CLASSIC DRIVE: Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster

It is not only a Mercedes-Benz icon from the twentieth century, but a symbol of automotive design and engineering excellence. We drive a gorgeously restored 300SL Roadster in Franschhoek.

Words: Wilhelm Lutjeharms

Images: Charles Russell

Sometimes you just have to stand back and admire a car. Take your time and walk around it and really breathe it in. That is the effect the 300SL Roadster has on people. Like all of us, the owner of this iconic car is a Mercedes-Benz enthusiast as well as an aficionado. However, with the – very dark – clouds threating an immense downpour at any moment, I wondered if we would be allowed to take the car up the scenic mountain pass, merely one kilometre from the owner’s house, the perfect setting for our planned sunset shoot. I needn’t have worried, his words settling any doubts: “Let’s take it out then, she is not made of sugar”!

• Buy a limited-edition print featuring the 300 SL Roadster here.
• Buy a 1/18 scale model of the 300 SL Roadster here. 

This is undoubtedly one of the most famous Mercedes-Benz models ever produced. It is also one of the most jaw-droppingly beautiful cars to have graced our roads. I ask its owner where his interest in the car started (he also owns a few other 1950 and 1960s Mercedes-Benz models and Bentleys). He smiles and says: “It is a car I’ve always liked, and then there is the fascinating Mercedes-Benz post-war story. And the 300SL is such a fundamental part of it”.

As he reverses the car out, a funny sensation comes over me. I simply want to stare at the car. I fall in love with it again... with every single aspect, design feature and line. To appreciate this beauty fully, you want to grab a garden chair in which to relax while you are admiring each respective element. For a moment the urge to drive the 300SL almost disappears. 

This car’s history

However, not driving it would be such a miscarriage of the designers, engineers and technicians’ intent, who designed and manufactured these cars between 1957 and 1963 – it would border on the criminal.

After acquiring the car about 15 years ago, it was sent to Kienle Automobiltechnik in Germany for a full restoration. During any such restoration project at Kienle, the owner is part of the process and can give his input at certain stages. For example, the owner chose the light green exterior colour of the car. It is very close to one of the SL’s original colours, however, there is a subtle metallic tint to the paintwork, which somehow suits the car perfectly.

The darker green wheel hubs make a pleasant contrast to the exterior colour and at the same time complements the interior hue. The dark green soft top, the hard top (which fortunately we did not need that day) and even the very neat luggage set which can be found underneath the slopping rear luggage compartment are pleasantly complimentary in tone. 

By pressing on the tip of the door handle which sticks out, you grab the longer piece and pull the door open. 

After Kienle did its two-and-half year, 2 000-man hour nut-and-bolt restoration the results can be seen throughout the spotless cabin. This restoration (with some innovations) might be too new for some enthusiasts, but it has been so classically and masterfully done, that you simply can’t fault anything. 

During a conversation with Marc Kienle, son of Klaus Kienle the founder of the company, he sums up the most satisfying aspect of restoring such a car: “For us it is to have a 300SL perfectly but originally restored and to bring t it back to the street in not only an optically perfect but also a technically perfect condition so that our customers can drive the car and use it for what they are, a reliable sports car”.

As your eyes take in what is basically a brand new 60-year old cabin, the most notable modern upgrade is the air-conditioning system which has been installed, but, even this has been executed in a very classy manner. The system is positioned below the centre console, and if you were not a 300SL devotee, you would probably not have picked up this addition.  

Behind the wheel

As you drop into the leather-upholstered seat you are encircled by the dark green hue. The view over the long bonnet allows you an uncluttered view of the front corners of the car, and I immediately think about the engine which had to be tilted to allow this perfect view and create that double, sleek bulges. 

As the 300SL “Gullwing” production came to an end in the 1957 – the same year the Roadster’s production started – Mercedes-Benz could implement what it had learnt from the Gullwing as well as its racing programme on the Roadster. These included reshaping the petrol tank, moving the spare wheel (which provided more luggage space) and updating the rear suspension layout, thereby addressing the tricky on-the-limit handling which was endemic to the coupé. 

Tipping the scales at around 100 kg more than the coupé, the Roadster’s final drive ratio was shortened while the optional ‘competition’ camshaft from the coupé was part of the standard equipment on the Roadster.

I start the engine by turning the key in the ignition and engage first gear by moving the slender gearlever into place. Within the first few hundred yards it dawns on me how solid and rattle free the cabin is – dare I say it, better than in some modern cabriolets. Admittedly the mountain pass is billiard smooth, but despite these conditions, the car feels as if it rolled off the production line a few days ago.

The gearlever slips through the cogs with relative ease, although you need to be careful when you first operate the gearbox, to ascertain exactly where each gear is located.

Suddenly my focus turns to the slight burble which is emitted from the chromed, flat exhaust tip. The exhaust note has a constant, relatively deep sound, but put your foot down and the exhaust note changes to an even deeper sound, and, as you approach the upper part of the rev range there is another change in the tone, which borders on a full-throated growl. 

When the moods takes you, and even in this car it will, the engine flies through the rev range like no other Mercedes-Benz I’ve driven from this era. There is no slack or hick-up through the rev range, just a smooth sweep of the needle as it passes the numbers. I watch the revs rise relentlessly to just over 5 000 rpm, although the owner regularly pushes the engine to just before 6 000 rpm – close to the red line of the engine. 

The tractability on offer from the engine is also much better than I thought a 60-year old car could offer. Leave the gearbox in fourth gear at 2 000 rpm, put your foot down and it will elegantly start to pick up speed. You sense this is an old engine, but the way in which it works, makes you think twice about its age.

As I guide the SL through one of the best pieces of tarmac South Africa has to offer, the cream-rimmed steering wheel feeds enough information back to me. 

After the shoot there is a chance to press the throttle to the floor with abandon and I marvel at the way the 300SL picks up speed – something which is simply not in line with a car developed in the 1950s!

No trailer queen

Fortunately this 300SL is not a trailer queen, as the owner drives it regularly. Apart from short trips through the stunning Winelands in South Africa, he also takes it on much longer 1 000 km round-trips along the coast. No wonder it has already done more than 12 000 km since its full restoration. One of the most notable trips this car did, was before it was finally loaded onto the ship for its return journey to South Africa. The owner drove it through Austria, Italy, France and Switzerland. Most notably, he took it over the tight and hairpin-heavy Stelvio mountain pass.

On 8 February 1963 the final 300SL Roadster left the factory in Sindelfingen. A total of 1 858 Roadsters were built. Fortunately this particular car has only just started its new life*, and will definitely be keeping many connoisseurs happy long after we’ve gone. 

It is as if Kienle has added a soft layer of modernism throughout the car, but not in an intrusive way which tinkers with the aura, culture and respect that surrounds the 300SL. 

How fast this car must have felt back in the late-1950s! Looking back we have to appreciate the fact that Max Hoffman, the official importer of Mercedes-Benz cars into the USA, had a larger vision as a businessman. He convinced the board of Daimler-Benz at the time that they should built the 300SL, both the road version of the original race-car as well as the Roadster. Without this car automotive history wouldn’t have been the same and many an enthusiast would have been poorer for the lack of this experience.

*This car has since left our shores.

Specifications:

Mercedes-Benz 300SL (W198 II) 

Engine: 3.0-litre, in-line six-cylinder

Power: 160 kW at 5 800 rpm 

Torque: 275 Nm at 4 600 rpm

Transmission: 4-speed manual, RWD

Weight: 1 330 kg

0-100 km/h: 10.0 seconds

Years produced: 1957 – 1963