The last one I saw was at Bruce Meyer's mini museum at his home. That
was in November 1992 at the debut of the restored Pierson Coupe.
Tom, Redding CA - #216 D/CC
FastmetalBDF@aol.com wrote:
>
> 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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