Collectible & Classic It s about the cars! The 300 SL hits 60! If ever there was an automotive fountain of youth, then the 1954 Mercedes 300 SL has certainly been washed often in the waters! RETROAUTOS March February 2014 2014 ISSN ISSN 1836-9472 All images copyright Mercedes
Sixty years ago, in February, Mercedes Benz unveiled the road going version of its race winning sports car at the International Motor Sports Show in New York. Crowds flocked to the Mercedes stand and looked on in awe at the 300SL, it s gullwing doors creating an iconic and visually enduring image which other car companies have desired to achieve ever since. The 300 SL was initially conceived in 1952 as a purpose-built racing sports car. It was designed by Rudolf Uhlenhaut who gave it a super light (hence SL ) tubular frame which boasted impressive
torsional stiffness and weighed only 1,295 kilograms. The gullwing doors were a design necessity as the high-sided chassis rails prevent normally hinged doors being used. Right from the get-go the 300 racer was a winner, greeting the chequered flag in the Grand Prix in Bern, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, at the Nürburgring and in the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico. Although there were initially no plans to make the 300SL into a road car, in September 1953 the Benz Board was persuaded by its American importer
Maximilian ( Maxi ) Hoffman, that a luxury, road version of the 300SL would sell big-time in the USA to his rich and famous clientele. And he was right! Within 6 months Uhlenhaut and his team delivered the first car to the dockside in New York for the auto show, and the rest is history. Priced at a jaw dropping $7300 US dollars (by comparison, a fully optioned Cadillac Eldorado convertible went for $4500) the 300 SLs became the must-have car for the new jet set and Hollywood s elite including Clark Gable, Kirk Douglas, Alfred Hitchcock and Sophie Loren. Getting in and out required flexibility. The steering wheel folded down to allow knee room.. Handbrake is on the left.
Pictured below is Uhlenhaut sitting on the 1952 racing version of the 300SL. The motor was a 3 litre six, boasting 158kw, and to get the bonnet low, it was slanted to the left by 45 degrees. Top speed was about 260kph. Zero to 100kmph came in 10 seconds through a 4 speed manual gearbox. Drum brakes fought the momentum to stop it.
In 1955, the company also built two special versions of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL. These were specifically designed for long-distance races. Externally, the car looked similar to the 300 SL. It lost the rear side window and a purebred Formula 1 straight eight cylinder engine lurked under the bonnet. The exhaust pipes exited through the side of the front guards. These cars did not find their way into any customers hands, but Rudolf Uhlenhaut had one as his personal car. Accordingly, it has become known as the Uhlenhaut Coupé. Image left: Uhlenhaut and his son Roger in the car. Image above: Mean exhausts!
Born in Vienna in 1904, Maximilian Edwin Hoffman worked as an importer in Austria in the 1920s and 1930s. He went to France in the late 1930s and in 1941 he fled to the USA to escape the Nazis. He established himself as an automotive importer after the Second World War. In 1947, he opened his first showroom on New York s Park Avenue dealing in imported luxury and sports cars. Hoffman had a keen sense for emerging trends and the spending power of newly affluent Americans. In September 1952, he secured the contract to become the official importer of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars for the United States. With the USA all under his control his influence on the Stuttgart-based company was significant. In September 1953, at a meeting with the board of directors of what was then Daimler-Benz AG, he pressed for the introduction of new luxury sports cars.
Hoffman correctly judged the market. The 300SL was an immediate success, particularly in the USA. Within 17 months, 996 gullwings had been sold, of which 850 went to the USA. That was 85 percent of all the models produced in 1954 and 1955. Even before the launch in New York, there was a sense at Mercedes-Benz that this exceptional sports cars had huge potential to be a style icon. In December 1955, the United States Patent Office granted them a patent on the design (design number 176,278) which protected the ornamental design for an automobile, substantially as shown and described herein.
Movie star Clark Gable bought his 300SL at Mercedes-Benz of Hollywood. List price was $7,295.After Gable s death in November 1960, ownership passed through many hands until 2013 when it was sold at auction for $1.85 million. Gable is pictured in his car, above right. The image bottom right shows a 300SL at the Brittsan Porsche, VW and Mercedes dealership in Fresno, California in 1955. A Hollywood starlet gains exposure, bottom left.
The 300 SL influenced many car designers. It is hard to ignore the similarities between the 300SL and one of GM s dream car of 1956, the Oldsmobile Golden Rocket, the 1957 clay prototypes of the Corvette and the 1963 Corvette itself. And if we really want to draw a long, long line, the 1971 Buick Riviera!
Of the 1,400 Gullwings made between 1954 and 1957, 1,100 went to the USA. In early 1956 Hoffman convinced Mercedes that a convertible version of the 300SL was needed, one with even more luxury, and more room. In 1957 Mercedes released the 300SL Roadster, with a convertible top and later a fixed hard top. These days, the 300SL goes for more than $1.5 million at auctions and even the 300 Roadster can fetch one million dollars. In the April 2014 issue of Retroautos we will delve into Mercedes vaults for prototype images of the roadster and the various design ideas being considered at the time. RETROAUTOS March 2014 ISSN 1836-9472 RETROAUTOS February 2014 ISSN 1836-9472