CarBrandLogos archive · Mercedes-Benz · 1954

Mercedes-BenzMercedes-Benz 300 SL

Doors that opened upward because the chassis left nowhere else to put them.

Photo: Bahnfrend · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Mercedes-Benz history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

In 1952 Daimler-Benz returned to international racing with the W194, a car built under severe constraints. There was no budget for a new engine, so it used the 3.0-litre straight-six from the 300 saloon, tilted on its side to lower the bonnet line. To make up for the modest power it had to be light, so Rudolf Uhlenhaut's team built a spaceframe of thin steel tubes — extremely rigid, extremely light, and with deep side members running along the sills that made a conventional door impossible. Hence a door hinged at the roof, opening upward.

0511 Mercedes 300 SL coupé 2 · Photography by Semnoz in November 2005 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

The W194 won Le Mans and the Carrera Panamericana that year. Mercedes had no plans to sell a road version until Max Hoffman, its American importer, told the board in 1953 that he would take a thousand of them and that they would sell in the United States. The company built the car and launched it not at a European motor show but in New York, in February 1954.

56 300SL Gullwing opened up · Writegeist · CC BY-SA 3.0

Doors of Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing at Legendy 2014

In production

The production 300 SL kept the spaceframe and the doors, and added something the racer had not had: Bosch mechanical direct fuel injection, making it the first production petrol car to use it. The engine gained a great deal of power as a result, and the car was, at launch, the fastest production car in the world. Its handling was less friendly — a swing-axle rear suspension that could snap into oversteer at the limit, which claimed a number of wealthy owners.

Doors of Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing at Legendy 2014 · Jiří Sedláček · CC BY-SA 4.0

Legacy

Coupé production ran to 1957 and totalled 1,400 cars. Hoffman again pushed for change, and the roadster that followed reverted to conventional doors, adopted a low-pivot swing axle that transformed the handling, and sold rather better — 1,858 of them by 1963. The roadster is the better car; the Gullwing is the one that became a symbol, of Mercedes-Benz specifically and of 1950s engineering confidence generally. Values reflect that, and the two Uhlenhaut coupés built on 300 SLR racing chassis are among the most valuable cars in existence.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1954–1957

Units built

3,258

Engine

2996 cc M198 straight-six engine

Designer

Friedrich Geiger

Technical specification

The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, in detail.

Production: 1954–1957 (Coupé): 1,400; 1957–1963 (Roadster): 1,858; 1955 (300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé): 2; 3,258 built sfn; Oswald; 2001c
Class: Sports car; Grand tourer
Body style: 2-door coupé, roadster
Layout: FR layout
Engine: 2996 cc M198 straight-six engine
Transmission: 4-speed manual
Designer: Friedrich Geiger
Assembly: West Germany: Stuttgart-Untertürkheim
Manufacturer: Mercedes-Benz