July 9, 2003

The design of the new Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren:
a breathtaking blend of legend and sophistication

• New high-performance sports car to make world debut in autumn 2003
• A captivating combination of traditional and state-of-the-art styling elements

Stuttgart - Legend and sophistication - these two hallmark characteristics of the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren stand out immediately, and are the essence of the scintillating styling radiated by the new high-performance sports car, which is due to make its world debut in autumn 2003.

Legend and sophistication - this is the precept underpinning the Gran Turismo body design, as it takes the classical styling elements from the legendary SLR racing cars of the 1950s and blends them masterfully with the sophisticated, avant-garde design language of both the latest Mercedes passenger car models and of the modern-day Silver Arrows race cars which took the McLaren Mercedes team to Formula One World Championship glory. The design's concept therefore spans the divide between past and present, whilst at the same time showing the way forward for the sports car designs of tomorrow.

The new Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren bears witness to the tremendous expertise of Mercedes-Benz and of its Formula One ally, McLaren, when it comes to the development, design and manufacture of high-performance sports cars. Know-how and knowledge are blended into a harmonious whole, resulting not only in pioneering new features, stunning power development and sensational on-road performance, but also in extremely high levels of safety and suitability for day-to-day use.

Such a thorough grounding has given rise to a vehicle blessed with inimitable charisma, where legend and sophistication melt together in a thoroughly masterful Mercedes synthesis.

Twin-headlamp face, plus styling touches from the Silver Arrows Formula One car

It's the long, sweeping lines of the bonnet, the succinctly styled air gills in the wings, the eye-catching sidepipes, the compact tail and, last but by no means least, the gullwing doors which breathe life into the SLR legend. These design features first caused a sensation back in 1952, and have remained the hallmark of thoroughbred Mercedes sports cars ever since.

These and other styling elements rooted in the SLR tradition are harmonized smoothly with the latest Mercedes design traits: these include the distinctive "twin-headlamp face", which has been blazing a trail since it first appeared in 1995, and the fascinating interplay of soft contours and taut lines, a characteristic which runs through many of the models in the current Mercedes portfolio.

The bodystyling of the SLR is also modeled on the McLaren Mercedes Silver
Arrows. The arrow-shaped nose, which encompasses the Mercedes star at the front and gives the bumper as a whole a bolder, more powerful look, stems from the championship-winning Formula One car, as does the twin-fin spoiler in the front bumper. Again, this is more than just an identifying design feature, as it is also crucial to the vehicle's aerodynamics and engine cooling.

Seen from the side, the eye is immediately caught by the flat, wedge-shaped form of the new high-performance supercar. This is created primarily by the long bonnet, the steeply raked front windscreen, the rearwards positioning of the passenger cockpit, the large wheels and the compact tail. Thanks to these proportions, the side profile lends further emphasis to the sense of forwards surge which courses through the new SLR.

The designers have incorporated a further SLR element in the form of the finned side air gills in the front wings, although they do far more than recall just the design of the legendary racing cars from 1955: today, as indeed back then, the side air outlets serve to ventilate the engine compartment. The designers have underlined their practical function by the use of sweeping lines which continue into the gullwing doors.

Unmistakable tail with exemplary aerodynamic qualities

The design of the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren's tail end marks a breakaway from that of its legendary predecessor. Whereas the tail of the original racing cars sloped gradually downwards, the boot lid of the new Gran Turismo model continues straight backwards at the same high level. As well as increasing the luggage capacity, this also serves to reduce lift and aerodynamic drag, translating into enhanced roadholding ability. The new six-channel diffusor in the rear bumper also has an important role to play here.

An interior that fits like a glove and "Silver Arrow" leather in peerless quality

It is the very high levels of practicality and luxury that truly make the high-performance sportster's interior stand out. Individually padded bucket seats combine with a multifunction steering wheel with race-car-type buttons for manual gear selection and clearly arranged chronometer-style gauges to ensure that drivers can keep the SLR comfortably under control at all times, and that they have all the information they need conveniently at their fingertips.

