(Tan Mercedes 300d shots posted at the Cohort by nifticus)
(first posted 8/8/2015) For decades, the number “300” associated with a Mercedes had almost mythological significance in Germany. And for good reason, as the long line of fine cars, sports cars and racers that carried that number on its backside were inevitable something special and expensive. The line started with the 300 sedan that arrived in 1951, trimmed and priced to compete with the Rolls Royce. It was built through 1962, when it was replaced by the Grosser 600. And it came to be closely associated with West Germany’s first post-war chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, who oversaw the explosive resurgence of the economy and rode in 300s. Like Adenauer himself, the 300 was a bit long on tooth, but that didn’t keep either of them from being loved, admired and being timeless classics in their day.
Not surprisingly, the Mercedes plants in Sindolfingen were a prime target during the war. The result was devastation…much of the facilities were destroyed by Allied bombers. Yet perhaps ironically, Mercedes was better positioned after the war than almost all of the other German car makers except VW, who had been either dependent on Ambi-Budd to build their bodies, which was destroyed and its ruins now located in East Berlin, or found themselves altogether on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain.
Mercedes managed to get their smallest car, the four-cylinder pre-war 170V, back in production in May 1946, albeit at very low volumes. It was a start, if not a very glamorous one, considering all the superb large and expensive cars Mercedes had been building before the war.
In 1949, it was augmented by the 170 S, featuring a more attractive body riding essentially the same chassis, and whose body’s origins were in the pre-war six-cylinder 230. For the time being, the 170S was the most luxurious Mercedes, despite having a modest little 52 hp 1.7 L flat head four. German dignitaries either rode in prewar Mercedes, or like the mayor of west Berlin, rode in a 170S. Incidentally, the 170 S might well be the true origins of what came to be known as the “S Class”, a special (“Sonder”) version of the basic Mercedes line.
By 1948, Mercedes could see a future again, and the first discussions of a new large car were initiated. By 1949, with the new DM having resolved the currency situation, the outlook was substantially improved, and the effort to create a new flagship was begun, one that would make it clear to the world that Germany was back.
The new Mercedes 300 (W186) was unveiled in 1951, and the case was made rather convincingly. The 300 was designed to compete with the likes of Rolls Royce, whose very traditional Silver Dawn made the 300 look positively avant garde, despite its rather conservative design.
Under the skin, the 300 was a mixture of old and new; more of the former, actually. The frame was a modified and strengthened version of a prewar tubular X-frame chassis as used in the 230 series, with coil sprung independent suspension on all wheels, the front by wishbones and the rears via the Mercedes-typical swing axles. An electrically-adjustable torsion bar was also used in the rear to automatically provide stable ride height (and wheel camber) regardless of the load.
Unlike the all-new M180 smaller six that also appeared in 1951 in the 220 line, the M186 “big six” was not really an all-new engine. The block was a development of the prewar M159 engine, a 2.6L ohv six designed for passenger car use but that ended up in a light war-time truck instead. The block, which was rather massive, was modified to have seven main bearings and increased displacement, and a new SOHC alloy cylinder head was designed. But the spark plugs were still in the pre-war position in the side of the block, not the head; a rather unusual design. The massive block was also a challenge in adapting this engine for the 300SL, and is one of the reasons Rudolf Ulenhaut used a very light tubular frame for the Gullwing coupe to help compensate for its prodigious weight.
Those plugs in the block had me wondering about the combustion chamber and cylinder head. Engine developer Wolf Dieter used the angled top of the block with the integral combustion chamber to increase the valve size by overlapping the bore, to improve breathing and volumetric efficiency. Somewhat curiously, Mercedes was not a hemi-head adherent, and had been developing alternate methods for some time, which generally involved large intake valves mounted directly over the piston (or offset, as in this case) with a very direct intake port.
