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 Stuttgart – “Dear editors
– The new Mercedes-Benz 300 SL (Super Light) sports car will
complete test drives in public for the first time during this week. In
light of this occasion, please find enclosed the car’s
technical data and a photo.” This was how the company
announced the debut of 300 SL (model series W 194) in a press release
on 10 March 1952. Two days later, the car was shown to selected
journalists on the Stuttgart–Heilbronn motorway, now the A
81. A surviving photo shows a late-winter scene with the sports car
that was to become famous. Next to it is a Mercedes Benz 300 S (W 188)
– a sporty, luxurious touring car that provided some of the
technology for the new sports car.
The press release at the time also revealed Mercedes-Benz’s
plans for the new racing car: “Three ‘300
SL’ models have now been registered for ‘Mille
Miglia’, the famous Italian road race taking place on 3/4 May
1952, with the drivers Caracciola, Lang and Kling at the wheel. Rudolf
Caracciola has already won this race once – driving a
Mercedes-Benz SSKL in 1931.”
A total of ten W 194 models were built for the 1952 racing season. They
proved to be extremely successful: second and fourth places in Mille
Miglia, the top three places in the Berne Grand Prix for sports cars,
the top two places in the Le Mans 24 Hours, and the top four places in
the Jubilee Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. The last great
adventure of the season was participation in the 3rd Carrera
Panamericana in Mexico – a gruelling long-distance race over
3111 kilometres, lasting five days with eight stages. Here the cars
piloted by Karl Kling/Hans Klenk and Hermann Lang /Erwin Grupp were the
first to cross the finish line in November 1952, securing a legendary
double success for Mercedes-Benz.
These motor-racing successes not only signalled
Mercedes-Benz’s return to motorsport, they also enabled the
tradition-steeped brand to fully recapture the allure it enjoyed before
World War II, as the 300 SL made its debut not that long after the
war’s end. In Germany and large parts of Europe, ruins were
still very much part of the everyday landscape. The world’s
economies were recovering, but the aftermath of the years 1939 to 1945
was still very palpable. It was at this time that Mercedes-Benz
introduced the 300 SL racing car – its legendary victories
regaining the brand world-wide recognition.
Not least in the USA, where the resident Mercedes-Benz importer Max
Hoffman called for a suitable production sports car to enable customers
to experience the recently established SL legend for themselves. In
February 1954, the 300 SL (W 198) “gull-wing” model
was unveiled at the International Motor Sports Show in New York and
quickly became an automotive icon. At the same time, the 190 SL (W 121)
model, which went into production in 1955, premiered as the racing
version’s more practical and affordable counterpart. These
two models laid the foundations for the tradition of SL production
sports cars, which is being continued in 2012 with the R 231 model
series.
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