Found this in the Car & Driver Online version
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/archive/mercedes-benz_300sl-archived_road_test

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I'm sick of .sig files

thanks. good read. what a car (obviously)

too bad they're so expensive that no one would ever drive one now on the highway.

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"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

"They demand some muscle power, and so do the clutch and the shift lever. In the 300 SL, driving is not the near spectator sport it has largely become in this age of robot-ized motoring."

Haha... robot-ized motoring in 1970? Wonder if the writer's still alive.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Cool! Thanks for sharing!

Back in '65 or so the owner of a construction company I worked for one summer had a 300sl roadser. I had no clue what it was or would have looked closer at it. (I was 17).

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

I did some looking into one of these in 1985 for a friend that was thinking of buying one. There was a speciality car dealer in Addison, Texas, that had a silver one, and they were asking $75,000. You could buy a 911 Roadster then for about $35,000, which was his eventual choice.

Three things I learned then that may, or may not, be true....

The competition version of this had two additional gas tanks; one running down each side of the car to help it keep balanced. This led to the Gull-Wing doors as there was no way to design a door with such a high sill and not tell the competition what you were doing.

The runners in the intake system are there to help smooth out back pressure pulses in the system from the opening and closeing of the intake valves. At the time Mercedes claimed it was the only way the air could get into the engine due to the low hood and there was nothing special about the length. I don't know how many engineers they fooled because today you see these runners on a lot of cars and trucks.

The 'blisters' that run down the side (some people call them 'eyebrows over the wheels) of it were said to be a styling feature but really were there to help with the air flow around the car. Porsche started using these on the 928 and found it was like adding 25 hp.

This car was totally restored and the guy who was looking to buy said it drove much like the article described. He did not get it because he wanted a car with an A/C and this car did not have it.

It also had some luggage that came with it that was said to be fitted, but it still looked like you could not get much in the trunk.

By the way.... The article mentioned that you should not gun the engine just prior to shutting it down. This was a custom during the 1950's that I never understood, but Mercedes must have known that enough people were prone to do it to post a warning against it.

I always thought the reason for the gullwing doors was due to the tubular frame. If you look at the picture of the frame in the article, it would have been almost impossible to have normal doors without cutting the frame tubes. Also read that the injectors of the time always leaked a little fuel back into teh cylinder after shutoff, thus striping the oil coating off of the cylinder walls ultimately shorting the engine life. That said, skip forward 30 years to 1985, Mercedes introduced a new 3 litre single overhead cam inline six engine, only 177 horsepower. So much for time and technology I know, I know the shortage of power was mostly due to smog rules and regs but still..

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I'm sick of .sig files

yes, that engine, in '56 no less, was quite a screamer. i have been told the w112 had the same one, though not sure it had the same performance.

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"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

I was aware of the tube frame and that does seem like the reason for the doors. How else could they open with the tubes in the way?

It could be that Mercedes took advantage of the space to put in fuel tanks for the competition cars. That would make more sense that the story I was told.

I guess I assumed the tanks were there in the street cars too.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.