If there's a happier petrol head on the planet at this moment, he or she's a truly lucky person...
Trying hard to be humble (honest!), I've just had the extreme priviledge of being chaufferred in a Mclaren Mercedes SLR. I even had it parked on my driveway at the start and end of the journey, and if I can figure how to get photos uploaded to groups.msn.com/honestjohn (I have tried to register twice to no avail), I'll do so.
So, what's it like?
WOW (and then some)! What an amazing example of what mankind can engineer, and a fantastic tribute to those who have designed and built it. The SLR has totally redefined what I think a car should sound like, let alone, from the passenger seat, what vehicle dynamics should be. I'm not simply talking the immense acceleratitive abilities that literally take your breath away, either. I'm talking phenomenal suspension control, and a selectable paddle shift box that actually works to perfection. I'm talking ceramic brakes that rewrite the rule book, and which don't so much shed speed as lose it like pressing a switch: Together with an airbrake on the boot lid, I read some months afo that an SLR will brake to rest from 60MPH in less than 100ft, and can well believe it. I'm talking a level of computer sophistication that make this AMG-sourced 627BHP and 780NM lion a docile pussycat in town, and which has a traction control system that handles all those ponies far more unobtrusively than my Vectra GSi's system handled 200 of them. The biggest surprise (but then given the size of the boots, perhaps it shouldn't have been) was the amount of tyre noise. In urban driving this is the dominant noise source, but it's a very small price to pay. For a preproduction prototype, the level of fit and finish was as superb as it needs to be on a production car, too. Faultless leather, faultless double stitching, and wonderful use of texture. I actually liked the silver interior trim that has drawn comment in the media, too, and for me the only item I wasn't keen on was very trivial, and out of sight for most of the time anyway: The 'blister' moulding inside the centre console cubby box looked a little low rent when compared with the high standard set by the rest of the trim. That's really it!
I will be honest and say that I have never liked austere Stuttgart Taxis, or the image that goes with the badge, but this car is totally, utterly, ACHINGLY desirable to me, and I want to sell the house and my wife's body to buy one. NOW! Since the original 3.0 litre example, I have lusted after 911 Turbos. I've even driven one, which only served to reinforce the lust. Now, however, my dream has been totally shattered, and I can't see how any car is going to replace it, should I have the spare funds to try. Every car on the road will simply be inadequate! If no one would insure me to drive an SLR, I would happily look at it, or start it up (wonderful fighter pilot trigger with flip lid in the top of the gear lever) and listen to that menacing V8 and supercharger howl. Even at a gentle and rock steady tickover, that bass rumble had the neighbour's curtains twitching. Tickle it up to 1500 RPM, no more was necessary, and it sounded like a whole squadron of Lancasters was making a low pass. Enough audio stimulation as to classify a TVR as being suitable for hairdressers and district nurses! It really did make the hair on my neck stand on end. The sad thing though is that in our street, I bet not one neighbour knew or cared what they were looking at!
When we collected our V70 2.4T from the Dutch dealer in March last year, I was on Cloud Nine. Having by far just spent the most money I ever had apart from buying a house, automotive life couldn't get any better. Well, it did, but after every climax comes the anticlimax, and this one will probably last for the rest of my days!
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