SLR STIRLING MOSS! My First Drive in the Legendary Hyper-Speedster

In recent years I have been incredibly lucky to drive some of the best cars in the world and until today this is one that has eluded me, the Mercedes SLR McLaren Stirling Moss, and today I'm going to get behind the wheel of this car to experience what it's about here at Adels Garage in Kuwait. Now this collection includes not just the Stirling Moss but also the Aston Martin V12 Speedster, not even just those two, but also the Ferrari Monza SP2 and the McLaren Elva, all four of the super speedsters, the four Barchetta hypercars, but I've experienced the others, this is the one that I've been looking forward to and today I'm going to be joined by Dr Adel Kataina who has very kindly made it possible for me to have the key to this and we're going to take it for a drive. These cars are pivotal to Adel's collection, we've taken a look around, there's a Koenigsegg Regera, a McLaren P1, the Monza SP2 which I've been lucky to drive on two occasions, firstly in Italy with Powerslide Lover and then out with RM Collection in the United States. The McLaren Elvas I've also been lucky to drive twice, both times out here in the Middle Eastern region as it happens once with no windshield and then I also the Dubai Autodrome, one of the cars with the optional windscreen. The V12 Speedster I've ridden up the hill climb with Marek Reichman, the designer from Aston Martin, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed hill climb. The Stirling Moss I have actually been in before, I've ridden as a passenger around the Goodwood Motor Circuit but it's driving it that I can't wait for because this to me is just the epitome of epic cool hypercar. This is one of only 75 in existence, all of these cars are fantastically rare and the fact that it exists, the tributes to the late legendary Sir Stirling Moss, it's just a silver arrow of the modern era, an SLR that doesn't on paper make any sense. The fact that they built this, that they made this happen, that they introduced this and brought it to market, it's got a supercharged V8, it shaves a lot of weight from the Coupe and the Roadsters, the 722 on which it's based, but this is the SLR Stirling Moss. I'm out here with Dr Adel and today it's my first drive in a car I have dreamt about driving, so join me for the experience. Hi guys I'm Shmee, hello and welcome back to the channel. Today I'm getting to drive an SLR Stirling Moss. Outside the sun is starting to set, we're about to get this car out of the garage, take a listen and get it rocking and rolling on the roads here in Kuwait, but we need to have a very quick introduction, walk you around the SLR Stirling Moss. I mean these things are super rare, although I seem to have come across a couple recently, in fact in Denmark only a matter of weeks ago I was taking a look at one and wondering what it would be like to drive and here we are. I'm about to be taking the hot seat to experience this thing. Now after the SLR Coupes, they introduced the 722, the number to pay tribute to Sir Stirling Moss's run start time at the 1955 Mille Miglia, where he held the victory and held that outright record all the way through to the end of the event a couple of years later. They followed up with the SLR Roadster and then the 722S, of which there is actually one just lurking over here. Like the 722, the S is also limited to only 150 cars, but effectively lighter weight, taking about 50 kilos out of a standard car, but also a little bit more power along with a stiffer setup to make it more of a dynamic version. Just as we sweep past the amazing cars and colours here, this then came along afterwards. Only 75 in total, so the rarest of the original versions of the SLR, of the different derivatives. There have been a few more since, like the SLR Edition from MSO and also the HDK more recently, but 75 cars. They are very much belonging to some really special collections around the entire world. It's a tribute back to that original 300 SLR from 1955, the W196, the era of the Silver Arrows, a legendary car that, as I said, broke that record with Sir Stirling Moss and Dennis Jenkins back at the Mille Miglia in 1955, that also absolutely dominated many other race series and sports, although unfortunately was also part of a number of pretty big incidents and sad, tragic accidents along the way, including one with the loss of quite a few lives of the members of the public that were watching the race. However, more positively, this is a car based around a 5.4 litre supercharged V8. We have the side exit exhaust, which are going to make a tremendous rumble when we're out on the road in a moment. It boasts 650 horsepower, up around 26 horsepower from the standard SLRs before it, but also being significantly lighter. In fact, it's just under 200 kilos lighter than the regular car, about 120 kilos lighter than the 722 with its lighter weight components. The Stirling Moss has carbon fibre bodywork, unlike the SLRs. It has a fixed front