Photo: Mercedes Benz
To mark the arrival of a completely new SL Roadster, the R231, Mercedes Benz decided to recondition this very exciting-looking car from the past and bring it to the show floor of the 2012 Detroit Auto Show. But the story of the very first 300SL starts in June 1951, when the company big wigs of the time decided they had to have a slice of the action in the 1952 Le Mans endurance race.
So they ordered that this 300SL be built. It was their firs racing car since the end of the Second World War and it was mightily impressive for the time. The chassis was developed by the head of passenger car testing, Rudolg Uhlenhaut, who created a light frame that only weighed 50 kilos.
The engine under the bonnet was a 3.0-liter six-cylinder that pushed out 170 hp and was angled 50-degrees to the left and fitted with a dry sump to make the center of gravity as low as possible.
The engine under the bonnet was a 3.0-liter six-cylinder that pushed out 170 hp and was angled 50-degrees to the left and fitted with a dry sump to make the center of gravity as low as possible.
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