300 SL Roadster

STORY

The 300 SL road car was born directly from the W194 racer that swept 1952, and when U.S. importer Max Hoffman convinced Stuttgart to sell it to the public, the W198 became a sensation. Launched in 1954, it was the first series-production car with Bosch mechanical direct petrol injection, which lifted its 3.0-litre M198 inline-six to 215 hp and made it the fastest production car of its day at up to 260 km/h. Its most theatrical feature was a necessity of engineering: the deep, welded tubular spaceframe left no room for conventional doors, so the roof-hinged 'gullwing' doors were invented to reach over the high sills. From 1957 an open Roadster replaced the coupe with a reworked frame and lower sills. Just 1,400 coupes and 1,858 roadsters were built, and the Gullwing defined the SL name forever.