Can you believe Merc's bite-the-back-of-your-hand beautiful SLR McLaren is two decades old? A very different animal from the SL 55 AMG of that epoch, the supercharged V8-engined brute was the most badass GT of its time for a number of reasons.
First and foremost, McLaren F1 mastermind Gordon Murray spent a whopping six months flying back and forth to Stuttgart on a weekly basis. More than simply a tribute to the 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe from the 1950s, the second coming features a carbon-fiber monocoque rather than Merc's aluminum chassis.
Murray had a hard time getting the SLR done as he'd envisioned it, and boy, the result speaks for itself. Pretty, comfortable, fast, loud, and exotic are merely five adjectives that describe this fellow, a car that was produced in extremely limited numbers. 2,157 were produced in total, most of them coupes. The Stirling Moss two-door speedster is the rarest of the bunch, while the soft-topped roadster slots in the middle.
The purple-finished SLR in the video below is one such roadster, which is an idea heavier than the coupe at 3,858 pounds (1,750 kilograms). Pictured at Gstaad Airport in the Swiss Alps, the Merc-turned-Macca roadster is joined by an orange-painted Aston Martin DBS Superleggera Volante. Heavier still, the British challenger levels up to a twin-turbo V12.
Connected to a far quicker torque-converter automatic, the DBS rocks eight forward gears compared to five in the SLR's case. Then again, remember that Aston Martin rolled out its high-performance grand tourer in 2018. Derived from the Second Century platform-based Aston Martin DB11, the DBS belts out 715 horsepower (725 ps) and 664 pound-feet (900 Nm) from 1,800 to 5,000 rpm.
By comparison, the slightly larger supercharged V8 in the SLR is rated at 617 horsepower (626 ps) and 575 pound-feet (780 Nm) between 3,250 and 5,000 rpm. There's no denying the British grand tourer is much superior at first glance, but does it have the right stuff to keep the SLR at bay in a drag race?
The short answer is no, and that's a bit of a surprise given the OG's ripe old age. On the other hand, remember that both owners are having fun rather than duking it out for straight-line supremacy in a professional fashion. Performance-oriented GTs are meant to be enjoyed, and these guys are doing exactly that with their superb-looking machines.
Developed to compete with Aston Martins, Ferraris, and Lambos from the early 2000s, the SLR was axed in 2010 for the gullwing-door SLS. The modern-day equivalent would be the now-discontinued GT Black Series, which belts out a massive 720 ponies from a flat-plane crankshaft V8 of the twin-turbo variety.
The DBS Superleggera is on its last legs because Aston Martin has recently introduced the heir apparent to the DB11 in the form of the DB12. Even though it packs a Mercedes-AMG V8, the newcomer is more powerful (671 horsepower) and torquier (590 pound-feet or 800 Nm) than the SLR McLaren.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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