Photo: Mobile.de
Developed by legendary Mercedes-Benz engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut, the 300 SLR is one of the best known and arguably one of the winningest Mercedes-Benz racing cars in history.
The car's legend is sadly also linked with the most catastrophic accident in motorsport history, when the death of 83 people and the injury of another 120 or so at Le Mans, in 1955, persuaded Mercedes-Benz to retire from factory-sponsored motorsport events until the 1980s.
The horrific Le Mans disaster isn't enough to tarnish the legend of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR though, despite the fact that the car was only driven in three more races of the 1955 World Sportscar Championship, which it consequently won.
Its spaceframe chassis was based on the Mercedes-Benz W196 Grand Prix car, from which it sourced its inline eight-cylinder engine, while the streamlined body was made from a special magnesium alloy called Elektron.
With innovative desmodromic valve actuation and a mechanically-controlled direct fuel injection system, the three-liter powerplant developed no less than 310 hp, making for a top speed in excess of 300 km/h (186 mph).
Since only nine racing cars with the above specifications were ever built, you would be correct in guessing that none of them is currently for sale, nor will it ever be. Which is probably one of the reasons for the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR replica in the adjacent photos to cost a whooping 1 million Euros ($1,370,000).
We found the rather amazingly-detailed car on the German Mobile website, while scouting for rare Mercedes-Benzes, and you can't get much rarer than this one-off. Sure, its bodywork is “only” made from aluminium instead ofunobtainium Elektron, and it only sports a Mercedes-Benz inline six engine instead of the thunderous inline eight from the original car, but despite this it still looks like the closest thing that any mortal will ever get to own a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. So, is it a yay or a nay?
The horrific Le Mans disaster isn't enough to tarnish the legend of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR though, despite the fact that the car was only driven in three more races of the 1955 World Sportscar Championship, which it consequently won.
Its spaceframe chassis was based on the Mercedes-Benz W196 Grand Prix car, from which it sourced its inline eight-cylinder engine, while the streamlined body was made from a special magnesium alloy called Elektron.
With innovative desmodromic valve actuation and a mechanically-controlled direct fuel injection system, the three-liter powerplant developed no less than 310 hp, making for a top speed in excess of 300 km/h (186 mph).
Since only nine racing cars with the above specifications were ever built, you would be correct in guessing that none of them is currently for sale, nor will it ever be. Which is probably one of the reasons for the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR replica in the adjacent photos to cost a whooping 1 million Euros ($1,370,000).
We found the rather amazingly-detailed car on the German Mobile website, while scouting for rare Mercedes-Benzes, and you can't get much rarer than this one-off. Sure, its bodywork is “only” made from aluminium instead of
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