High-grade materials set the interior tone: aluminum, carbon and supple "Silver Arrow" leather, which was specially developed for the new sports car and sets benchmark standards in terms of its quality and its material thickness.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow:
the design concept of the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren

• Perpetuation of the sports car legends of the 1950s
• Front-end design incorporating features of the Formula 1 Silver Arrows
• Distinctive twin-headlamp face of the latest Mercedes models
  " Trends for future sports car design

January 1999. The North American International Auto Show in Detroit: Mercedes-Benz unveils its vision for the high-performance sports car of the future, billing it "Tomorrow's Silver Arrow". Just three letters are enough to show that this new car is going to be something extra-special: SLR.

By so doing, the Stuttgart-based car maker is evoking memories of the legendary racing cars of the 1950s, and of the sensational victories in the Mille Miglia in Italy, the Tourist Trophy in Northern Ireland or in the Eifel Race on the Nür-burgring. Many motor racing greats, including Sir Stirling Moss, Juan Manuel Fangio and Karl Kling, sat at the wheel of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR and drove it to one victory after the next.

Mid-2003: the SLR project is reaching its conclusion. Some four years on from the launch of the show-car in Detroit, a new GT model is entering the home straight and finishing with a final flourish. In September 2003, it will go on show to the world.

The design, engineering and product planning teams have together developed a top-class car all-round; a sports car the like of which can only be created under the masterful guidance of the longest-standing car manufacturer in the world, working in close cooperation together with another vastly experienced and skillful partner from the world of motorsport.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow - that's the recipe that is the making of this new high-performance car. The design concept makes it plain for all to see: the SLR takes both elements from the 1955 SLR racing cars and typical features from the modern-day, championship-winning Silver Arrows from 1998, and blends them together with the avant-garde looks of the latest Mercedes passenger cars. With its highly successful and stimulating composition of styling details, Mercedes-Benz is already setting trends for future sports car design.

Race track breeding: distinctive twin-fin spoiler and arrow-shaped nose

It is the front end in particular which singles out the new Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren as a direct descendent of the racing cars which have been so successful in recent times: the center is dominated by the distinguishing, arrow-shaped nose of the Silver Arrows Formula One car encompassing the Mercedes star at the front, an unmistakable hallmark of manufacturing origins that are steeped in tradition.

Underneath the nose can be found a further typical styling element taken from the Formula One race cars which took McLaren Mercedes to the World Championship crown in 1998 and 1999, and which have already secured a number of
victories this season too: the twin-fin front spoiler. As with the Silver Arrows, these airfoil fins are more than just a stylish identifying feature, they are actually crucial to the car's aerodynamics. The high contact pressure they produce at the front axle plays a key role in the new SLR's sure-footed, race-car-like roadholding.

The fin design was adopted as a recurring feature of the SLR's exterior, thereby maintaining a high level of design consistency: finned sections also separate the headlamps from the nose, form the base for the exterior mirrors and adorn the taillights on each side of the car, where the indicators' LEDs are housed in two self-supporting fins positioned one above the other.

Mercedes design breeding: twin-headlamp face forms identifying feature

Above the generously proportioned air intake for the engine cooling is the wide, flat bonnet, whose rear edge lies below the starting point of the A-pillars, permitting the deep-set design of the front windscreen. This is another typical element taken from the world of motorsport which gives drivers the level of visibility needed for high-speed motoring.

The headlamp arrangement is a refreshingly new version of the highly familiar and equally successful twin-headlamp face, which has been the calling card of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars since 1995. In this SLR-style reinterpretation, although the dipped-beam and main-beam headlamps form a single unit, they nevertheless succeed in emphasizing their basic, pronouncedly oval form. The design team has reinforced the powerful visual effect by sheathing the powerful projection headlamps in casings which resemble high-quality camera lenses, all housed behind clear glass.

As with all current Mercedes passenger cars, the oval lines of the twin-headlamp face form the starting points for modeling the bonnet and the wings. The rounded contours of the headlamps develop into powerful domed curves which quite deliberately evoke associations with the human anatomy: the curves extend back over the wings like the sinewy muscles of a trained athlete, leaving no doubt in anyone's mind that this car bristles with the pure power of a sporting superstar.

