The first official photos of the limited production Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Strirling Moss that will make its world premiere at the 2009 North American Internation Auto Show in Detroit this January have been leaked into the internet. The oddly styled (and that’s an understatement) two-seater roadster which blends visual elements from the firm’s racing past with Merc’s current portfolio will be the last vehicle to be built under the partnership with McLaren as the two firms will each go their way in 2009.

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Here are some recent spy shots of the Mercedes Gullwing as it begins it’s cold weather testing in temperatures as low as -26° C (-14.8° F).

The Gullwing will be Mercedes’ own version of the successor to the Mercedes-McLaren SLR after its divorce from McLaren on that project. McLaren are working on their own version too.

Details are not definite on this model so all we can say is that it is expected in 2010 and will have a twin-turbo V8, connected to Mercedes’ 7-tronic automatic gearbox, with somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 horsepower (441 kW).

The new Gullwing is expected to carry the label SLC and it will become the first model in the Mercedes line-up to be produced exclusively by the AMG tuning arm.

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McLaren has several fingers in a handful of pies, and with its tenure with Mercedes-Benz coming to an end, it has more time to focus on expanding its range to compete with the big boys from Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche.

According to CAR, three new models are being developed, spanning the range from a modern-day F1 to a $96,000 (£60,000) “entry-level” halo sports car that takes aim at the Porsche 911. The new coupe will utilize McLaren’s extensive fabrication and materials experience, but at a sub-$100k price point, don’t expect construction methods akin to its greatest hits. Power could be provided by a M-B mill, but McLaren isn’t ruling out the development of its own engine. Continued

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 A couple of months after a Slovenian website posted a series of allegedly official photos (click here for more details) of the so-called McLaren P11 or F2, Car Magazine has followed suit publishing a new set of images that supposedly show an early clay model of the mid-engined British supercar. The styling differences between the P11s shown in the two publications concern details such as the design of the front and rear end, but other than that, they look pretty alike so it is quite possible that the two sets of images are from different design stages. Continued

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A Slovenian website called Avtomanija has published a group of photos of what seems to be a prototype version of the forthcoming McLaren F2 supercar that’s scheduled to be launched in late 2010. Of course, it goes without saying that these photos could be the work of a photoshop artist so don’t be hasty to draw a conclusion on the car’s appearance based on what you see here. McLaren’s new pure-bred two-seater will be based on the P8 mid-engined supercar project that was initially co-developed by the British automaker and Mercedes-Benz as a smaller and lower-priced successor to the SLR but was abandoned by the Germans in 2004. While details are still scarce, it is rumored said that the F2 will be equipped with a mid-mounted V8 powerplant from Mercedes-Benz’s AMG division. See photos after the jump Continued

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