Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing

The 300 SL coupé, factory designation W198, was built between 1954 and 1957 and is the car that re-established Mercedes-Benz as a maker of serious road-going sports cars after the war. It was developed from the W194 competition car of 1952 and reached production largely because the company's American importer, Max Hoffman, was convinced there was a market for a road version. The tubular spaceframe that made the racing car light and stiff also gave it very deep sills, and the doors had to open upwards as a result: the gullwing arrangement is a structural consequence before it is a styling signature.

Power comes from a three-litre straight-six tilted steeply to the left so the bonnet line could stay low. It was the first series-production passenger-car engine to inject petrol directly into the combustion chambers, using a Bosch mechanical system adapted from aviation practice, and dry-sump lubrication borrowed from the racing programme allowed the block to sit lower in the frame. Roughly 1,400 coupés were completed before the model gave way to the 300 SL Roadster, which abandoned the high sills and the upward-opening doors for a conventional arrangement.

Why the Gullwing remains the benchmark classic

Very little about the W198 was ordinary for 1954. The spaceframe was built from small-diameter tubes triangulated so that each one is loaded in tension or compression rather than in bending, which is why the structure is both light and stiff; the price of that efficiency is the sill height that forced the doors upwards. Around it sat drum brakes and a swing rear axle, so the car rewards understanding rather than aggression. Because the coupés were hand-finished in small numbers, originality decides how any individual car is judged: matching engine, correct panels and factory-specification interior matter more than cosmetic perfection.

In the Batman Garage collection the Gullwing is the reference point for everything German that follows it. Its influence is direct on the Mercedes-AMG SLS, which revived the upward-opening doors half a century later, and it stands behind the competition heritage invoked by the SLR McLaren 722 Edition, whose name refers to the start time of the 300 SLR that won the 1955 Mille Miglia. The most extreme road cars the company built in the modern era are gathered in our guide to the SL 65 and SLS AMG Black Series, and the wider roll call sits in the legendary cars section.