clamshell, so it's significantly harder to release. You have to remove the various pins around, as opposed to just being able to slide it forwards and pivot it up to open it. But inside, you'd normally have the canopy or the cockpit covered by two tonneau pieces that click in, that hold in place. Those can be stowed away into the luggage space at the back. We've actually got them removed at the moment. There's no windscreen, you've just got the wind deflectors, one for the driver, one for the passenger, and these doors which pop open and outwards with the carbon reinforced tub shell chassis that you have beneath. Each of the cars was signed by Sir Stirling Moss. You can see the signature there on the central tunnel. We've got the five-speed AMG Speedshift gearbox, perhaps one of the drawbacks of the car, we'll find out very shortly. These, of course, are your rollover crash protection that you have over the top, an enormous fuel tank, it's a 98 litre fuel tank as it happens, and some very, very cool styling. It's a huge car, the front end is enormous, but it looks fantastic. The ducktail spoiler back here acts as an airbrake raising when you're on the brakes, but also helps to keep the rear of the car more planted when you're at higher speeds as well. So I think enough talk, we should get this started, get it outside, say hello to Adil, and then get this out for a drive in a matter of minutes. I'm going to take a seat inside here, almost fall back into the Stirling Moss. So to start it, the key goes into the slot just beside the steering wheel, foot on the brake, of course, turn on the ignition, and then you press the button here. The regular SLRs have a button on the top of the central shifter, in this case it's this button. And then that's currently my view from the Stirling Moss. Close the doors of the other cars here. That's quite unusual. That is pretty spectacular on the move. What a car, just an enormous bonnet. It looks wonderful. You ready? I'm absolutely ready. Wow, what a car, what a time of day to be driving it. This is honestly, this is spectacular. How are you doing? I'm good, man. So let's take it for a spin, yeah? Yeah, right time of day, a bit of a sightseeing tour here in Kuwait. Absolutely, yeah. Sunset. Yeah, almost there, we'll get a bit of the sun now. I also just quickly have to say we've spotted some other cars here, the GT12. Yeah, yeah, that's the, yeah, have you, you need to take a drive in that car, it's a totally different experience. Yeah, and I have to say I love that as well. Special things, special things. Right, let's grab some cameras, let's hop in here, and let's go drive. Here we are then. Do you want to use these or do you want to use this? I'm going to use these, we're going to rock it with the goggles here. I feel like we should be like Sir Stirling Moss with a proper set up and some old school goggles. Right, here we are, the Stirling Moss. This is the car of legends, this is a really quite special thing. I think we're going to get a lot of attention with these, with the goggles more than the car, man. Yeah, this is quite a ridiculous car, I mean it's never going to be like your daily car, is it? Never. It's a special occasion, experience car. I mean I usually go out with it like in the early mornings or, yeah, that's when the best time for it. Yeah, gotta watch out. Go easy, go easy here. Very low to the ground. That's good. That's a familiar soundtrack, that's one of the strangest things because it's, I've driven a few SLRs, as I'm sure you have as well, your 722S. It's almost like a very familiar type of sound and feel, but got the wind in the hair, quite literally. Oh gosh, this is terrifying. That's fine, just going to hug. Yeah, take it easy. Take it easy, we are good. Auto gearbox. Five speed I think, yeah? This is like, quite literally a sightseeing tour right now. Let's go take a look around Karaite City in a Stirling Moss. Can I just say thank you in advance because this is... Absolutely, man. Thanks for coming. This is a really special opportunity, I really, really appreciate that you use these cars, that you drive these cars, that you share these cars because so many things are hidden away and they're such inspirational, passionate topics, you know. We're all here because we love cars. So this is Kuwait City, that's the palace of the previous conference. Yeah, so we're going down the coast, past the palace. I feel like we're on one of those open top buses, you know, an open top bus tour because we're open, we can see it all. Tour buses, yeah. The sun going down behind, but I think a car like this, right, it's significantly lighter than the others, but it's still quite big and heavy. It is, I think, like 200 or 300 kilograms lighter than the regular SLR. But it's more what it represents, right? It's more the history. The history behind it, yeah, yeah. The tribute to Stirling Moss. He's one of the greatest drivers of all time, he holds a record through to this date. I mean, this is paying homage to the 300 