AG, owner of Mercedes-Benz, also owns 40% of the McLaren Group.
The abbreviation SLR stands for “Sport, Leicht, Rennsport” (sport, light, racing). The Mercedes Slr McLaren is the fastest automatic transmission car in the world.  Mercedes-Benz has stated that they will build 3500 SLRs in 7 years time, with a production rate of 500 cars per year. The base price of this vehicle is GBP£300,000 (approx. US$495,000 or €475,000, c. 2007)
Daimler AG was inspired to build this car by the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR built in 1955 on the W196 F1 car.  Mercedes announced they will stop the production of the SLR. The last of the coupes were produced at the end of 2007 and the roadster version is about to be taken off production in early 2009.
The coupe of the Mercedes-SLR uses active aerodynamics – there is a spoiler mounted on the rear integral air brake flap. The spoiler increases downforce and push the car to the road depending on its angle of elevation. When a speed of  95 km/h is reached the spoiler automatically raises to 10 degrees (15 in 722 edition),the driver can increase the angle to 30 degrees.
Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren is equipped with a 232-kilogram hand-built 5.4-litre, supercharged aluminum SOHC V8 petrol engine. The cylinders are angled at 90 degrees with three valves per cylinder and lubricated via a dry sump system. The compression ratio is 8.8:1 and the bore and stroke is 97 millimetre (3.82 in) and 92 millimeters (3.62 in), respectively.
The Lysholm-type twin-screw supercharger produces 0.9 bar of boost, the turbine rotates at 23000 revolutions per minute, and the air is cooled via two intercoolers. The engine produces a maximum power of 617 hp/460 kW at 6500 rev. per minute and a maximum torque of 780 newton-metres at 3250 rev. per minute.
The SLR engine is front-mid mounted. The idea was taken from the original concept car designed by Mercedes and moved the engine 1 meter behind the front bumper, and around 0.5 meters behind the front axle. The design of the center firewall was optimized as well.

The brake discs are made from carbon-ceramic and provide better stopping power and fade resistance than metal discs while operating under ideal working temperature. These discs will remain intact at a temperature of 1200°C. The front discs are 8 piston calipers – 370 mm in diameter and are internally vented. Rear discs are with 4 piston calipers and 360 mm in diameter. The calipers automatically skim the surface of the disks during wet conditions in order to keep them dry.
An automatic air brake was implemented in order to improve braking performance, when activated the elevation angle of the rear spoiler is set to 65 degrees. This system increases the deceleration with 25%.

Mercedes-Benz and McLaren initial claims for the performance of the SLR were confirmed. The vehicle accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.1 seconds, from 0 to 200 km/h in 9.5 seconds, the car reaches the incredible speed of 300 km/h for 24.4 seconds. The top speed of the car is 360 km/h. A carbon fibre is used for constructing the whole body of the car in order to keep the weight as low as possible, however its total weight is 1768 kg.
Although the car is heavy the fuel economy is better than the lighter Lamborghini Murciélago and even the lighter, less expensive, less powerful sibling – Gallardo.