Product Description
Model details:
- Hand-assembled precision metal model as a left-hand drive vehicle comprising 1067 parts
- Bonnet that opens forwards with support strut
- Boot lid that opens with support strut, spare wheel in the boot
- Perfectly designed steel-rimmed wheels, painted in the car’s colour, removable hubcaps, painted in the car’s colour
- Highly detailed 6-cylinder in-line engine with auxiliary units and piping/wiring
- Authentic vehicle interior with steering wheel, pedals and folding seats with leather upholstery
- Accurately reproduced dashboard with all gauges, switches and an ashtray that can be opened
- Exact reproduction of the underbody, perfect front and rear suspension
- Folding soft-top compartment lid
- Folding door handles
- Retractable aerial
- Opening fuel filler flap
- Folding sun visors
- Functional side windows in the doors, operated by window cranks
Description of the original vehicle:
The 300 SL Roadster was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1957 as the successor to the Gullwing, which had been introduced back in 1954, and was actively sought after by the then importer in America, Maximilian Hoffmann.
Externally, the car differs from the coupé at the front due to different headlights and, of course, the fabric soft top.
However, in order to allow comfortable access even with the roof closed and to fit the car with conventional doors hinged on the A-pillar, the space-frame had to be fundamentally redesigned. The now ‘normal’ entry also meant that the coupé’s folding steering wheel was no longer required.
The chassis was also improved and fitted with a single-joint swing axle, which provided significantly greater driving stability than the coupé’s sometimes treacherous double-joint swing axle.
From 1961 onwards, the Roadster was also the first Mercedes passenger car to be fitted with disc brakes all round.
215 hp from the three-litre six-cylinder engine with direct injection and a top speed of 250 km/h were a real statement at the time and were enough to ensure it went down in history as one of the most powerful supercars of its era.
During its production run from 1957 to 1963, 1,858 examples of the open-top and exceptionally elegant, elongated 300 SL were built – a model which, incidentally, laid the foundations for the SL legend that continues to this day.