SLR, yeah? Yeah, the original. The car there, Stirling Moss won the Mille Miglia. I've been lucky to join the Mille Miglia in a 300 SL in a gullwing and it was the most amazing experience. I just felt like I was Sir Stirling, I felt like I was driving, but you know, I went one year and there was a group from the SLR club and they were driving in these, you know, a couple of these on the road together and it was one of the coolest things to see these driving, because it's such a spaceship. We throw that term around for modern cars these days quite a lot, a spaceship, right? For the Senna, for the Ford GT, they all feel like spaceships, but this really is. This feeling of being open and being out there. Just utterly ridiculous. I'm immensely conscious of kind of how far ahead the front of the car is, you know, it's way out in front of us. I mean, you've driven them all, you're one of very few people certainly to have driven them all, let alone own them all, so you know those different characteristics. Like, of course, the Elva is the one with the engine behind you and it feels like so much more of a ballistic supercar and the others I think are quite... I mean, you get that snappy, snappy feeling with the Elva for sure, yeah, you get that. And do you feel like in the V12 speedster that it's more, you're more cocooned? Yeah, it's more, the more usable one. It is the more usable one for sure. Whereas the Monza sounds the best and this is the original, this has the history. I mean, I say that, but the Monza is a tribute to the original Monza, like that is actually also... Yeah, iconic series, man. Yeah, Ferrari's iconic history, literally. And this thing, it's funny because so much of it feels like a familiar Mercedes, you know, it feels like a Mercedes from 15 years ago because, funny enough, it is. But they were with McLaren for all the lightweight materials, all the carbon fibre. Have you ever driven it with just one side of the tonneau cover? No, no, never. Always open? Yeah, yeah, always, always. I love the kind of innovative approach they took to that, of making those covers that you can fit in the back and that you can have with you. Oh, this is... It's quite easy to drive. It is, yeah. I mean, it drives like a modern car, yeah, for sure. Even though it's like 15 years old. Yeah, but driving like this, you know, normally just an automatic, gentle, haven't changed any settings. It's kind of just easy and smooth and away you go. Start to feel the wind in the hair. Oh, that's a powerful sound. Because with the gearbox, you have a few different settings. You have normal, sport, super sport and race, basically. So this is, you can manually shift it up and down here, pull and hold the paddle. Yeah, that's a cool sound that it makes. This is awesome. Have you ever been a passenger in this car before? Never, this is the first time. Well, thank you for letting me have the honour. I actually like it so much more wearing goggles, because when I've driven the Monza and the Elva, I just had sunglasses on and you feel cooler, for sure. I mean, actually, this is the first time I wear goggles. But the problem is at higher speeds, the wind just goes all around your glasses. This is more comfortable. So now we are kind of heading towards downtown Cui. Yeah, towards the city, towards the skyline, towards the towers. I mean, of course, we're spoiled here that we've got a nice smooth road and easy to drive. But this is really, this is really something special. This is quite an amazing thing to just drive. Thank you for letting me drive this. This is super cool. Wow. It's about that speed that you start to feel the wind. The hair goes everywhere. This is absolutely beautiful. Driving up past the sea. This is incredible. This is a special moment. Just imagining also the similarities between a lovely evening and driving through Tuscany on the Mille Miglia. You just feel like you're driving something from another galaxy. It's totally different. It's not a normal driving experience. None of the Barchettas are. These speedsters, right? These super speedsters, I think I'm calling them. They're all just extraordinary driving experiences. And that's something that a lot of, even the latest hypercars, don't have. They don't have that same. No windscreen, no roof. Yeah, the character, the fun. You drive it and you get out and you're like, that was really exciting. Feel the heat coming off it. It's a toasty engine up ahead of us. I have to say, this is incredible. You like it, yeah? The car, the place, where we are. That's the Kuwaiti Towers. This is almost downtown Kuwait. Sun setting. Beautiful weather now. It's time of the year. It's kind of magical. The car is magical. It's a very unusual driving experience. And you know what? The more time you spend looking at it, the more details. For example, the fact there's an intake for cooling on one side and not on the other. Just things about it. This is amazing. Huge exhaust. And you feel it because, obviously, as I mentioned, it's hot from the