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McLaren SLR Stirling Moss offers a revamped tribute to a racing legend
Mercedes may have stopped production on its McLaren SLR, but the car manufacturer has seen that the supercar receives a fitting send-off with a risqué revamp that pays tribute to racing great Stirling Moss.
With the production run of the supercar being strictly limited to 75 units only available to those who already own an SLR, the race to secure this evolutionary vehicle was always guaranteed to be on; all 75 have already been presold prior to the June production date.
The 2009 McLaren SLR Stirling Moss boasts an open-top design inspired by the 300 SLR in which Moss achieved excellent success in the 1950s. It has no roof, no side windows, and no windscreen. All that stands between driver and the elements is a wind deflector that stands only two centimetres high meaning the vehicle simply couldn’t be driven without a full-face helmet.
Like the original SLR road car, the Stirling Moss displays a body fashioned completely from lightweight carbon fibre, although it adapts a look that swoops, scoops and curves and has a nose shaped like an arrow.
To save on weight, the usual phone and radio have been removed from the vehicle, and combined with other changes have resulted in a huge 200kg drop in weight from the standard SLR.
Sir Stirling Moss is one of only two living drivers to have regularly raced a Mercedes F1, and among his list of achievements include a win in a 300 SLR, racing the Mille Miglia road race return from Brescia to Rome in 1955. Moss drove almost 1,600 kilometres in just over 10 hours; this record still stands today.
"It has no roof, no side windows, and no windscreen. All that stands between driver and the elements is a wind deflector that stands only two centimetres high"