Classic Dream Car : Mercedes Benz 300SL Gullwing

November 12th, 2011 admin

The Mercedes Benz 300SL Gullwing was introduced in 1954 as a two-seat, closed sports car with distinctive doors. Later it was offered as an open roadster. It was the fastest production car of its time.

Built by Daimler-Benz AG and numbered internally W198 the injection version was from the road to (somewhat loosely) on a very successful company competition-only sports car of 1952, the slightly less powerful carbureted Mercedes-Benz 300SL (W194).

The road model was suggested by Max Hoffman. Designed for customers in the booming U.S. market post-war period in 1954 New York Auto Show was presented, in contrast to earlier models that was introduced at the Frankfurt or Geneva shows. The Mercedes-Benz fashion, the “300″ on the three-liter engine displacement. The “SL” stand for “Sport Light” (Light Sport).

The Mercedes Benz 300SL was best for both its distinctive gullwing doors and the first gasoline-powered cars are known, equipped with gasoline direct injection into the combustion chamber. The Gull Wing version is available from March 1955-1957. The production of the roadster in 1963 ended with the introduction of the 230SL.

Mercedes Benz 300SL a race Car for the road

New York Mercedes dealer Max Hoffman, the official importer of Daimler-Benz proposed in the United States, DBAG management in Stuttgart that a street version of the Mercedes Benz 300SL was a commercial success, especially in America.

The Race-W194 Mercedes Benz 300SL was built around a metal frame to compensate for relatively underpowered engine carburetor. Designed by DBAG chief engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut develop, the metal skeleton saved weight, while ensuring a high level of force. The unique architecture and bore the unmistakable design Vertical Doors, would be part of the chassis to pass through the lower half of a standard door. Even with the opening up doors, the 300SL had an unusually high threshold, so that entry and exit from the cockpit of the car problem. A steering wheel with a tilt-away column will be added to improve access for the driver.

Mercedes Benz 300SL Video

The Mercedes Benz 300SL body was mainly steel, except the aluminum hood, doors and trunk lid. It can also be ordered with an all-aluminum outer skin on a huge extra cost, saving 80 kg (176 lb).

More than 80% of the total production of cars by 1400 units were in the U.S., the first Gull Wing Mercedes-Benz, sold in bulk outside its home market and sold the confirmation of the validity of the proposal by Hoffman’s. The 300SL is credited for the image of the company in a U.S. manufacturer of solid, but staid, cars with a manufacturer of sports cars.

Mercedes Benz 300SL Engine

The Mercedes Benz 300SL engine, at fifty degrees to the left for a lower hood inclined to the same 3.0-liter inline six-six regular four-door as the 300th Equipped with Bosch mechanical fuel injection, almost double the original capacity of 86 kW (115 hp) Carburetor version.
While not the first cars with fuel injection – Mercedes engineers had established the principle of the DB 601 aircraft engine fuel injection into the small two-stroke Gutbrod they had developed after the war – it was the first to directly inject fuel into the cylinders. This innovation allows a top speed of 260 kph (161 mph) depending on the gear and pull what the 300SL the fastest production car of its time.

The engine has been high maintenance costs. In contrast to the current electrically powered fuel injection, mechanical fuel pump would continue to fuel injected into the engine during the period between the closing of the ignition and the engine to stop, this is obviously not burn gasoline and oil crops from the cylinder walls and at the end of the dilution of the engine oil, especially when the engine was not hard enough, nor driven long enough to a temperature high enough to activate, are evaporated from the oil.

Strengthening of the problem was the large oil cooler and the large amount of oil (10 liters), both of which take more than street-oriented, which virtually guaranteed that the oil is not a sufficiently high temperature racing. In practice, many drivers, the road block airflow through the radiator and the recommended oil change intervals of 1000 miles (1600 km). The operation of the clutch was very hard at first, later Roadster with an improved clutch arm auxiliary spring that lowered the pedal force. From March 1963 to end of production, an alloy engine has a total of 209 vehicles in use.

Aerodynamics plays an important role in the speed of the car, Mercedes-Benz engineers place horizontal “eyebrows” over the wheel openings to reduce the resistance. Unlike many cars from the 1950s was the disc rather precise and the four-wheel independent suspension allows for a reasonably comfortable ride and a much better overall handling. But the rear axle, connected only by the difference, not the wheel itself, treacherous at high speeds or on imperfect roads due to extreme changes in the fall.

Mercedes Benz 300SL Original racing history

In 1952, the original Mercedes Benz 300SL (W194 model Mercedes-Benz) posted total gains in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in Bern-Bremgarten, in the sports car race in the Eifel race at the Nurburgring and in the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico . In addition, managed second and fourth in their first outing, the Mille Miglia 1952nd. These successes, especially on the open road at high speed races were quite surprising, since the engine only with sugar, 175 PS output (130 kW), which was not only lower than the competing cars from Ferrari and Jaguar, but fitted less than the road version of 1954. Low weight and low aerodynamic drag made the 300SL fast enough to be competitive in endurance racing.

Mercedes Benz 300SL Fitch Land Speed Record

Mercedes Benz 300SL attempt in 2005, a Mercedes Benz 300SL Gullwing coupe of 87 year old John Fitch driven, has a Mercedes-Benz works driver in 1955, tried a new speed record for the F / GT class at Bonneville Speedway, but was thwarted by a stubborn fuel pump that limited top speed of 150 miles an hour (240 kph). After the race, promised the team back for a second attempt the following year. Fitch, he had pointed out that these cars run faster than that night in the rain, on the road with 60 other cars. The attempt is documented in the movie Twilight at Gull Wing: The Bonneville Ride of John Fitch, the broadcast on PBS

Mercedes Benz 300SL Specification

Manufacturer	Mercedes-Benz
Production	1952-1953 (racing car) 1955-1963 (production car) 3,258 built[1] Coupé: 1,400 Roadster: 1,858
Assembly	Stuttgart Untertürkheim, Germany
Predecessor	Mercedes-Benz W194 (racing car)
Successor	production car: Mercedes-Benz W113 (230SL) racing car: Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR
Class	sports car, GT
Body style	2 door coupé, roadster
Layout	FR layout
Platform	Mercedes-Benz W198
Engine	2995 cc M198 I6 SOHC
Transmission	4-speed manual
Wheelbase	2,400 mm (94.5 in)
Length	4,520 mm (178.0 in)
Width	1,790 mm (70.5 in)
Height	1,300 mm (51.2 in)
Curb weight	1,093 kg (2,410 lb)
Related	Mercedes-Benz W121 BII (190SL)

Mercedes Benz 300SL also known as Mercedes Benz  Gullwing.

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