Mansory's Gold Rush!

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Mansory's Gold Rush!

Postby root on Tue Oct 28, 2008 9:43 pm

Wow! :shock: :shock:

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PRESS RELEASE
Gold Rush

Mansory’s Renovatio takes the SLR to a whole new level with a 700 hp engine upgrade and a new carbon fiber body that’s been dipped in gold.

It’s been almost a year since we checked in with Mansory, the famed German coachbuilder of British cars, and it is obvious they’ve been busy, toiling in secret on not just one, but three, of the world’s most coveted vehicles.

When we featured their matte-black Rolls-Royce Phantom on the cover of our July 2007 issue, we prophetically concluded that, “They’ve had such tremendous success at outdoing themselves in the past, we have no reason to think they won’t surpass this monumental achievement.”

And here it is.. or should we say, they are: the Mansory Renovatio, Stallone and Bel Air - based off of the McLaren SLR, Ferrari 599 GTB and Rolls-Royce Drophead Coupé, respectively.

Undoubtedly the most attractive of the trio is the matte-gold SLR - which is why it is the focus of this article. The Rolls is not all that modified (by Mansory standards) and the 599, well, its just plane tacky. In fact we wouldn’t blame any 599 owner from tearing out the picture on page XX and burning it.

24 KARAT CARBON FIBER

Matte paint has been growing in popularity for over a year now and while most tuners are followers in this trend, Mansory has decided to take a risk and be a leader. With a matte black Rolls-Royce Phantom over a year ago, Mansory opted to paint this SLR matte-gold.

What also makes the car so unique is the matte carbon fiber details – something you may not have noticed if you were just checking out low quality photos of the car on the net.

The light-weight material isn’t just used for aesthetic purposes either. As you may know, the stock SLR comes with a complete carbon fiber body from the factory, and so the Mansory crew retained this feature when they designed and carried out a complete aerodynamic alteration of the car. That’s right, they weaved what amounts to an almost completely new carbon fiber skin for the phallic SLR before dipping it in gold.

While company owner Kourosh Mansory insists that the vehicle is not a true widebody conversion, new fender extensions were molded on at all four corners. Joining them together and creating a cohesive style are new side skirts that were also designed with space for the side-exit exhaust system. Exposed matte-carbon shows through on the hood and fender gills. And on the side skirts the matte-carbon fades into the brushed-gold paint which covers most of the car. Out back a new diffuser was designed and left unpainted – as was the trunklid spoiler.

Up front, an expressive new look was crafted for the SLR with significantly larger openings that really speak to the performance of the car. It’s certainly a bold new look, but let’s be honest here – when you consider the other exotics in its class (like the Enzo or Carrera GT), the SLR really has a conservative, if not downright puritan, design.

Speaking of performance, those massive intakes are fully functional and while the new design of the splitter helps to increase downforce on the front axle, the intake feeds more air to larger intercoolers as well as to a more efficient and more powerful supercharger.

700 HP: MANSORY ENTERS A NEW AREA

Yes, you read correctly. The Mansory Renovatio is a step in a bold new direction for Mansory. While the coachbuilder has received international praise for it’s aesthetic modifications, now the company has become a full range tuner with serious options for performance enthusiasts. Michael Stein, head of PR for Mansory told MLE that the performance tuning aspect of the company has actually been a closely guarded secret and that the company’s new performance department has been working in silence on the current products for over a year.

With the SLR’s supercharger and 5.5-liter V8 combo hardly being maxed out from the factory, Mansory swapped out the stock pulley for a smaller one. With more pressure being pushed through the system, they then upgraded the fuel system with a new pump and injectors and then retuned the ECU to make it all work in harmony. To expediently dispose of all that extra exhaust, a new system of pipes was designed, including new headers that don’t have far to go before dumping the gasses out of those side port exhausts. This complete package pushes the SLR’s performance from the already massive 626 hp and 575 ft-lbs of torque to an incredible 700 hp and 650 ft-lbs of torque.

Stein says that when the engineers looked at performance options their philosophy was “evolution instead of revolution.” That may be so, but the fact that Mansory has even ventured into the performance arena is a revolution in itself.

Adding to the raw power increase, the transmission control unit was also modified to further enhance acceleration. The company claims the Renovatio SLR will now hit 62 mph in 3.6 seconds, two tenths of a second faster than stock. Top speed has also been increased from 207 to 211 mph.

As for future projects, Stein says that performance will be a part of their future vehicles and to look for power adders for the rest of their current lineup of vehicles in the future. Kourosh Mansory confirms this saying, “Our engineers are working to develop more in this direction.”