Here’s the cylinder head, which is flat like the Chevrolet “W” engine heads (348 & 409), and some others that had combustion chambers in the block. Mercedes achieved some stellar results with this head design; the direct fuel injected 300SL Gullwing engine version made 215 (net) hp from 183 cubic inch displacement; or about 250 hp gross. That’s a significantly higher specific output than the brand new 1957 fuel injected Corvette 283 CID (4.7 L) V8 that made 283 gross hp, this from a significantly smaller engine. The fact that the M186’s output was steadily increased from 115 hp to 215 hp was a testament to the soundness of this somewhat unorthodox cylinder head.
Mercedes did use a DOHC hemi-head design for their all-out racing engines, like the 300SLR’s and W196’s 3 Liter straight eight, but didn’t use hemis for its street cars until the 1973 M11o DOHC six, a development of the smaller M180 six that first appeared also in 1951.
The evolution of the 300’s design presented some challenges. Initially, Mercedes-Benz Body Chief Engineer Karl Wilfert created a proposal that was essentially a pre-war 230 (W153) body, with a few updates like extending the front fenders into the front door. But CEO William Haspell was not happy with it, as these words of his make quite clear;“Where the matter of shape is concerned, I believe that – even if you have fallen in love with this change – you will not contradict me when I say that this resultant object has become disproportionate and, therefore, decidedly inelegant. In short, there is no sense in wanting to change and modernise to such an extent, an object that was created from a different overall design; the result will be a bastard and one should not do such a thing.” I suspect his words were a bit more clear in their original German. Haspell then gave the job to Hermann Ahrens.
This proposal presumably is one of the designs he came up with before the finalized version was agreed upon and put into production.
It was clearly a modernized take on late 30s design elements,which given that the 300 was essentially just that, it’s not surprising. Mercedes had become conservative, in part out of necessity, and would not come out with reasonably modern new post war car until 1954, with the “pontoon” 220 (W180). But Ahrens did a fine job in balancing the classical and more modern themes, in a car that what was clearly best served at the time by not being too leading edge
As used in the first series 300 saloon and cabriolet, the M186 used twin Solex carbs and made 115 hp, enough to make it capable of a 100mph cruising speed. The British journal ‘The Autocar’ gave this glowing account of their test of the 300:
‘There are very few saloon cars which are capable of a mean speed of over 100 mph, but to obtain this result on a five-six-seater saloon car with generous room for passengers and luggage, using an engine of three-litre capacity said to deliver only 114 bhp is a notable achievement. The suspension and handling qualities offer a combination of riding comfort, stability and safety which reaches the pinnacle of current achievement. The ride is soft enough for the most fastidious passenger, but is very damped, and there is no sensation of roll, even when travelling really fast over winding roads. There is no noticeable tendency to understeer or oversteer; if forced to the limit, the rear end will begin to slide, but in a way which is instantly controllable by a flick of the wheel. The Type 300 of Mercedes-Benz is clearly a very strong competitor for the favour of the most discerning international buyers, to whom it will appeal because of its performance, detail finish and equipment. It maintains a high general level of excellence.’
The 300 went on sale in the US in 1953, with the very lofty price of $6,500, or almost twice the price of a Series 62 Cadillac sedan.
And that was well-topped by the 300S Cabrio and Coupe (W188), which featured a shorter wheelbase and hand-built bodies as well as prices some 50% higher as the 300 sedan. Engine power was upped to 150 hp.
These were bought by the elite celebrities and such of the time; they were the post war counterpart to the Duesenberg and other classics of the prewar era. The front view is by far the best one of these very valuable cars, but we need to give the tail a bit of equal time.
Konrad Adenauer (here getting into the front of a 300 during his 1953 campaign), along with other heads of state (and the pope), made do with the 300 sedan or Cabriolet. But supposedly he did say “haven’t you got anything bigger?” when first shown the 300. Well, it wasn’t really all that big, especially in its width, despite the impression it may create from the imposing front end.
