Mclaren Mercedes SLR
TIPPED BY: MARTIN CHISHOLM
‘The combination is key,’ says Martin Chisholm. ‘Mercedes, Mclaren and AMG, and it uses a modern take on gullwing doors. That’s a pretty potent mixture, and yet they were going down in value for years. That has now firmly stopped.’
Because it was the first road car after the Mclaren F1 to bear the Mclaren name, it’s sometimes taken to be the company’s attempt at a successor – but this does it an injustice. It grew from a wellreceived Mercedes concept in 1999. Mercedes joined forces with its then Formula 1 partner, Mclaren, to bring it to market. It sold around 2150 of them between 2003 and 2008.
All use a 5.4-litre, hand-built, supercharged V8 making 617bhp and pushing the car from 0-100mph in 7.5 seconds, with a top speed beyond 210mph. Despite using carbon extensively in their construction, they weigh in at 1750kg. ‘It’s a real point-and-squirt machine,’ says Martin. ‘It’s got this monster growl – it’s as impressive for a chap standing by the side of the road as it is for driver. It’s a great autobahn car, but also a great London car too – comfortable and automatic. That said, it’s not one to throw round country lanes or Alpine passes like you would a Porsche.’
Mclaren’s Special Operations department will re-trim, re-paint and re-tune any SLR to personal tastes, giving you the chance to move away from the only two standard colours – silver and black. That level of involvement with an older model does no harm to residual values for all SLRS. There is a roadster version too, for those that want to be seen while driving, and these can also be had at the top of our price bracket. Martin would stick to the coupé.
‘They’re probably trading around £180k to £200k and a bit more. It must have the right history, but you’ll be able to check that with the records kept by Mclaren or Mercedes.’
‘It’s a real point-andsquirt machine. It’s got this monster growl’