A Brief History
At the end of WWII, Mercedes-Benz, like all major German companies at the time, was in a difficult situation. All their assets abroad had been confiscated and used to pay war reparations, and the few manufacturing facilities they had left over had suffered damage during the war. Despite this, all of their manufacturing facilities in Germany where up and running again in less than two years.
Unlike many of their competitors in Germany, Mercedes was able to see success in their business very quickly after the war, and in 1951 they unveiled a new flagship for their model line-up, the much beloved, and highly technologically advanced Mercedes-Benz 300. This car later became known as the "Adenauer" after the first chancellor of west Germany, Konrad Adenauer, who famously used a number of Mercedes-Benz 300s in his official capacity.
The 300 "Adenauer" was not a sportscar, it was a large ultra-luxury sedan, equipped with all the luxuries that the early 1950s could provide. However, it did have a unusual sporting side to it's advanced design. It had a surprisingly stiff chassis, four-wheel independent suspension and double wishbones at the front. It had a 3 litre inline-6 engine at the front, producing power that would have been considered more than adequate at the time. It was already a very special vehicle, but the technology contained in the 300 "Adenauer" would very soon form the basis of something truly remarkable.
In 1951 Mercedes began its post-war racing program. They didn't have much money for this, so they reused the engine and suspension from the 300 "Adenauer" and adapted them for racing. The engine was famously cantered 50 degrees to the side so that it would sit lower in the engine bay. This was necessary because the the new body and chassis they had designed were much smaller, lighter, and more aerodynamic than the "Adenauer's", and the engine would not fit in the new car's engine bay otherwise. Depending on who you ask the spaceframe chassis may have weighed as little as 50kg, the upper estimates only reaching little over 80kg.
Alongside this extremely low weight, the way that the chassis was shaped also led to incredible stiffness, but this came with a downside. It was impossible to fit conventional doors to the car. So the Mercedes engineers came up with the idea to have smaller doors that bled into the roof and hinged upward, thus giving plenty of space to get into and out of the car, whilst not cutting into the incredible chassis. The in-line six was also extensively reworked and now made 170-180kW (228-241hp), which was up from 86kW (115hp) in the "Adenauer".
The new car, simply known as the W194, was successful in racing. It achieved various podium finishes in 1952, including 1st at Le Mans, 1st and 2nd a 229km (142 mile) endurance race at the Nürburgring, 2nd and 4th at the Mille Miglia, and 1st and 2nd at the Carrera Panamericana. This last race was widely considered to be the most dangerous race in the world at the time, and for good reason. A buzzard came through the windscreen of the first place car at 217km/h (135mph), but the driver managed to win the race regardless.
Mercedes-Benz had a market presence in America by this time and the head of the official Mercedes distributor in New York, Max Hoffman, suggested to Mercedes that it would be a good idea to sell a more comfortable road-ready version of the now successful race car to people in America who now had the money to afford such things after the war. He was so confident in his idea that he told Mercedes he would place an order for 1000 cars if they agreed. Mercedes-Benz agreed, and Hoffman ordered 1000 cars.
The road version of the W194, now called the 300SL, was an instant hit. It was the fastest production car in the world at a top speed of 263km/h (163mph), and it didn't take long for Max Hoffman's insistence that there should also be a roadster version to be listened to. The 300SL roadster was introduced in 1957, and would sell in even higher numbers. 3,258 300SLs were made over a period of 9 years from 1954 to 1963. At the same time they sold 25,881 of a smaller car, the 190SL. The 190SL was a smaller, cheaper and less powerful model than the 300SL. It only had a small in-line 4 making 77kW (103hp), leaving it somewhat underpowered.
The 300SL went on to racing success. Some of these wins include winning the 1955 European Rally Championship, and another win in its class at the 1955 Mille Miglia. Mercedes built two of a special a special racing variant, now known as the 300SLR "Uhlenhaut coupe" after their designer, Rudolf Uhlenhaut, who used one of them as his personal car. This is a car that famed racing driver Stirling Moss once referred to as,
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"The greatest sports racing car ever built – really an unbelievable machine."
An English car review magazine called the Automobile Revue is reported to have said of this car,
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"We are driving a car which barely takes a second to overtake the rest of the traffic, and for which 120 mph
on a quiet motorway is little more than walking pace. With its unflappable handling through corners, it treats
the laws of centrifugal force with apparent disdain."
The car had a top speed of nearly 290km/h (180mph).
Stirling Moss drove the 300SLR to victory at the 1955 Mille Miglia, but this is were the Mercedes' racing program would come to an end. In 1955 a terrible crash at Le Mans involving the 300SLR killed 84 people and injured over 120, most of them spectators. Various countries including France, Spain and West Germany would temporarily ban motorsports entirely following the accident, and Mercedes would stop racing for nearly three and a half decades.
