Sage Automotive Group
2008 Mercedes-Benz SLR
Mild manners belie racecar performance. edited by Jim McCraw
Driving Impressions
Wow! would be a good place to start, followed by mind-bending and heart-pounding. Although Mercedes-Benz quotes a 0-62 mph (0-100 kph) time of only 3.8 seconds, or about three heartbeats, it feels even quicker than that, and it will just keep going, up and up, faster and faster, until you reach a top speed of about 200 mph, depending on headwinds. Power delivery is very smooth and very linear, more like a turbine or a jet than a piston engine. It's aided in its mission by a five-speed automatic transmission with three shift modes, Comfort, Sport and Manual, with Manual using either the floor shifter or steering-wheel-mounted paddles for manual shifting. Within the Manual mode, there are three further choices for upshift and downshift speeds, Sport, Supersport and Race.
The way the engine and transmission mass have been centered and lowered in the chassis gives the SLR roadster a built-in willingness to turn left or right very quickly through the quick-ratio power steering system. The race-quality double-arm front and rear suspension systems combine with the extremely stiff body and chassis to give the SLR beautiful pinpoint steering and handling in open-road situations.
The electrohydraulic anti-lock braking system on this car is phenomenal. The 14.6-inch front and 14.2-inch rear discs are made of carbon fiber ceramic like racing brakes, and the system uses eight-piston calipers at the front and four-piston calipers at the rear. These brakes are powerful enough to generate 2000 horsepower of braking force, or 1.3g of braking deceleration, and the brakes are reported to last up to 180,000 miles before needing replacement. The brake pedal is very sensitive at first, but once you get used to using them, the brakes become an important tool in overall driving enjoyment. They work in concert with the air brake built into the body, which rises up at a 65-degree angle to increase braking at the rear and keep the car stable, and the brakes also have a hill-holder feature and a traffic-crawling feature that lets the driver use the accelerator pedal only in thick traffic to keep the car trudging along at speeds up to 36 mph. You can even have your brake calipers painted in a choice of silver, red or gold to match or contrast with the body paint.
In thick traffic and city driving, though, you have to be careful, because the long nose of the car is way, way out there in front of you, and you simply can't see it, so we'd recommend rear-first parking, because the rear end is easier to see.
