Chassis 188 012 00106/52
Motor 188 920 00117/52
Aufbau 188 18 00005/52

In the Wiesenthal Collection since 1979
The fifth Roadster built
Matching Numbers

Cary Grant owned one, so did Bing Crosby and Gary Cooper, Clark Gable even called it its dearest – the Mercedes-Benz 300 S, a car built by its inventors to invoke the glory of their own past and to show the world that Stuttgart could still build the best cars. It was October 1951 in Paris, at the Salon de l’Automobile, that Mercedes-Benz presented its new flagship to a stunned audience.

Drawn by Hermann Ahrens, built on the shortened chassis of the 300 limousine presented earlier that year in Frankfurt, with 150 horsepower out of three litres and six cylinders, and loaded with all the elegance and opulence the world had to offer, the Mercedes-Benz 300 S was more than a surprise inattendue, it was an exclamation mark. Yes, they could!

Some might have been bigger, others stronger, but the 300 S outshone each and every one of them, even in the fully motorized New World. No other car had this class – or in fact its price, which was almost twice the fanciest Cadillac. Whether as a Coupé, or a Cabriolet A with a fully lined soft-top, or as a sleek Roadster with a fully disappearing roof, the price was always the same: 34,500 German Marks. The press called it “a car for the world’s elite”, a nicely put euphemism for out of this world.

In the Old World resurrecting from the ashes, with a Volkswagen, a car that most could only dream of, having a similar price tag, less one nil, the 300 S must have appeared like a starship from outer space. But a stiffening breeze of Wirtschaftswunder made it also find some homes on this side of the pond, rather industry tycoons’ than movie stars’ homes, though. 560 cars left the factory in three years, the fewest as chic roadsters, with only 141 specimens built. In 1955, the 300 S was upgraded with fuel injection, dry-sump lubrication, even more chrome and new low-pivot independent rear suspension. The price was increased by half a Volkswagen, which put it two full Volkswagen above its famous gull-winged stable mate that Mercedes had meanwhile released from the race tracks into road traffic. This further reduced the already homeopathic sales numbers, and another three years later, in 1958, production of the 300 S ceased.

According to its body number, this car is the fifth 300 S roadster to leave the factory in Untertürkheim. It travelled to Bremen by train during the Christmas days of 1952. From Bremen, Buck & Willmann hauliers shipped it to the New World, along with a kilo of paint. Its destination was The Hoffman Motor Car Company, 487 Park Avenue, New York. It may well be the case that the ivory-coloured roaster, fitted with blue leather and a blue soft-top, decorated Hoffman’s impressive stand at the International Motor Sports Show in spring 1953. The timing would certainly be right.

The glamorous roadster came to the Wiesenthal collection in Vienna in 1978, via the US franchise. As a centrepiece of the collection, it has shared a number plate, W-7.990, with the 300 SL since 1979, along with a driver’s book. This book records as far back as 1982, and the obligatory notebook covers almost as great a timespan. Both detail drives, exhibitions and maintenance – with maintenance-related entries taking up the majority of the records. At Karwinsky the body was fully restored in 1992 and 1993, with invoices and numerous photos documenting both the scope and, above all, the quality of the work. At the turn of the millennium, a new interior and soft-top, along with an overhaul of the engine, ensured that the class that this car deserves is indeed present both inside and outside its splendid metal. It has been more nurtured and cared for than driven since then, meaning that the 300 S is still resplendent in its beguiling, breath-taking beauty.

In the 65 years since presentation of the 300 S, the world has become a different one, but one thing has not changed: it still amazes the passerby and makes them turn their heads no matter where it goes. The 300 S is quintessential elegance, it always has and will always be. Or as American “Road & Track” Magazine put it beautifully to the point in 1953:

“Wherever the Mercedes-Benz 300 S has been seen, since its first appearance at the Paris Salon in the autumn of 1951, it has caused a quiet riot of enthusiasm, with its low, sleek lines and its attitude of ‘going’ even when standing still.”