Fast dreams
You snooze, you lose, goes the old saying, and that’s just what happened to me this week.
A friend contacted me Tuesday and said I needed to check out this really, cool car out at the Cardenas Autoplex.
But by the time I got there Wednesday afternoon, General Manager Abel Guerra told me the car was sold.
Darn, just missed it.
The car is still in the showroom while financing is worked out. It seems that you don’t get 0 percent interest on one of these.
The Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren is a sports car and “supercar” class automobile co-developed by DaimlerChrysler and McLaren Automotive. McLaren is a legendary name in Formula One racing.
It is the fastest automatic-transmission car in the world.
I thought the SLR would be the perfect car for me. I use an SLR (single lens reflex) camera. Why not drive one as well. It made sense to me.
In the car, the name SLR stands for “sport, leicht, Rennsport” (sport, light, racing).
Assembled by hand at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, England, production is limited to 500 cars per year, and the company says that only 3,500 of these little darlings will ever be made.
The Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren was inspired by the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. Like the famous Mercedes 300SL “Gullwing,” the doors on the new car open up instead of out. Also like the Gullwing, the McLaren has “gills” on the side — intakes that allow all of those horses under the hood to breathe —and there are a lot of them.
The V-8 engine has 617 horsepower to get you to 207.5 mph in about 30 seconds. From 0 to 60 mph will take you approximately 3.8 seconds. You’re asking yourself, why does this guy need this much car?
To get to work. After all, I live about 15 to 20 blocks from the Valley Morning Star.
This much joy and happiness does come with a price. The base price for the car out at Cardenas was $450,000. To that was added $9,900 for the red leather interior, approximately $2,700 in shipping and $3,000 gas guzzler tax (it only gets 13 miles per gallon in the city) bringing it up to a nice, round, horse-choking $465,650.
My father was a car salesman in his younger days and I know how to wheel and deal. I was going to offer $465,000.
Let’s see … that’s how many times my annual salary. It looks like if I’m reincarnated I’ll still owe money.
Some critics say the Mercedes SL65 AMG is a real bargain at about $200,000 less. But the SL65 takes an extra half a second to get to 60 mph. You’re going to need that extra speed when you have to get Muffie to soccer practice.
If you need any greater recommendation, Paris Hilton owns a Mercedes SLR McLaren. Her pal Britney Spears was climbing out of Paris’ SLR when the world discovered Britney couldn’t afford knickers.
Some say Paris bought the car to out-do rival Lindsay Lohan, who has a 2005 Mercedes SL65 AMG (which she crashed over the weekend). But Paris needed a new car after her boyfriend crashed her cheap, old $170,000 Bentley.
It’s fine driving like this that will make an SLR a good investment.
“Within seven years, that car will be worth a million dollars,” Abel said. He estimated there are about 30 SLRs left for sale in the United States.
Maybe I’ll just wait. A roadster version of the SLR is due to go on sale in September for $691,504.72.
I’d better start saving my soda pop cans.
