DIY supercar built in home garage in Krakau A man couldn't wait for a Mercedes SLR supercar or he maybe couldn't stretch to the £313,465 price tag. So he bought a Mercedes Benz 500 SEC with damage at the front and back, and built one himself. With help from friends and neighbours, within two years Krakau-based Pole Robert Furtak had stripped the 500 completely, and shortened the wheelbase by 29 centimetres. All in the garage at his home. Apparently, half-way through the project, Mercedes got wind of it and sent envoys to take a look. So impressed were they that they even offered him cash for it, but he wouldn't sell. In the end, he produced a car housing a Mercedes-Benz 5-litre V8 with 265bhp at 4,800rpm and torque of 317 lb-ft at 4,000rpm. It sits on double wishbone suspension with a wheelbase of 2.55m and weighs 1,600Kg. Performance is said to be 0-62mph in 7.2 seconds and a maximum speed of 147mph. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I think the rear is very nice, it would have been a nice alternative to what is on the SLR now. The front is hot on both cars, I absolutely love it. Too bad he doesn't get to hear the amazing sound of the SLR, probably the only reason I love the car so much!
unfortunately, he forgot to "replicate" the motor. those performance figures are disappointing and would be rather embarassing if a Diablo came up trying to toy with you. Although it looks nice, I have to stand by my hatred of kit cars. The price tag of the SLR is supposed to insure exclusivity (even though the SLK 350 could easily be mistaken from the front as one, and a 430 borrows as much from an Enzo as it does the 360...)
He just needs to supercharge it! As for reliability, I think a hand-built Polish car probably has similar reliability to the Chrysler MB's nowadays.
It was posted on here before, but I'll say what I said last time. That thing looks *better* than the real SLR, and you can see a lot styling differences, I especialy like the different lights in the rear. All that guy needs to do is get a good dose more horsepower in there and getting horsepower is a lot easier to do than whats already been done to that car. Actually I don't think this car is really a "kit car" trying to emulate the SLR. There are so many variations between that car and the SLR in the styling but they both seem to look right and they both conjure up the same feeling. I'd call it a re-interpretation of what the SLR is supposed to be instead of blindly trying to emulate the SLR. Or maybe the guy just compromised with what he had available to him.
Here is a link to the full build with pictures. http://www.mb-portal.net/html/news/special/2003_slr-pl_us.htm
Me to, I was just joking above. Having been part owner of a small body shop myself, it took a lot of work I think it is an awesome job. john
