Overclocker

WOKING, England — McLaren is working on a successor to the slow-selling Mercedes SLR — and the replacement could be called a McLaren, not a Mercedes.

Motorsports Web site GrandPrix.com quotes McLaren managing director Martin Whitmarsh as saying that the company is working with Mercedes-Benz to develop a new model that will follow the Mercedes-Benz SLR, which is produced at Woking, west of London.

Whitmarsh said: "The level of interest in McLaren from Mercedes-Benz is higher than it has ever been. There is a clear commitment to be in F1 in the long term and refreshed interest in road-car activities. I think it is increasingly likely that there will be a range of sports cars designed in Woking in the future."

McLaren's Woking center was only opened three years ago. It houses both the McLaren Formula One team and the factory that makes the SLR.

What this means to you: The SLR is a superb car but a commercial flop, especially compared with the previous McLaren road car, the F1. A future McLaren is expected to be a true "supercar" like the F1.

Source: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...ticleId=109051

rominl

iTrader: (4)

make a real mclaren f1 that's successor of the previous f1. that's all i can say

Faraaz23

I thought there was an official news release within the last year that Mercedes and McLaren weren't going to do any more production car ventures anymore because MB was saying McLaren couldn't do anything on time and on budget.

Richie

There is not enough market for such a high end extreme car.
The F1 didn't even sell the 300 they originally planned.

Overclocker

I think that was a different time and the bottom fell out of the Super Car market.

That being said, even with Jeremy Clarkson's review of the SLR on Top Gear being very good, when this article says "The SLR is a superb car but a commercial flop." I can't understand why they're not selling more when high-end sports car sales like Ferrari, Lamborghini, and the Pagani Zonda are growing worldwide especially in the United Arab Emirates...

Faraaz23

I think there is more of a market for supercars now than back then perhaps, but it is also a heavily saturated market. There's cars like Koenigsegg, Pagani, Saleen S8, etc. That, and up in the 1,000,000+ market is the Veyron. Not saying the Veyron is perfect, but they are going to have to dump an awful lot of money into R&D to make something faster than that.... money they may not recover. And speaking of perfection, the McLaren F1 was designed to be darn near perfect... making something like that all over again to compete in the current decade would be quite an undertaking! That said, it'd be neat to see a F1 replacement though!

Richie

I'm just saying, a car similar to the F1 with a huge amount of power, low weight and no driver aids for a huge premium might be hard to sell in huge numbers.

AJ

I can't wait and i totally agree with Richie on this one

Richie

Thats what I like to hear

AJ

iTLN sticking together

Richie

YEAH BOI!!!!!!!!!