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| The new Mercedes-Benz sports car 300 SL (Super Light) will conduct this week for the first time a test program in public. "- With these words Mercedes-Benz ushered in the year 1952, the press launch of a future vehicle myth This year marks the classics. its 60th "birthday". |
"SL": automotive enthusiasts should now listen up - but the acronym stands for sportiness and aesthetics. Now, the myth of "Mercedes-Benz 300 SL" 60 years old. A review.
"Dear editors! The new Mercedes-Benz sports car 300 SL (Super Light) will conduct this week for the first time a test program in public. On this occasion, we will send you attached the specifications of this vehicle and a photo. "- The company announced in a press release on 10 March 1952 to the debut of the 300 SL (W 194).
Two days later, the vehicle on the highway Stuttgart-Heilbronn, today's A 81 selected journalists was presented. The former press release also revealed that Mercedes-Benz had in mind for the new racing car: "Three, the 300 SL was' now for the 4th on 3 / May 1952 events including the famous Italian road race, the Mille Miglia ', reported by the drivers Caracciola, Lang and Kling-driving. Rudolf Caracciola won the race once already on Mercedes-Benz SSKL in 1931. "
Many victories in international races
Total Mercedes built for the 1952 racing season ten vehicles of the type W 194 Their use was extremely successful: two and four places in the Mille Miglia, triple victory in Bern Prize for sports cars, a double victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, fourfold victory in the Nürburgring Grand Prix Jubilee. The last great adventure of the season was to participate in the 3rd Carrera Panamericana in Mexico, a grueling endurance race over 3,111 kilometers through Mexico, in five days and eight stages. The cars of Karl Kling and Hans Klenk and Hermann Lang and Erwin Grupp drove here in November 1952, a legendary double victory for Mercedes-Benz to the finish.
The street version of the 300 SL
With these activities are reported back not only Mercedes-Benz in motorsport. Actually, no series production of the 300 SL was planned. The Mercedes-Benz distributor Max Hoffman, based in the United States but demanded a corresponding standard sports cars, to the newly created SL legend to make a direct experience for customers. In February 1954, presented the Mercedes 300 SL (W 198 I) "Gullwing" - the street version of the original SL - at the International Motor Sports Show in New York. Mass production began in August 1954 at the Sindelfingen plant. The price has been set to 29,000 marks - an enormous sum in those days. A Mercedes-Benz 170 Vb cost last 7900 mark. The alltagstauglichere and more affordable counterpart to the 300 SL - the 190 SL (W 121) - debuted at the same time the International Motor Sports Show in New York.
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