It was not well suited for three-abreast seating. The 300’s chassis was based on the pre-war 230, a car not approaching the true big pre-war Mercedes, like the 500/540K or the truly large 770 (Grosser) that Hitler had ridden in. Perhaps his comment spurred the development of the Grosser 600?
Adenauer wasn’t quite around long enough for that really big new 600, which was announced in September 1963, one month before he left office. But his question got a partial answer in the substantially revised 300d (now W189) that arrived in 1957. It had a four inch wheelbase stretch, presumably to the betterment of rear seat foot room for Adenauer and the other dignitaries who might have been feeling a bit cramped back there.
The 300d’s styling was revised and updated, and the sedan was turned into a stunning six-window hardtop, perhaps the only one of its kind. Never have the occupants of a closed car had such unobstructed views, or been on such display.
Inside or out.
There were numerous changes and upgrades to make the 300d more competitive, especially in the American market, which was so lucrative thanks to the willingness of well-heeled customers willing to pay lofty prices for cars like this. The 1958 300d listed for $10,418, still about twice what a Cadillac four door hardtop cost. The 300d now came standard with a 180 hp fuel injected version of the six, and had an automatic transmission and available power steering. Even air conditioning was available. And in case you’re wondering, a diesel engine was decidedly not available.
The suspension was also softened and the manual steering was slower, all part of making the 300 more of a typical luxury cruiser and less of a serious road car. That’s not so say it still wasn’t exceptionally capable at speed, but comfort now took a higher priority. This was also during the time Studebaker-Packard was the exclusive distributor for Mercedes. That was convenient, since many Packard dealers became Mercedes dealers after the storied luxury car firm failed.
The 300 was built the way the great classics were in the pre-war era, almost completely by hand. The interior was the of the finest possible craftsmanship.
This 1961 300d has the newer padded safety-hub steering wheel, but the rest of the dash, exquisite as the materials and workmanship are, is starting to show its age. As was the rest of the 300, of course.
It was a testament to the 300’s advanced prewar underpinnings that this car could still impress folks with many of its qualities right to the end, in 1962. It was a living classic, and folks knew it at the time, just like the last of the W111 280 SE 3.5 convertibles that were built until 1971.
Buyers knew they were getting the last of the line, but an exceptional car that would never really look “wrong”, despite the changing fashions of the time. This is a car that wears its genuine landau bars proudly, unlike the fakes that soon littered so many American brougham. This car was a classic, in its own time, and ever since.
The 300 was replaced by the 600, which was probably twice as good in every objective parameter. Impressive though it is, in its looks and capabilities, it will never quite equal the 300’s classic grace and timelessness.
Never mind its hardtop roof.
Related reading:
Mercedes 300SEL (W109): Trying To Make Sense Of The Magic Number “300” by Don Andreina
Very nice cars and impressive at close range there was a 300 sedan at wheels on Windsor last I spent some time poring over it photos are in another computer, that flat cylinder head is called a Heron design in case you didnt know Peugeot diesels use it.
The little post war 170 also came in D with a 1700cc NA diesel engine, Ive seen one tucked away in a shed on a farm I worked on in North Queensland of all places, that was in the early 90s and I was told the car still went but was unregistered, great write up fruits of your holiday?
Actually, a Heron cylinder head is different. It has a bowl in the top of the piston, and the squish area is defined differently. The Chevrolet 348-409 is also not a Heron head.
As I said at the beginning, the featured 300 was shot and posted at the Cohort.Looks like Canadian plates.
I think the Rover P6 had a Heron head.
As did a lot of the early Ford Kent cross-flow engines.
Yes it did. Along with the Ford Kent, Jag V12, VW Wasserboxer, Some Volvo fours, Alfasud boxer, Audi F103 four, some VW EA827 fours, and the UK Ford Essex V4 and V6.
Alfasud Boxer?!
