Supercar maintenance usually brings with it super high prices, but McLaren had a trick up its sleeve when advising on fixing the SLR’s carbon brakes.
BY SAM MAIN
VIA HOTCARS
PUBLISHED APR 21, 2023
The usual repair bill on a motor vehicle ranges from tens to thousands of dollars. For supercars, it’s often a different story, given how bespoke and advanced the mechanical engineering that has gone into creating the racecar for the road.
The infamous Bugatti Veyron annual maintenance bill, for instance, can be northwards of $50,000. That’s more than what a Chevrolet Camaro 2SS costs. The same is true for the more retro supercars, such as the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.
When Rustam purchased his Ohio-located SLR (a dream car of his), he expected great things. Reliability, however, was not its strong suit, chief among which were the brakes. Fixing the issue would cost more than the aforementioned Camaro. But McLaren had a rather unusual trick up their sleeve to address the problem.
The Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Had Monstrous Supercar Power
Before we dive into McLaren’s unorthodox approach to fixing grinding brakes, here's a quick overview. The SLR was a road-going jet fighter. Under the hood was the first ever in-house developed engine by Mercedes’ AMG division, and it was an engine not to compete with.
Its 5.4-liter supercharged V8 produced a then-eye-watering 617 hp, allowing the SLR to reach 0 to 60 mph in just 3.8 seconds and on to a top speed of 208 mph. Although contemporary supercars dwarf this, back in the 2000s, this was one of the fastest production cars in the world, only rivaled by the Ferrari Enzo and the Porsche Carrera GT.
The reason the SLR McLaren was so quick was down to its ingenious design and engineering. With a ground-breaking carbon-fiber body shell construction and a sleek, aerodynamically efficient aesthetic, the SLR weighed in at just 3,898 lbs. It had the torque under the hood and the lightweight maneuverability to become one of the quickest cars on the road.
As such, a powerful braking system was needed, and so the SLR came as standard with carbon ceramic brakes. The SLR was so powerful it was the first production car to have an ‘air-brake’ fitted to assist the stopping procedure. The brakes were so forceful, as demonstrated by BBC’s Top Gear, that it could stop from 120 mph to 0 in just 240 feet. A truly staggering engineering achievement.
Laying Up An SLR Causes Headaches For The Brakes
As good as the brakes on the SLR were, trouble emerged when an owner was to lay up their supercar for an extended period. Rustam experienced this on the drive home after purchasing his dream car, which had not been driven for a while. The carbon-ceramic brakes, which would normally provide sheer confidence to the driver when braking, would screech and grind when operated. Clearly, this wasn’t befitting of a 6-figure supercar.
Rustam took his SLR to Mercedes-Benz for an inspection. Considering the SLR was one of the first production cars to even have carbon-ceramic brakes, the repair bill was never going to be reasonable. However, shock and horror dawned when Rustam was quoted a whopping $58,000 to repair just the rear rotors and pads, one of the highest repair bills that the Mercedes-Benz branch had ever seen. A bespoke part demanded a bespoke price!
McLaren’s Ingenious Yet Terrifying Solution For Squeaky SLR Brakes
Understandably, Rustam was not going to fork out such a huge amount of money for what should have been a simple repair. Upon inquiring with McLaren on what alternatives existed, McLaren returned with an unorthodox and insane solution. The SLR should be driven to 160 mph plus, and then a really hard braking maneuver should be performed.
This entire process should be repeated a number of times until the brakes are red-hot. Why? Because by making the brakes red-hot again, a heat transfer begins between the pads and the rotors, and the glaze on top of the rotors would reappear.
Rustam followed McLaren’s recommendation, and on a closed circuit, he got his SLR up to 192 mph and performed the sequence of hard stops 6 times. Amazingly, the SLR’s brakes never faded despite how hard they had to work.
Best of all, the solution – insane as it was – worked, and the horrendous grinding noise stopped. McLaren’s out-of-this-world solution was a success. Not surprising given their reputation as one of the greatest motorsport companies in history.
How Much Does A Mercedes McLaren SLR Cost Today?
So, the solution worked. But the repair quote of $58,000 is unforgettable. This is, in all likelihood, down to the bespoke nature and exclusivity of the SLR, as only 1,262 coupes were ever made. An expensive repair bill shines a light on the current value of the SLR, as, although they haven’t skyrocketed to the millions as Porsche’s Carrera GT has, the Anglo-German SLR has an average market price of $308,000. It has neither appreciated nor depreciated, yet it remains the same expensive and bespoke supercar just as it was back in 2003.
Supercar holy trinities have been dotted throughout history, and the SLR vs. Carrera GT vs. Enzo battle remains one of the greatest. The SLR, although expensive to maintain, is a high point of the 2000s era and continues to be a benchmark for Mercedes-Benz even today. Put these repair bills to one side; and what you have is a beautiful, well-engineered, intoxicatingly powerful monster; one that influenced luxury supercar generations to come yet remains unrivaled to this day.
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