A 300SLR sold to a private collector in 2022 for 141 million euros (US$142 million or AU$203 million). This broke the previous sale price record held by a Ferrari 250 GTO that sold in 2018 for US$70 million (AU$108.5 million)
In 1963 Mercedes introduced a new SL at the Geneva Motor Show. Mercedes had been aware that the 190SL was low on power, and the 300SL, which wasn't, was out of reach of the average buyer. Mercedes decided that if they wanted to maximise their success they should find a halfway point were the car wasn't low on power but was also attainable for people other than the ultra-wealthy. Thus, the W113 230SL "Pagoda" was born. It was the first sports car designed with crumple zones and a rigid passenger cell for safety. Its 2.3 litre in-line 6 made 110kW, down from the 300SL but up from the 190. It lost the 300SLs very light but hazardous and expensive Magnesium-Alloy body, and in its place lightweight Aluminium panels were fitted.
1967 saw the introduction of a new 2.5 litre engine and later the same year a 2.8 litre making 125kW. In 1965 Rudolf Uhlenhaut attempted to put a 6.3 litre V8 into the W113 SL but it made the car too front-heavy and the idea was abandoned. There was also a single 230SL fitted with a Wankel rotary engine, but Mercedes also eventually dropped this idea. 48,912 "Pagoda" SLs were sold.
In 1971 Mercedes replaced the W113 SL with the all-new R107 SL. The R107 would go on to be Mercedes' second longest lasting single series of car after the venerable W460 G-class.
Mercedes would make 7 different engines available for this car over its 18 year production run, ranging from a 2.8 litre in-line 6 to a 5.6 litre V8 making 169kW (227hp). This would also be the first and only time that they would offer a longer wheelbase coupe variant of the SL known as the SLC. Although this was officially supposed to be the S-class coupe rather than a long SL coupe.
After an 18 year production run it was time to replace the R107 SL with something new, and in 1989 Mercedes announced the R129 SL. Initially here were three engine options for this car, a 3 litre 12-valve in-line 6, a 3 litre 24-valve in-line 6, and a 5 litre V8.
In 1992 The SL got its first V12, a 6 litre 48-valve engine making 290kW, only 25kW less than the flat-12 Ferrari of the time. Diana, princess of Wales, briefly leased a red 500SL (the 5 litre V8), but had return it, because it was the first time a British royal had owned a foreign car, and the media pressure was intense.
AMG signed a cooperation agreement with Mercedes-Benz in 1990, and 1993 saw the first SL AMGs hit the roads. The SL60 had a 6 litre V8 producing 280kW (375hp), meaning it had a lighter engine than the V12 600SL, and made nearly as much power.
In 1995 AMG released the SL70, with a 7 litre V12 making 375kW (503hp). The 90s AMG SLs would reach their peak in 1996 with the SL73, which made a massive 386kW (518hp), and 750Nm (553lb-ft) of torque, 62kW (83hp) more than the flat-12 Ferrari of the time, and 6kW (8hp) more than the Lamborghini Diablo SV of the time. This intoxicating 7.3 litre V12 would later be used in the Pagani Zonda.
In 2001 the R129 SL was replaced by the R230 SL, which was used as the F1 safety car at the Hockenheimring in the same year. In 2001 Mercedes had bought AMG, and by 2002 AMG had already imbued the SL with their engineering excellence. The SL55 AMG had a sublime 5.4 litre supercharged V8 producing 368kW (493hp), and 700Nm (516lb-ft) of torque. This growling beast of an engine was later used in the Mercedes-McLaren SLR hypercar.
In 2003 Mercedes introduced the SL65 AMG which made 450kW (604hp) and 1000Nm (38lb-ft) of torque. The SL65 was a true Autobahn stormer, capable of a 3.6 seconds 0-100km/h (0-62mph), verified by Car and Driver Magazine, and 0-200km/h (124mph) in 11.6 seconds, the latter of which is quicker than a 2023 Porsche Taycan GTS. The straight line performance and power of the SL65 was comparable to the Lamborghini Murcielago of the time, although the Lamborghini had 350 fewer Newton-metres (258lb-ft) of torque.
In 2008 there was a facelift released for the SL which made it look considerably more modern and aggressive. By this time the Mercedes SL had features like ABC (active body control), which lowered body movement in corners by 60%, and Airscarf, which was a fan that blew hot air onto your neck when the roof was down to help keep you warm. These and many other features combine to create an unparalleled luxury-GT experience.
The most powerful AMG SL came in 2008 with the release of the SL65 AMG black-series, but the car's design involved some significant compromises, and it was uncomfortable and inconvenient in the real world. Subsequent SLs eventually lost the V12 engine and now* the most powerful SL you buy only has 430kW.
Nobody, even at Mercedes, was entirely sure what the name "SL" stood for, until 2017, when Mercedes found documents in their corporate archives from the early 1950s stating clearly that the name stood for Super-Light.
Mercedes SL is a name synonymous with sports-car history, luxury, and excellence.
Only 387 of the 2008 facelift SL65 AMGs were made. This car holds a very special place in the history of a very special lineage of cars.
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*This site was written in 2023.