Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, Mercedes-Benz
Bahnfrend, CC BY-SA 4.0

The sports car of 1954 with doors that open upwards like gull wings – built on a racing car.

The 300 SL was based on a 1952 racing car with a frame of thin steel tubes. The frame ran high along the sides, so the doors had to open upwards.

The American importer Max Hoffman persuaded Mercedes to build a road version, which was shown in New York in 1954. An open roadster followed in 1957.

Materials: Steel and aluminium, tubular frame

Manufacture: Hand-built in limited numbers in Stuttgart.

Gullwing doors hinged in the roof.

A long, low bonnet with two bulges and side vents.

A direct-injection petrol engine, a novelty for a production car.

The six-cylinder engine is tilted to one side to keep the bonnet low, and it had direct fuel injection, a novelty for a mass-produced passenger car.

Doors that open upwards, eyebrows over the wheel arches and two long raised ridges on the bonnet.

The coupé was made in 1954–1957 in about 1,400 examples and the roadster in 1957–1963.