New M-B Will Be Made in England
Do you remember when Mercedes-Benz was a force in sports car racing? I'm not talking about Formula 1, where its engines are made by England's Ilmor Engineering (now 55% owned by M-B) and chassis' by McLaren (40% owned by M-B). I'm not even referring to DTM, where Bernd Schneider often dominates in heavily modified CLKs. I mean sports car racing, where real production cars go head to head for race track dominance.
 |
| Mercedes wants us to remember back to the 1950s when the 300 SLR, driven by Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss and Karl Kling, earned its reputation as one of the most successful racing cars of all time. (Photo: Mercedes-Benz) |
Mercedes wants us to remember the mid 1950s when Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss and Karl Kling guided the all-powerful 300 SLR to its place as one of the most successful racing sports cars of all time.
 |
| The F1, shown here coming around a bend at the 1997 FIA/PSR Grand Prix Finale at Laguna Seca, annihilated the GT competitors of its era. Both road and race versions are still considered some of the fastest and best handling GT cars ever produced. Its maker, McLaren, will be in charge of constructing the new SLR. (Photo: Mercedes-Benz) |
While the closest the new SLR will make it to the track might be running pace car duties, it will hold nothing back in street car performance. A hyper-tuned version of AMG's supercharged 5.5-L V8 - rumored to even displace as much as 5.8-L - will send more than 550-hp through the multi-spoke rear wheels.
The aforementioned F1 chassis builder, McLaren, will be in charge of constructing the car, something the Woking, England outfit has proven itself extremely worthy of after annihilating GT competitors with its the McLaren F1 supercar, still considered one of the fastest, best handling of its kind ever made.