Mercedes 300SL

The SL stood for Sport Leicht", or Sport Light. This was a road car turned racecar in the traditional sense. Mercedes used as many off the shelf parts as possible, and fitted them to a new lightweight space frame chassis. The engine was an inline 6, and the car featured double wishbone in the front, with swing axles in the rear. The original 50's 300SL was a wonderful sports car, with its unique gull wing doors. With wins at Carrera Panamerica, and at the 24 Hours of LeMans. In the late 50's, Mercedes turned it into a roadster, mostly due to demands of customers of the road car who complained of poor ventilation. The roadster version was produced until 1963. Quite out of date against the other cars in this class, the roadsters are the versions featured here. They were the last released models, and featured a lower link addition to the rear swing axles, helping make it at least somewhat useable for racing. Its main advantages are its flying wedge shape and relatively low center of gravity. However, the 4 speed gearbox is definitely not geared for racing, as the 2nd to 3rd shift is extremely long, 2nd being too short, and 3rd being too tall, thus leaving you stuck between a rock and a hard place when exiting corners. - Jerry Chen