Do you recall the Mercedes-McLaren SLR Stirling Moss? Well, the Bussink GT R SpeedLegend is a more modern version of that roofless supercar. This extreme-looking machine is the brainchild of product designer Roland A. Bussink. Herr Bussink is a lover of Mercedes products and he has a special appreciation for older racecars. A few years ago he created a modern-day homage to the famous Rote Sau AMG that is considered to be the very first AMG car. His modern version was based on the AMG GT R and it featured a full retro livery of the original racecar.

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Topless fun

For his latest creation, the Bussink GT R SpeedLegend, the German designer turned to the likes of the original Mercedes SLR and the more recent Mercedes-McLaren SLR Stirling Moss (silver car pictured above) for inspiration, which means it is a car with no roof and (almost) no windshield in place. 

Check out five other supercars that have no roof whatsoever.

The starting point for this exercise was the modern-day AMG GT R Roadster, which is already the topless version of the potent GT R. That was a smart move as it means that there’s no need for any additional body bracing as Mercedes has already taken care of that. The Bussink GT R SpeedLegend does away with the A-pillars and the windshield. A Y-shaped bow, that has a strong resemblance to the ‘halo’ device used in Formula One cars, provides protection for the two occupants.

Specialist manufacturer

Bussink wasn’t messing around with the build. He enlisted the services of HWA AG, the company responsible for producing Mercedes’ GT3 racers. HWA is building five examples of the Bussink GT R SpeedLegend and all are reportedly spoken for.

The stock GT R Roadster has a 4,0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 that delivers 430 kW and maximum torque of 700 N.m. It sprints from standstill to 100 km/h in 3,6 seconds and has a top speed of 317 km/h. HWA manages to shave 100 kg from the base car’s mass at the same it ramps up power to over 625 kW. Those figures should blow back the hair of the passengers, provided they didn’t leave home wearing helmets. 

Bussink says this is the first of a few upcoming projects that he will be undertaking to produce low-volume specialist creations based on Mercedes products. We can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.