My ears just perked up… Love those. 🙂
Hello Paul
How can one download a pdf of your article? I would like to print it without the internet adverts on the side?
I’m sorry, but we don’t currently have the capability to generate pdfs of our articles. You may just have to cut them off or something.
There are plug-ins available for our site that could generate pdfs; I’d have to take some time to research which one is best and then install it.
Thank you for the story leading up to these. There is one here locally; having seen it a few times, it is breathtaking especially seeing it going down the road at speed.
Truly a magnificent car.
Yes, but… they’ve left the rear-most windows rolled up! This boggles my mind. It’s actually my biggest beef with all those guys in their ’60s hardtop coupe muscle cars: more often than not, you see them with only the front windows rolled down, not the backs—so you can’t truly appreciate the beauty of the open, airy hardtop greenhouse. Such a shame.
Also a childhood memory for me. One of our neighbors had a ’52 300, which he drove to work when he wasn’t driving his gullwing or his Cord. He made his wife use their ’54 Imperial limo to haul the kids around.
The picture of the chassis is impressive. Every piece and shape, down to the cross-section of the beams and the form of the welds, belongs to an integral vision. Nothing could possibly be mistaken for any American chassis.
The integral concept isn’t necessarily ideal … swing axles are a bad idea no matter how beautifully executed.
“The integral concept isn’t necessarily ideal … swing axles are a bad idea no matter how beautifully executed.”
At the times, swing axles were the best possible execution available for an IRS, solutions like double wishbones or De-Dion axles/torquetube was more or less only applicable for race cars/sports cars/GT:s. Even Rolls-Royce made do with a solid rear axle untill the Silver Shadow in 1965.
The 50’s were an interesting time in that regard, as many engineering solutions were tried out and their different drawbacks were seen more openly. It should’ve been obvious that the swing axle design was an engineering dead end, but of course, Mercedes in all their conservativity developed that design until its logical end to make the best solutions available on the market.
Thanks for the story. Interesting that you mention Hermann Ahrens. He headed the special vehicles section pre-war and was responsible for some of the most beautiful cars ever made – the 500 and 540k Special Roadsters come to mind. He also had a big hand in the G4’s and Hitler’s 770’s. Interesting person to say the least.
I am so glad you finely got to telling us about this fantastic car. The presence and the long production cycle allowed MB to avoid the going all Hollywood that afflicted Cadillac in the late fifties. Also the somewhat socialist nature of the development allowed MB the flexibility to do it how the engineers wanted it, rather than later and more gradually as the much more threadbare Rolls Royce of the period.
How audacious so soon after the war to even attempt this. After the two wars in Germany, there must have been the feeling that our leaders have failed us. Adenauer, being so old, must have had a lot to prove. No one could have thought anyone outside Germany would be interested in German style luxury so soon after the war. The mere act of building this car was such a dramatic act of optimism. The prewar models could have been built to order or just refurbished.
A great and informative article. In the town where I reached adolescence during the late 1960s (Titusville, FL – pop. ~30,000), someone had a 300 four-door cabriolet. I don’t know how the owner acquired it and I don’t remember which series it was, but the car was occasionally seen top-down during local parades, carrying dignitaries or pretty girls in the back seat. I’ve always wondered what happened to that majestic car.
Love the car. I would really enjoy riding in one I think. A jeweler in Houston had a 300d sedan up until a few years ago and it was on display
in the showroom of one of the local Mercedes-Benz dealerships. The small ‘d’ in this case does not indicate a Diesel engine. It denotes on-going improvements in the original chassis and body of the car.
I know it is only a typo and an oversight by the editor but Adenauer’s comment didn’t ‘spurn’ development of the 600. It may, in fact, have ‘spurred’ development of that model. For those not familiar with the term, spurn means to reject with disdain or contempt.
Quite true; I’m not sure how that got by, but it was getting a bit late last night.
I loved the article, Paul. Thanks for working into the wee hours to get it out.
