Mike, list : Your mention of seeing a 300SL coupe in LA reminded
me of
one I saw parked at a sports car shop on Hollywood Blvd. way back in 1957
.......
It was actually flame painted !!! Many die hard Mercedes or sports car
lovers would
view that as sacrilege, I am sure, but be that as it may, the flames were one
of the finest examples of the art I have ever seen, and I am almost certain
they were done
by the very well known West Coast striper and painter Von Dutch . This car
would turn heads anywhere at any time ! I still have several photos I took
of this
flamed gull wing, with my first ( box ) camera,somewhere in a shoebox .
The last time I saw a 300 SL on the road was back in the 80s, and that
one was
riding on a flatbed truck, and in need of much restoration, heading over the
Tappan Zee Bridge into New York State . 300 SLs on the highways around this
part of the country are about as common as the old Citroen " traction avants
" that always
reminded me of a sectioned '34 Ford sedan ...... or as hen' s teeth .
I took a look in my book on Mercedes and came up with several specs on
the
300 SL version produced in 1955 .........
The coupe weighed 1020 kg ( 2249 lb ), had a triangulated light tubular space
frame,
coil front and swing axle rear suspension, finned drum brakes all around, and
steel disc wheels with knock off hubs ( I never knew that ). The tranny was
a close ratio four speed, as Glen Barrett must remember, and the clutch was
an F & S dry plate unit . The 6 cyl engine, laid over to the left to attain
a low hood ( bonnet ) line, was Bosch fuel injected, unlike the first 300 SLs
in 1952 which had three Solex downdraft carbs which gave 175 horses at 5200
rpm ( ..... always thought that multiple side and downdraft carbs looked SO
COOL ! ) The injectors, developed by Daimler for their early aircraft
engines, were refined over the years and produced 215 horses at 6200 rpm on
this '55 model . Daimler had built the engines for the ill fated Hindenburg
and Graf Zeppelin airships of the 30s ....... these were 88 litre V16
Diesels, and later 20 cylinder versions gave 2000 hp unblown, and at least
one was built with a supercharger ..... it banged out over 2500 brake horse
power !!!
This street coupe had an 85 mm x 88 mm bore / stroke for a total of 2996
cc
( you figure out how many cubes ...... something like 61+ cc' s per cube, I
think )
and had a chain driven overhead cam with 2 valves only per cylinder, and 8.55
to 1 compression ratio . Unlike many of the pre war Mercedes Grand Prix
cars,
these engines did not have desmodromic valve gear ( valves opened AND CLOSED
by a camshaft ), double ohv cams, or separate cylinder casings WELDED
together,
and to a block holding the crank . Many years of racing ( land / water / air
) and engineering expertise went into designing and building these fabulous
cars .......
in fact in 1939 an inverted liquid cooled V12 Daimler Benz engine making 2770
hp
at 3100 rpm powered an ME 209 fighter plane to a speed of 755.1 km / h, which
is 470 mph for those of us on this side of the Pond ........ this world
record stood
for 30 years ....... although some Allied aircraft may have equalled this
speed during the war years , with turbocharging and fuel injection and the
use of special fuels
....... in fact, I have heard a few references to the fact that it was the WW
II German
fighter planes that first used NITROMETHANE in an engine !!!
Yes, the fabulous 300 SLs of the fifties : rare, exotic, unbelievably
expensive,
hard to find parts for ( ??? ) and unattainable for most of us .........
all in all, one helluva automobile !!! This for 4400 British Lbs in 1954 -
55 .
I would bet there are a few folks on this list who have worked on them
.......
do we have any ex or present owners ? We know at least one person here
got to drive one ...... At SPEED !!! ........ Lucky, Lucky man ! I
almost left out
the top speed listed in the book : 0 to 60 in 7.2 secs and 265 km / h .....
( that's 165 MPH over here ) ...... NICE street car in 1955 ...... or
ANYTIME !!!
....... History lesson's over ! Bruce
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