For years, McLaren and Mercedes seemingly went together like peanut butter and jelly, but now HWA is stepping in to tune Mercedes' next supercar. The scribes over at Automotive News Europe say the separation stems from Mercedes' dissatisfaction with the performance of the SLR McLaren vs. its primary rivals. This comes as quite a shock since only a few months back, all signs pointed to Mercedes buying McLaren. It's not exactly as though McLaren and Mercedes are splitting up altogether, though, as it's been less than a month since a drop-dead gorgeous SLR McLaren drop-top was announced.

Power for the HWA-tuned supercar will come from a tweaked version of AMG's hand-built 6.2L engine, and if the SLR performance is less than satisfactory, expect HWA's effort to be flat-out ridiculous. Speaking of AMG, the new supercar will be badged as such to make it road-legal, but it will still be a full-blown HWA race-developed product. To make room for its latest project, HWA is tripling the size of its manufacturing facilities to 3,600 sq. ft. to the tune of €4.5 million.

We find it almost comical that McLaren's 3.5 second 0-60 time and 640hp aren't enough to suit the finicky folks in Stuttgart, but with Corvettes and Vipers on the way with the same power for a quarter of the price, Mercedes had to do something to raise the already ridiculously-high bar.

drop-dead gorgeous SLR McLaren drop-top