atb

A client of mine came by for my B-Day yesterday and let me take his McLaren SLR for a spin.

First off, a very nerve racking drive. My office is in Puyallup, which you can see by the pic is a very crowded small town. Bending this car around local traffic and trying not to get hit by some knuckle head rolling through a two way stop made me wish I had eyes on the back of my head.

I was inbetween meetings so I only had a chance for a very short drive. Sorry, no time to take any pics.

Impressions:

First Impression: Holy #&@*!, I'm sitting in an SLR.

Climbing in past the gull wing doors you actually sit down into the car. The seat bottom feels like its lower than the door sill, so you sit in the seat, and then pull your legs through the door opening and over the pedals. Pull the door down, put in the key and twist, and hit the start button.

The interior is pretty spartan, lots of red leather trim everywhere, but the buckets were comfortable everything where it should be. The pedals were very close together which I thought was odd for an A/T, but I guess the majority of owners aren't going to be left foot braking (that's a joke). The seating position relative to where you are in the car is something I've never experienced. The car has a very long nose, and it feels almost like you are sitting over the rear wheels. This does a couple of things, first the car doesn't feel like its going to want to corner, but after slamming a few turns this was quickly dispelled. Second, it really gives you the impression that you are driving a vehicle of grandeur. Cruising down the road with that long hood in front of you, I kind of felt like this must be what it was like to drive a Duesenberg or one of those long hooded straight-eight cars that you see in auto museums.

I'm not sure how many gears the car has, I only made it to fourth. It has an old school shift selector in the center console that you pull all the way back to get to manual mode, and then rock the shift left to downshift and right to up shift. The steering wheel had an up/down arrow switch at 10 o'clock and a +/- at two o'clock, I would presume that one of these was for a triptonic type shift selector but I didn't mess with them. The car was very quick. I didn't sense any traction control which suprised me. It would burn off the rear tires in the first three gears by just flooring the gas pedal. The transmission did take a little enjoyment out of the ride in that it had a very soft, almost delayed gear change when shifting. I guess M/B wanted keep owners from having to get tranny repair work done when they let their meathead friends (or attorneys) drive there $500K car.

The exhaust note is very unique, can't really describe it. It sounds almost industrial from inside the car. It does start to sing when you get it to higher rpms, but for the most part it sounds..., well it doesn't sound like a typical high performance car. Even when winding it up, it doesn't sound like its turning a lot of rpms. Can't really describe it beyond that, it kind of sounds like an overcammed motor that doesn' ever sound like it comes on the pipe, but by the way it eats up pavement, you're definitely on the pipe!

I really wish I had more time to go over the car. I was literally tossed the keys, and had the door closed behind me as I was searching for the ignition. Clients were already waiting for my next appointment, so I only had about five minutes or so. I didn't even get a chance to pop the hood. I'm sure I'll be able to see more of the car in the future, and will take much more detailed pics then.

SLR vs. 928
So here's the sick part of it all. If I had to choose between the two cars, knowing that I could never resell it or get the equity out of the SLR, I'd stick with the 928. I find it to be a much more enjoyable drive. The connection between car and driver, the engine note, seating position, all the things we 928 addicts love about the 928, aren't dimmed in the slightest by all the offerings of the SLR.

The SLR is a magnificent ride, no question. A friend described it as "Satan's Chariot", which applies very well. It truly is a chariot of kings of the road, but it doesn't BWAAHHH.

Marine Blue

Cool write up Adam, thanks for sharing.

jorj7

Happy Birthday Adam. Another Virgo huh. Cool ride and write up.

Nicole

Happy B'day!!!

hacker-pschorr

Always awesome to get behind the wheel of any supercar, much less one with McLaren on the trunk lid.

That's how I enter a 928.

S4ordie

Wow fantastic! It is great fun to drive a supercar other than ours every now and then. I used to live two blocks from Symbolic Motors in La Jolla, Ca. I sold a couple of cars through them and got to be quasi buddies with one of the owners. Every now and then he'd ask me if I wanted to go for a ride. Was always a great thrill for me.

Happy Birthday Adam! Hope to see you at SF.

pcar928fan

Adam,

I have spent about 30 min behind the wheel of one... The thing will try and kill you if you give it half a chance! POWERFUL is an understatement. I think if you point it in the right direction and floor it you can actually speed up or slow down the rotation of the earth!

The thing that got me is for being such a HUGE CAR the cockpit is claustrophobically small! It was crazy how tight a fit that car is.

They do have traction control and they have paddles behind the steering wheel as I recall, the buttons on the front of the steering wheel are for some other functions in the car, not shifting. The traction control does leave you a little room to play even when fully engaged. Turn it off at your own peril though.

Now, I should point out the one I drove was riding on some aftermarket wheels and tires that we later learned were the reason for its diabolical behavior, so with stock wheels and tires it is relatively docile but with the shoes I drove on the thing tram lined on any pavement irregularity and was just TERRIBLE to drive. I called the car the God of Thunder because when you got on it that is what it reminded me of!

It was fast, fast, fast...the car hits the century mark in something like 9 sec from a standstill...heck maybe less... we were doing more roll on stuff and would be doing 120 in what seemed like a heartbeat! Really amazing!

I am with you Adam, no desire to own one of them...ugly, huge on the outside, tiny on the inside and btw, replacing brake pads and rotors (probably ever 40k to 60k miles) costs OVER $40,000!!!!

Imo000

sounds like fun

Bill51sdr

Happy Birthday Adam!

atb

Virgo , RD rider, its all the same....

I remember taking my friends '02 M5 for a spin (this is the only car that comes close - but doesn't equal - the 928 driving experience for me), breaking the tires loose on the freeway and having the tail step out, and then feeling the gas pedal push back against my foot as it lifted off the floor board. I was not happy with that intervention on the part of the traction control. The SLR didn't intervene under the same conditions, so yes, the traction control was pretty light on my little test drive.

As far as the paddle shifters, now that is a riot. I didn't even see them. To be honest I was pretty busy keeping an eye on traffic around me, so I wasn't really looking for them. They must be pretty subtle.

Thanks for all the B-day wishes everyone, it was a fun one. The test drive was definitely icing on the cake.

pcar928fan

Adam,

As I recall they are just little bitty paddles attached to the back of the steering wheel...they are not these big ears like you see on the F and L cars...or most other flappy paddle gearbox cars.

I recall the traction control being very subtle and of the cutting ignition style to cut power, but I didn't hammer it from low speeds much...

BTW, Happy B-day my friend!!!

dprantl

That's cool, but I have to agree with your ending statement. 617hp @ 6,500RPM and 3,850lbs? A 500rwhp 928 would match that power for less than 1/10th of the price. And the 928 is a much more practical every day car, while still turning heads (albeit not like an SLR of course).

Dan
'91 928GT S/C 475hp/460lb.ft

AO

Cool. I remember seeing one of these going the opposite direction from me from a stop light. The sound is VERY unique. "Industrial" is a good description.

Rick Carter

Happy Birthday, I hope your other presents are as nice as this one.

slownrusty

The SLR has a 5speed Auto and also has ESP (Traction Control...that can be semi-turned off). Mercedes tried putting the 7 speed auto in this car and the sheer torque of the 5.4L Supercharged engine kept breaking them, so they stuck with the bullet proof 5speed auto and then developed the 7speed auto for the AMG "63" (E\S\CL etc) which had "only" 465.lbs.ft

Yasin