Would You Pay $3 Million For This Ten-Year-Old Mercedes?

Really want a Mercedes, but can’t afford the price of a new one? The second-hand market can hold some great bargains, especially if you’re willing to go back, say, ten years or so. But this isn’t one of them.

This isn’t an old C-Class or E-Class. Heck, it’s not even an S-Class or SL roadster. What you’re looking at is a 2009 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Stirling Moss edition – one of the rarest, most extreme supercars ever to wear the Silver Star, or to be produced by McLaren.

The SLR, for those unfamiliar, was the far more exclusive and exotic precursor of the SLS AMG and today’s AMG GT. It drew on the Formula One partnership between Mercedes and McLaren to yield a rival to the likes of the Porsche Carrera GT and Ferrari Enzo, albeit with its 5.4-liter supercharged V8 mounted up front and driving the rear wheels through a five-speed automatic transmission.

Mercedes and McLaren built over 2,000 of them between 2003 and 2010, with several upgraded versions along the way. But the Stirling Moss speedster was the most bonkers of them all. It had no windscreen to speak of aside from a pair of little wind deflectors, leaving an almost entirely open cockpit. The nose was completely redesigned as well, punctuated by different headlights. And the engine was upgraded from the standard 617 horsepower (460 kW) and 575 lb-ft (780 Nm) of torque to a more prodigious 651 hp (485 kW) and 605 lb-ft (820 Nm), exhaling through side exhausts behind the front wheels.

It was a suitable tribute to the legendary racing driver who lent his name, and only 75 examples made. This example, decked out in classic ivory over red, is being sold by Mechatronik GmbH in Pleidelsheim, just north of Daimler’s home base in Stuttgart, Germany. With 4,100 kilometers (2,548 miles) on the clock, the dealer’s listed it on JamesEdition for €2.95 million – or about $3.36 million at current exchange rates, which would be enough to buy about 20 examples of even the top Mercedes-AMG GT R.