Mercedes-Benz has produced many fine cars, and the German company – which can trace its origins back to Karl Benz, who built the first ‘true’ car, the Benz Patent Motorcar in 1885 – has long been at the forefront of automotive design, technology, and innovation.

One of its finest creations, and an absolute gold-plated classic, was the 1954 300 SL Coupe, famously known as the ‘Gullwing’.

A beautiful car – the Gullwing has a curious genesis and can put its creation down to the campaigning of an American – a man named Maximillian E. Hoffman who had been the official importer of Mercedes-Benz into the US market since 1952.

Hoffman, who had been a racing driver in Europe before immigrating to the US in 1941, was eager for the company to produce a sports car for his market, and his keen eye had settled on Mercedes’ new and successful 300 SL racing car as the right machine from which a production model could be created.

The 300 SL race car certainly had pedigree, appearing in 1952 as the first Mercedes-Benz race car to be created after WWII. It featured some quite innovative thinking and engineering, and was the first vehicle to bear the SL (for Super Light) designation.

Power came from a 3-litre, SOHC, straight-six engine. Its tubular spaceframe chassis, which weighed a featherlight 50kg, was rigid and strong, and its aluminium-magnesium body was both light and extremely aerodynamic.

The spaceframe design did mean, however, that conventional doors were not possible. The inventive solution was the top-hinged, upswinging doors – the ‘gullwings’ – that would be a hallmark of the car and the subsequent models based upon it.

So good was the 300 SL race car, that its competitive results, right from the off, were stellar. A second-place finish in its first race – the 1600km-long Mille Miglia in 1952 – announced it as a serious piece of racing kit. That result was followed up with a 1-2 finish in its class at Le Mans. Quite an achievement.

That original 300 SL was to be replaced by a new version in 1953 that would sport a fuel injection engine – a serious innovation for the time – but Mercedes-Benz shelved the prototype in favour of a focus on Formula One car development.

Instead, the future of the SL was as a road-going car and, heeding the call from across the Atlantic, Mercedes-Benz introduced the production 300 SL model at the 1954 New York Motor Show, taking the opportunity to also debut the 190 SL – the two-door, open-top roadster that had a design inspired by the 300 SL and was also a request of Hoffman in the US.

The production version looked very different to the smooth-skinned racing model, but the inspiration was obvious, and underneath the newly styled body – with its long bonnet, splash guards above the wheel arches, almost flush door handles – was the basic super lightweight tubular frame of the original, which necessitated keeping the gullwing doors.

The engine was the beefed-up, fuel injected, 3-litre straight-six that had been developed for the second-gen 300 SL race prototype.

The quality of the engine gave the new production model some wickedly good performance numbers. Power came in at 158kW, enabling the car to reach a top speed of 260km/h – a very spicy speed for the time and one that made the SL the fastest production car in the world.

The motoring press loved the car for its performance and handling, even though its race car origins and tubular frame construction meant getting in and out was a little tricky – even with the hinged steering wheel – and there was no glove box or radio or air conditioning, space was restricted with the boot able to hold only a spare tyre, the seats moved only forward and back and, thanks to those gullwing doors with their exaggerated curves to fit the body shape, fixed windows that could not be rolled open.

It was still pretty special inside though, and the leather or plaid-pattern fabric trim that was available, along with outstanding styling for the gauges and dash, made the 300 SL cabin a very cool space indeed.

The production of the gullwing lasted from 1954 to 1957 and just 1400 were made, the majority heading to the US market.

Another 1800 or so were built as the Roadster, which replaced the gullwing in 1957. It had a removable roof and, thanks to some rejigging of the tube frame, regular doors plus a few more interior luxuries. Production of that model ended in 1963.

The SL line has continued since the original coupe, and there have been some magnificent cars in those years, including some real performance monsters from Mercedes-AMG. But the original – the car that started it all – will always be a bit special.

And that can be confirmed in its value. Back in 1954, the Gullwing was available for $US6800, the equivalent of around $US66,000 today ($AU94,300). There’s no way you’d get a sniff of one at that price now. In fact, so collectible has it become, only those with the deepest of pockets need apply if a Gullwing comes up for sale today, and parting with more than $1.5 million would probably not be a surprise.

Of course, for that money you’d get your hands on a true piece of automotive history, and that’s worth an awful lot.

Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (December 2021/January 2022) 

5 January 2022