Chassis Number: 1980435500332
The Alloy Gullwing’s extremely limited availability and special competition-bred configuration is equaled by its historical significance within the pantheon of post-war sports-car designs. The chance to acquire such a storied car is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most, and this important offering will surely engage all the world’s preeminent collectors who have yet to experience this exclusive model for themselves.
All the most important race victories achieved by the 300SL were, in fact, secured by one of these lightweight competition specimens of the model. Distinctive in many ways from their standard steel-bodied brethren, of which 1,371 examples were produced, these incredibly rare and historically significant Alloy coupes were purpose-built for competition.
The Alloy Gullwing was the brainchild of Mercedes-Benz Chief of Engineering Dr. Fritz Nallinger, who proposed a special 300SL for retail to privateers at a board meeting in late February 1954. These coupes had their body panels and welded body shell rendered, uniquely, in aluminum. Excepting the windshield, all cabin windows were replicated in Plexiglas. These changes resulted in an overall weight reduction of 209 pounds, thus making the Alloy Gullwing especially competitive against British and Italian sports cars such as the Aston-Martin DB3S and Maserati A6GCS, as well as Ferrari’s 750 Monza and 250 GT.
These special cars were also outfitted with race-bred features including the high-performance NSL engine, which utilizes a competition camshaft, higher compression, unique butterfly throttle valve and recalibrated fuel distributor to deliver in excess of 215 horsepower. Rudge center-mount wheels came standard, as did special vented front brake drums. Finally, the suspension was revised with exclusive springs and shocks that provided better high-speed handling. With both a significant decrease in overall weight and increase in responsiveness, the improved performance of these Alloy cars is instantly discernible from behind the wheel. Mercedes-Benz greenlit production for February 1955 at the added cost of 5,000 DM per unit; factory records show just 29 examples were made available to privateers (24 in 1955, five in 1956).
Only very few of the world’s most significant collections currently contain an example of this important competition-bred model — largely owing to its extreme scarcity and remarkable usability. Secondary-market availability is further diminished by owners who seem to never part with these prized chassis.