engine, but it's actually kind of the exhaust because it's so close to where you are inside the car. It's almost like breathing over you. I love the look of this. The roll bar, I think, is just behind the seats. They did a good job of designing both the safety protection, of having the rollover protection, but also keeping it looking good. Not making a very ugly buttress that sits behind you. What a design. What a thing. These are super rare. I can't thank you enough for the opportunity to get it out there, you know? We share. It's what it's for. Everything shared is blessed, man. Well, thank you for the chance. What a day. Right, here we are. Goggles going back on. Yeah, that's the worst thing about these cars, you know? I mean, as long as we don't wear the helmets, we're good. No, it's all great. I mean, it defeats the purpose, having a helmet on, and you're supposed to be in an open area. Well, it's partly about the weight saving, the open experience. Exactly, yeah. So when you wear a helmet, that all goes away. You take some of that away. Yeah, it's true. With this, you get the wind in your hair, you know? Yeah, yeah. You get that proper experience. Goggles on. Oh, so strange, but so amazing. So I was so lucky to get this car like a brand new. Yeah. So when you picked it up, it was delivery miles. Yeah, yeah. It had just been... Exactly, it had 400 kilometers on it. Okay, stored and saved, ready for you to enjoy. Oh, I like this. With a nice price tag there. Yeah, of course, of course. But that's why it's immaculate. Yeah. It's a perfect car. Just driving with no glasses or nothing. Yeah, for now, yeah. Until we get the highway. So at the end of last year, I was lucky to drive the Lamborghini Aventador J. Yeah. The one-off. Yeah. Which I suppose is like the fifth super speedster. Yeah, yeah. But there's only one of them, so. Yeah. Nice Corvette. But that was... We drove at night with no glasses on the highway. Where exactly did you drive? In Spain. Spain, huh? And my eyes were just... Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was impossible. You're just acutely aware of how long the hood is out in front of you as I'm going to go goggles back on. Make sure I can actually see when we're driving. Kind of stuck a bit in the traffic. Normally, or at least my previous experience of SLRs with the gearbox, is that when you're out driving in a more dynamic environment than around town, the five speeds kind of lets you down a little bit. But like this, it's smooth, it's nice. Of course, the later car has some revisions over the early cars. Some updates to make it smoother. This is really incredible. This is amazing. I love driving this car. It's stiff and firm, but not too much. True. It's one of those times, you know, when you get to the other end, your hair is absolutely everywhere. Yeah. But it doesn't really matter. That's why the gel makes all the difference. So long as you've had fun on the drive. And it's a whole lot of fun. I mean, you're here in Kuwait at the perfect time now, huh? This is the perfect weather. Yeah, it's lovely. It's absolutely lovely. But even just this time of day, earlier in the day, it's too hot. It's sun blaring. But right now, what made you decide to do this collection of these? I don't know, man. It's just something that I kept on buying, you know. I don't know. Every car I thought that was... You got one and then you're like, I like this. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how you got into this whole business. It's the same thing, you know. You like something and you just go with it. Yeah. Because if you said to me, where would a collection of all of these cars be? You know, I might guess the south of France or something. Yeah. But out here, it's so hot that to drive these cars often is difficult. Yeah. That's why I choose the times, yeah. Choose the times when you drive it and all that. But I find it very hard to buy a car that I initially, you know, bought it because I liked it so much and then try and sell it. Yeah. I can't do that. The only one time I did that was with the Lamborghini SVJ. Okay. Yeah. So that's the one time I did it. Generally, when you buy a car, you keep it. Yeah. What can I say? Just, you know, driving this for, I don't know, the short journey we've done in it has been a really, really amazing experience. Glad you enjoyed it, man. I mean, more than enjoyed it. This has been... You want to slow down now? Yeah. Take the tight corner in. What can I say? We pull back in. Maybe just, maybe if you put it this way. Yeah. Just here? Yeah. Just in front of the... Yeah, that would be nice. Let's turn it around and position it slightly. So a lot of people don't understand that. Why would anybody buy such an impractical car, you know? But they don't get it, huh? They just don't get it, yeah? Nah, it's more than that. It's not about being practical or not practical, you know? To me, something like this, you can't absolutely do it. Something like this is, it's about the experience. It's about the drive. It's about doing what we've just done. And you go for a short run and you come back and your cheekbones ache and you've got this massive smile on your face. I mean, it's the, you know, the performance, of course, the technology and the heritage and all put in one caveat. Kind of all rolled into one. That was so cool. