Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing — Handmade Metal Model Car, Silver
Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing — Handmade Metal Model Car, Silver
Model details
- Construction
- Handcrafted
- Collection
- Automobile Models
- Item no.
- AJ083
The doors are the famous part. The reason for them is the interesting part.
Handcrafted in iron and hand-painted silver, with rolling metal wheels, the 300SL's long louvred bonnet, eyebrow arches and the upward-hinged doors that gave it the name.
Details
- 100% iron frame and body
- Metal wheels that roll
- Hand-painted silver finish with decal insignia
- Gullwing door detail
- Interior detail — seats, steering wheel, dash
- Ready to display
The car
Mercedes built the 300SL around a spaceframe — a lattice of small-diameter tubes that was extraordinarily rigid and extremely light. The trouble was that the lattice ran high along the sides of the car, so a conventional door would have cut straight through the structure. Hinging the door at the roof was the only way to keep the frame intact.
Launched in 1954 at the New York Motor Show rather than in Europe — again at Max Hoffman's urging, the same importer behind the Porsche Speedster — it was the fastest production car in the world at the time.