Another performance aspect of the Renovatio is its wheels. Looking unusually tame for a Mansory design, these rollers were designed specifically for the SLR. Measuring 20x9-inches up front and 20x12.5-inches in the rear, the one-piece forged units replace the cast stock wheels for a modest weight savings.

OFFENSIVE INTERIOR

The design of the Renovatio is undoubtedly divisive – except the interior. As far as the exterior is concerned, people either love it or hate it. We would wager, however, that while the gold is extreme, if Mansory had opted for a standard matte-black paint, critics would be far harder to find.

As for the interior… this just isn’t something we can sugar coat. Sure, we can’t criticize the carbon accents or the trademark Mansory aluminum pedals, but that died-gold Ostrich leather interior… simply appalling.

BUT IT’S NOT BRITISH

If you’re a fan of Mansory’s past creations, or if you hate them, one thing you may have noticed is that this German tuner has always stuck to tuning regal British brands like Aston Martin and Bentley. Seeing them modify an SLR is unexpected – even if you could make the argument that McLaren is a British company. So what’s with the sudden change?

“We are a company that specializes in super high-end cars,” says Kourosh Mansory, “that’s why.”

We wouldn’t rule out the power of the almighty dollar, either. While not confirmed, an awful lot of Mansory’s past successes have wound up in Dubai, and when wealthy fans of your work ask what you can do to their SLR, well, we don’t think we could say no either – although we would try to talk them out of the interior.

TOO FAR FOR A FERRARI?

As for whether Mansory thinks he is being a bit too excessive in his designs, he admits it’s already too late to go back. It seems those who will have an opinion of his work have already made up their minds, he says.

While the SLR is as original as it gets, we still had to ask Mr. Mansory about the 599 project. Wasn’t he afraid of offended the staunchly conservative and modifying-unfriendly Ferrari drivers? He just shrugged off the suggestion, saying that it’s no different with the Vanquish crowd. “The British guys can be the same,” he says.

MORE TO COME

As extreme as the Renovatio is, there’s more to come from Mansory. During our interview with this aftermarket legend, he let slip that other projects are already in the works. And considering his new crop of cars breaks with the company’s tradition of British-only models, the future possibilities are practically endless.

As our last visit with Mansory concluded with a prediction that the company fulfilled, it only seems appropriate to prognosticate again. Our guess for the next model from Mansory? The safe money has to be on a Lamborghini of some sort.

Stallone – Ferrari 599 GTB

It’s hard to say anything nice about the Stallone, but we’ll give it a shot. First off, the performance modifications are incredible. Mansory fitted a supercharger to the V12 engine which pushes the power from an already amazing 620 hp to an astonishing 720 hp! We can also say that at some angles the Stallone looks decent. At other angles - most of them, in fact - the same cannot be said. The angular front bumper design, which suits the SLR, clashes with the 599’s round shape. And as for the tail-lights, spoiler and Lambo-style exhaust – just tacky. The interior, however, is even worse, looking like a mix between a 1950’s diner and something out of Speed Racer.

SPECIFICATIONS & DETAILS

2007 McLaren SLR

ENGINE
McLaren supercharged 5.5L V8

ENGINE MODIFICATIONS
Supercharger pulley upgrade, high flow fuel pump and fuel injectors, larger intercoolers, stainless steel headers and side exit exhaust pipes

ENGINE MANAGEMENT
Remapped ECU

DRIVETRAIN MODIFICATIONS
Remapped TCU

NUMBERS
Horsepower: 700 hp
Torque: 649 ft-lbs
Zero-62 mph: 3.6 sec.
Top Speed: 211 mph

BODY, CHASSIS
Complete carbon fiber Renovatio aero kit including fender flares, exposed matte-carbon fender gills and hood gills, front bumper with exposed matte-carbon lip, side skirts with exposed mate-carbon, matte-carbon rear diffuser and trunk-lid spoiler, matte-carbon mirrors, matte-gold paint

WHEELS, TIRES, BRAKES
(f) 20x9-inch forged Mansory Turbine wheels with 255/30/20 Dunlop SP Sport Maxx tires; (r) 20x11.5-inch forged Mansory Turbine wheels with 325/25/20 Dunlop SP Sport Maxx tires

INTERIOR
Black quilted leather interior with black quilted Alcantara headliner, black Alcantara dash top and steering wheel, black leather and gold ostrich seats, gold ostrich shift boot and dash front

SOURCEBOX
Mansory Cooperation GmbH
Brand, Germany
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root
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