Every so often you expect some lunatic tuning company to take someone else’s supercar and reinvent it as a caricature of itself. The Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Stirling Moss is like that, except the revamp has been done by Mercedes itself.

The result is a car with boosted performance and toned-up looks that carries the maker’s seal of approval. Only 75 will be built when production starts in June, and even in these difficult times, all have been presold. To qualify to buy one, you would need to have been one of “the most loyal of SLR customers”, as Mercedes put it, with about £815,000 of spare cash.

Why name it after Sir Stirling Moss? Well, he is one of only two surviving people to have regularly raced a Mercedes F1 car, and I suspect Mercedes felt that “SLR Hans Herrmann” didn’t have quite the same ring. Stirling’s most notable achievement behind the wheel of a Mercedes was with a 300 SLR, winning the 1955 Mille Miglia road race from Brescia to Rome and back, driving almost 1,000 miles in a little more than 10 hours – a record that still stands.

Like the bald 1950s racer, the Stirling Moss has no roof and no side windows. It doesn’t even have a windscreen, so all that stands between the driver and the local insect population is a two-centimetre-high wind deflector. You could never drive it without a full-face helmet.

Like the normal SLR road car (production of which will cease for good before that of the Stirling Moss starts) it comes with a body fashioned entirely from lightweight carbon fibre. However, while the SLR was content to look merely extremely purposeful, the Stirling Moss is a riot of swoops and curves, scoops and wings. The nose is shaped like an arrow, and it’s no coincidence that Mercedes racers of days gone by were known as the Silver Arrows.

The cockpit is barely ahead of the rear wheels and has been stripped back to create a minimalist environment focused entirely on the driving. The roof is replaced by two body-coloured tonneau covers that stash away in the boot when not in use. The tailpipes are stub exhausts jutting out of the side of the car.

The SLR McLaren Stirling Moss looks like a solid piece of sculpture. “We’ve even taken out the phone and radio to save weight,” said a Mercedes spokesman, adding: “It’s not as if you are going to be able to hear them.” Far more than just an automotive fantasy car, the Stirling Moss is also, by some margin, the most focused and the fastest road car in the history of the company. Power output is rated at 650bhp. That may be only 24bhp more than that available in the current supercharged V8 SLR roadster, but it comes with a colossal 200kg drop in weight that gives the same power-to-weight ratio as if you’d added 100bhp to the standard car. Mercedes says 0-62mph comes up in less than 3.5sec, and that its top speed is 217mph, though whether your head would remain on your shoulders at such speed is a moot point.

Keeping it all on the ground is the responsibility of underbody aerodynamics, including one of the biggest rear air-diffusers ever to be fitted to a road car. Strangely, Mercedes is adamant that, unlike the original 300 SLR, the Stirling Moss is not intended for track use. Nevertheless, it has also fitted the car with a large air brake, a feature that appeared on the original race cars when they competed at Le Mans in 1955. The drum brakes of the old 300 SLR were a known weak spot, particularly as its deadliest rival, Jaguar’s D-type, had disc brakes.

It’s not known how many of these cars will be driven in anger, or how many will even be driven at all: many owners will regard them as an art form.

What is certain is that those few that do venture beyond their heated garages will make some of the rarest and most arresting sights on the road.

HOT WHEELS SPECS

Engine: 5439cc, supercharged V8
Power: 650bhp @ 6500rpm
Torque: 605 lb ft @ 4000rpm
Transmission: Five-speed automatic
Fuel/CO2: N/a
Acceleration: 0-62mph: less than 3.5sec
Top speed: 217mph
Price: £815,000
Road tax band: G (£400 a year)
Verdict: The maddest Merc you’ll ever see
Production date: June 2009