These soft contours, which at the same time brim with power and dynamism, combine with taut lines to produce a fascinating, sculpted exterior form, a clear expression of the uncompromising manner in which this car's high-performance credentials have been honed. The sports car flexes its muscles visibly but without any hint of aggression, with each fiber of its lithe body trimmed and tensed, ready to launch forward at any time.

The domed curves leading off from the inner pair of headlamps sweep seamlessly all the way back to the A-pillars, forming a smooth visual link between the front end and the passenger compartment. As they run up the long bonnet, the softly rounded domes again transform into taut, clean-cut lines, which in turn mold the appearance of the A-pillars and the side profile. This is also one of the elements underpinning the characteristic, powerful proportioning of the SLR silhouette: the long bonnet, taut midriff, compact passenger compartment and short tail create a deliberate association between the flow of the SLR's lines and the styling elements of Mercedes sports cars from years gone by, and symbolize the sense of forwards surge that courses through the new SLR.

The SLR sports car exudes the same powerful, yet harmonious impression when seen from the rear too. This is down to the elegant way in which the lines flow from the passenger compartment into the lid of the boot, helped by the slender roof pillars which taper towards the bottom. Unlike the SLR Silver Arrows cars from the 1950s, whose tail curved gently downwards, the boot of the new SLR continues at the same high level in order to enhance the aerodynamic qualities.

Wind-tunnel testing has shown that this leads to a clear reduction in lift and aerodynamic drag, maximizing roadholding ability. The adaptive rear spoiler, which extends at high speeds and during braking when it doubles as an air brake, helps the car to achieve its exemplary aerodynamic poise, as does the six-channel diffusor integrated into the rear bumper.

The large taillights are an immediate eye-catcher. First, there is the distinctive, triangular form of the red-coloured lenses, a typical feature of Mercedes passenger cars, whose wraparound design extends far into the side paneling to emphasis the width of the body. The sophisticated lighting technology, meanwhile, forms another high-profile feature: the rear light and brake light are made up of a total of 51 red LEDs, whose distribution over the entire surface of the taillights produces a particularly striking signalling effect. This is most true during braking, when the LEDs illuminate with twice the normal intensity.

SLR breeding: side gills and wide-opening gullwing doors

It is above all the side profile of the new sportster that identifies it as a car whose maker has a long and illustrious motor-racing tradition, with large, finned air openings breathing new life into the SLR legend. These "gills" are far more than a mere styling touch, serving now as they did back then to ventilate the engine compartment. The designers of the new SLR have lent further emphasis to this particular function by enlarging the surface of the fins towards the rear of the gills, and by placing a clean-cut line at the end of the fins which then sweeps further backwards to add to the styling of the gullwing doors.

With its gullwing doors, the new Gran Turismo has inherited a further quite unmistakable feature from the road-going Coupé version of the legendary SLR race car, which was designed in 1955 by Mercedes' head of testing at that time, Rudolf Uhlenhaut.

The new doors are not hinged at the roof as the original gullwing doors were; instead they are pivoted at the front roof pillars and swing forwards in a large arc. No less sensational than the gullwing design from the 1950s, this new concept also enlarges the entrance to the vehicle to make getting in and out easy for both driver and passenger.

Practicality and scintillating design - these overriding attributes apply in particular to the supercar's interior. The styling focuses wholly on the high-dynamism motoring experience. Removable padding modules allow the bucket seats to be "tailor-fitted", the three-spoke steering wheel comes with pushbuttons for slick manual gearshifts and the chronometer-style gauges tell drivers all they need to know at a glance.

The focal point of the interior is undoubtedly the center console with its high-grade aluminum trim. A visual extension of the distinctively shaped Formula One domes on the bonnet, the center console serves as the transition between exterior and interior, whilst also picking up the powerful lines of the front-end design before they flow backwards over the transmission tunnel to the tail of the SLR. A stimulating interplay of different materials sets the tone for the interior ambiance. Aluminum and carbon contrast with supple "Silver Arrow" leather, which was specially developed for the new sports car and sets peerless standards in terms of its quality and material thickness. A wide range of appointments colors is available to choose from, including the same bold shade of red which set new trends back in the 1950s when it was featured in those legendary, unforgettable sports cars, the SL and the SLR: the result is automotive tradition you can truly feel.