Photo: Mercedes-Benz
The Mercedes-Benz 190 SL is celebrating 60 years from its official debut at the 1955 Geneva Motor Show, where it managed to impress critics and media pundits, which praised the new-two seater for "irresistibly beautiful lines".
What we know today as the Mercedes-Benz 190 SL (W121 B2) was a two-door luxury roadster produce by Mercedes-Benz between 1955 and 1963. At the time, the 190 SL was considered an equally attractive but much cheaper alternative to the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing.
While its older brother was already highly appreciated by extravagant clients, the 190 SL had to make a name for itself using a new straight-four Type M121 petrol engine (with an overhead camshaft), delivering 105 HP. The 190 SL was available either as a soft-top convertible for a price of $3,998 at that time or with a removable hard top for $4,296.
The 190 SL turned out to be a massive hit outside Germany, especially on the American market. According to Mercedes-Benz, around 80 percent of all the models produced (25,881) were delivered to customers outside Germany while 40 percent of all 190 SL models found their owners in the United States of America.
Despite the fact that Mercedes-Benz didn't build the 190 SL on motor racing technology as it did with its superstar brother the 300 SL, there were versions that used windowless aluminum doors, a smaller windscreen and other mods, which included the removal of the bumpers along with the soft top.
In 1963, Mercedes-Benz launched the 230 SL model, which replaced both the 190 SL and the 300 SL Gullwing. Looking at what the SL badge stood for in the past and how it evolved in the present day, we're being touched by a feeling of nostalgia thinking that there was a time when design was more on the elegant and beautiful side and less on the sharp and aggresive one.
Nowadays, the SL has evolved into a hard-to-resist melange between the German and the American spirit, as we found out in our SL63 AMG review.
What we know today as the Mercedes-Benz 190 SL (W121 B2) was a two-door luxury roadster produce by Mercedes-Benz between 1955 and 1963. At the time, the 190 SL was considered an equally attractive but much cheaper alternative to the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing.
While its older brother was already highly appreciated by extravagant clients, the 190 SL had to make a name for itself using a new straight-four Type M121 petrol engine (with an overhead camshaft), delivering 105 HP. The 190 SL was available either as a soft-top convertible for a price of $3,998 at that time or with a removable hard top for $4,296.
The 190 SL turned out to be a massive hit outside Germany, especially on the American market. According to Mercedes-Benz, around 80 percent of all the models produced (25,881) were delivered to customers outside Germany while 40 percent of all 190 SL models found their owners in the United States of America.
Despite the fact that Mercedes-Benz didn't build the 190 SL on motor racing technology as it did with its superstar brother the 300 SL, there were versions that used windowless aluminum doors, a smaller windscreen and other mods, which included the removal of the bumpers along with the soft top.
In 1963, Mercedes-Benz launched the 230 SL model, which replaced both the 190 SL and the 300 SL Gullwing. Looking at what the SL badge stood for in the past and how it evolved in the present day, we're being touched by a feeling of nostalgia thinking that there was a time when design was more on the elegant and beautiful side and less on the sharp and aggresive one.
Nowadays, the SL has evolved into a hard-to-resist melange between the German and the American spirit, as we found out in our SL63 AMG review.
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