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming, man. I loved that. Loved it. We have returned then. And that is quite the view outside the Cotaina Medical Center with the cars up there and the SLR Stirling Moss. And I want to show you a few more things about the car while we're here. It would almost be criminal not to. I mean, I mentioned that the roof panels can be stowed in the back. If you open up the back, if you've never seen it before, back here, it's quite an enormous amount of storage space. In fact, of course, once you put in the two very large panels, you lose a lot of that and you can see the CFRP style carbon fiber that's used for the body panels and trunking. So lots of room back there. The active spoiler that sits above on the rear deck here, a bigger diffuser than the standard SLR further under the car and more aggressive with its veins and shapes and an exclusive wheel made for it, 19 inches front and rear. But the five twin spoke wheel design that was introduced with the Stirling Moss, basically a new look all around. There are no panels shared with the regular car. Everything is new and bespoke to this. And it's really peculiar once you've started to notice that. Unfortunately, it's a dealership operation to open it up for servicing. It is actually easier to service than the regular cars, ironically, because those need every four years the engine to be dropped for checkovers and parts to be replaced, whereas this can be accessed by removing the front bonnet. Obviously, the door panel is much smaller, side exhaust still looking awesome. Your fuel filler cap over there on the back throwback heritage style, almost of that as well. Pop open the door, show you a few more things inside. Actually, let me slide back in here. It's kind of awkward, actually, to swing into this thing. There aren't many controls or buttons around the interior of it. It's very simple. Small little pocket on the door for loose things and a small pocket down here as well on both sides, driver and passenger. But outside of that, this is where the roof panel mechanism attaches. Small little cubby with some buttons back there. So Stirling signature, your gear selector, AC. And I've got to say we had the AC running. It was doing a very nice job of it. Outside of that, not a whole lot. Kind of grab handle to pull the door down, give it a firm close. And obviously the round dials in front of us on the dash. In fact, I'm just going to turn it back on for a moment because this sound is amazing. With the exhaust tailpipes effectively right here, you can literally see them out the side from being inside the car. Mega, such an awesome thing. I love that. The sound of power, thunderous, aggressive, angry, mean, means business. Obviously you could argue this is kind of out of date now. It's old generation, right? This is how things were at the time. Press here and go through a couple of displays and dials and things and just see a few bits of it. But basically that is the Stirling Moss, or as I've often liked to call it, the SLR Stirling Boss, because it is an absolute boss of a car. Very, very special thing. Right, back out. Like I said, it's not the easiest thing getting in and out of this, but to experience it, to drive it, to have had an opportunity to get behind the wheel of an SLR Stirling Moss, like I said at the very beginning, this was one of those unicorns that has eluded me to date, but no more. Thanks to Adel for the opportunity today here in Kuwait to take it for a drive and to go for a cruise. Yes, if you drive it in a dynamic way, as I experienced from the passenger seat at Goodwood, this thing's immensely capable, but also for just taking to enjoy what we've just done, to go for a cruise down the side of the Persian Gulf. It's almost perfection. So much fun, a super special car, and just forever an icon. The values of these can only go one way. They've appreciated massively in recent years, and for good reason, because there won't really be many more originals like this. Of course, there's been this raft of the Speedsters in recent years, but this did it first. This has the history behind it, and this has been an amazing driving experience. So do go and check out Adel's pages. If you'd like to see more of the collection, more of what goes on here at the Medical Centre as well, over on Instagram, also on the YouTube channel, I will pop those links down below. Go give a follow. I'd appreciate it an awful lot. Yeah, that's been a cool day. Thank you very much. I hope you've enjoyed this visit to Kuwait. That's it for now though. Big thanks to the team here at Adel's Garage, and I look forward to seeing you guys again very soon. Cheers!