Here’s a set of spyshots with a difference. While our operatives were out on the hunt for secret prototypes, they discovered something arguably even more exciting: three of the rarer-than-rare Mercedes SLR McLaren Stirling Moss cars in a multi-million-pound convoy, joined by an almost as scarce Mercedes McLaren Roadster 722 S.
Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Stirling Moss: a recap
Created in 2009, the Moss-edition SLR took its inspiration from the 300 SLR racer in which Sir Stirling and co-driver Denis Jenkinson won the 1955 Mille Miglia, a thousand-mile dash across closed roads between Brescia and Rome. Moss won by more than half an hour, at an average speed of nearly 100mph.
Hence plenty of retro racer details, including chrome side pipes, flying buttresses and a tiny fly-catcher in lieu of a full windscreen. The 2009 SLR perhaps wasn’t quite as elegant as Moss and Jenks’ 1955 version, but it was faster. With 641bhp from its 5.5-litre supercharged V8 it could reach 62mph in 3.5 seconds and bludgeon its way to a top speed close to a hairdo-ruining 220mph.
Only 75 were built, at a not-insubstantial £660,000 from new. With the exotic car market on a continuous climb, they’ll be worth far more today, if not quite the £25m or so that the Mille Miglia-winning original is valued at.
CAR’s Georg Kacher drove the Mercedes Stirling Moss back in 2009 – read the review here.
And the Mercedes McLaren SLR Roadster 722 S
It’s another Moss-Miglia marketing special, this time named after the race number on Moss’s winning car.
Almost as lesser-spotted as the Stirling Moss edition, 150 were built, priced at around £370,000. It had more power than the original SLR Roadster, with around 641bhp, and lower, stiffer suspension. Like the rest of the SLR range, the 722 was assembled at McLaren’s Woking HQ.
You can read CAR’s review of the standard (if that’s the right word) Mercedes SLR McLaren Roadster here.
Going off their original prices, this McMerc collective would have cost £2.35m. Who dares hazard a guess at their total worth now?