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Hated the SLR roadster (but would happily take one) Coupe all the way for me.
Love the loud exhaust on them, V8 rumble with some high pitched S/C whine. Sounds amazing
Maybe it's just me, but the SLS just looked heavy & less aggressive compared to the SLR.
I think the appreciation for the SLR is coming back around, still not enough to recoup. what original owners lost unless you own a 722, then you're much better off.
It's entertaining reading some owner posts about the SLR because all these people who actually drive theirs, never have more than 4-5 cars all-around & the SLR is usually the most exotic of their bunch. You get into the insane maintenance costs when they need service and it feels like it makes total sense. Basic service costs can reach $10,000. Engine removal alone racks up labor hours. Full brake replacement is $40,000+. I believe a lot of this is due to the McLaren development of the car.
Fun quote from someone who worked on them.
The reason why its so much money is because its labor intensive. I've done services on these cars. Have not done a major service on one yet, but the motor does have to come out to do spark plugs, or any components on top of the motor. I have pulled the fuel tanks on one and its about 9 hours of work. The under body has over 140 bolts that hold the under paneling in place, they are all bolted into the carbon fiber body so no power or air tools allowed. And all have to be torqued because the under body is part on the vehicles frame structure.
Just an oil change alone will easily take 2-3 hours.
The thing that gets me when I look at an SLR is how much of it is from my gen SL55 AMG. The interior is almost identical except for different seats and a center stack. The engine is a massaged version of the SL55's powerplant. The transmission is supposed to be the same unit with revised programming.
I'd be very curious to drive one and see how much more different it is.
Yeah these cars were not designed for supportability, and that bothers me. I will never own one because of that reason (never mind the insane money to buy one).
I suppose to put things into perspective, it could be the same as someone letting the dealer perform a $70 synthetic oil change when you can do it yourself at home for $35 for the cost of oil.
I remember when I was working for Honda in college, one of the former Honda techs had moved on & was the SLR tech for one of the Houston MB dealers. Was in the SLR for a test drive after replacing front rotors (owner hit a curb & cracked a rotor), MB agreed to sell a single rotor [typically only sold in pairs at the time] for something like $16k
Originally Posted by wackjum
The thing that gets me when I look at an SLR is how much of it is from my gen SL55 AMG. The interior is almost identical except for different seats and a center stack. The engine is a massaged version of the SL55's powerplant. The transmission is supposed to be the same unit with revised programming.
I'd be very curious to drive one and see how much more different it is.
IIRC, the SLR also uses a different S/C (Lyshom v Roots)
^ Heh yeah. I remember reading something on reddit that layed out an interesting comparison of wealth levels...people who are worth several hundred millions to the billionaire level....if you scale it down to an avg American salary...the cost of like a $15,000/$20,000 item (1st class plane ticket, exotic car repair) is like spending $5-10 to an avg income household. Don't quote me on the exact numbers but it's basically insanely cheap to those kinds of wealth levels and on an entirely differently level of what we 99.9% of mortals are used to living...
I remember when I was working for Honda in college, one of the former Honda techs had moved on & was the SLR tech for one of the Houston MB dealers. Was in the SLR for a test drive after replacing front rotors (owner hit a curb & cracked a rotor), MB agreed to sell a single rotor [typically only sold in pairs at the time] for something like $16k
IIRC, the SLR also uses a different S/C (Lyshom v Roots)
M113k engine (55 AMG cars) also use a Lysholm supercharger unit from IHI. But the SLR engine is a dry sump so there's definitely been changes there.
Actually overall I think the SLR might be decently reliable. The transmission is essentially the same 722.6 unit that were used in everything including Sprinter trucks and still exists today as a Chrysler NAG1. The real problem is that the engine is so low and far back in the chassis that every preventative or common maintenance calls for an engine drop.
On the plus side, MB recently announced a 25 year unlimited mile warranty for the Sensotronic Brake Controller. I would assume the warranty applies to SLR too. So that removes one time bomb...
Ah, I didn't realize it shared so much with the other 55AMGs, thought the Lysholm was bespoke to the SLR.
One of the biggest things I always think of is the old TG:UK episode with Hammond & the brakes trying to rip your face off with how touchy the earlier ones were.
The SLR is one of the more reliable supercars of its era, when you remember McLaren was the company developing the car more so than Mercedes and the car was touted as the ultimate Grand Tourer, so there were no aspirations for track times or a race-inspired chassis with roll cages or super-stiff suspension during its development. I remember reading every example was placed on a rolling road for around an hour up to 155mph after assembly followed by quality checks before the cars were shipped.
I think the CS is one of the most beautiful cars BMW has ever produced. $82K for a non-original CS with some potentially expensive problems like the heater core seems like a lot.
That it is a two-turbo is fine; that it’s using a mid-70s early 5-series engine is not.
07-22-2019, 09:27 AM
Hated the SLR roadster (but would happily take one) Coupe all the way for me.
I think the roadster looks great (with the top down).