This automobile is indeed timeless and truly worthy of transporting statesmen and potentates.
most certainly from “anspornen”, nicht wahr?
Great feature on a truly wonderful car, and what great advert for the Cohort.
The history is interesting, as I wasn’t aware of the pre-war roots of the car. Burt what an achievement to create what was probably the best luxury saloon in the world in the 1950s.
I saw a nice 600 at a car show earlier this year, with Austrian plates no less, but it somehow doesn’t have the presence of the earlier car.
Thanks Paul.
Love this write up, Paul!
Nice to learn about a car I knew nothing about.
I was quite surprised to see this car, as I’d never seen one before.
Read this slowly and savoured every word. I was up close to a 300d hardtop a couple of years ago and it was totally transfixing. The 600 has become the international icon but the 300d is just so nice.
IMHO, this was-and still is the ultimate Mercedes. I can`t possibly add anything more. These cars just exude a sense of class that has never been equaled.
Great article and pictures. I had no idea a six window hardtop ever existed.
OMG – That top picture is a block from my condo. Well, at least it was at the mini mart. That is a beautiful car. The clean hardtop look with a third sidelight is beautiful. Great find and great article!
I have never heard of an engine having the spark plugs in the block before. I’d always been under the impression that positioning the plug above the piston was most advantageous for combustion efficiency.
My next door neighbor inherited a first generation 300 sedan from his sister – it simply outclassed the ’83 Silver Spirit he bought new. By comparison, at the time, my parents were sporting a ’78 Buick Estate Wagon and an ’83 Reliant SE in our garage…
I’ve always preferred these to the 600, which is more imposing than elegant in my opinion. When I had my W109 300SELs, I felt a distant kinship to these cars, especially my 3-liter ’68 – not the same engine, but a six nonetheless.
If your W109 was ’68 3 liter car, it did have the same engine. That was the last time they were used, until replaced by the 2.8 in the 300 SEL in 1969.
My only experience with these was my childhood gazing at the black and white drawings in ads of old magazines. I loved those cars from the ads, and wondered why I never saw any of them. Given their prices, I now know better. Truly elegant, a perfect combination of classic, stately and modern.
I continue to maintain that a concurrent Cadillac or Imperial was a better car (in a performance for the price metric) but there is a craftsmanship about these that disappeared in the U.S. about the time Duesenberg and Cord gave up the ghost. An impressive piece of work.
And an excellent treatment – I do enjoy these pieces that teach me a few things, and I had not known much of these before.
You’re right, JP, the parallel Paul identified between this car and Chancellor Adenauer helped make the post so informative, and as ever readable.
This car was a great symbol of 1950s Germany and Europe, and so was Chanceller Adenauer
Such a good looking car. Do we know how many were sold in the USA? At double the cost of a Cadillac Series 62, I cannot think that it was a roaring success in the US as the Series 62 models of those years were some of the most attractive Cadillacs ever made. They represented the last Caddies that were designed by Harley Earl and the first ones designed by Bill Mitchell.
Timeless?
Pontoon fenders on a car are never timeless… Unless, it’s a London Taxi Cab.
Nice classic Mercedes, anyway.
What a fantastic find, I’ve never seen one of these myself. In some ways, these are quite beautiful, a great combination of 40s and early 50s design ideas. No reason to build a rectangular car with integrated fenders (until the W111) if your old-fashioned cars look like this.
That’s a fascinating engine, with what look to be peaked pistons (front and back in the picture) to make room for opening valves. It’s amazing, or at least moderately interesting, how many designs work well: I’d sort of like to think that engine design is more like geometry, but it seems to be that you can do pretty well with most beginning points, not just the conceptually most perfect one.
In 1956 Chrysler beat Mercedes by one year with a 6 window 4 door hardtop. Chrysler New Yorker, Desoto Firedome and Imperial Southampton offered the bodystyle. The Cars looked especially handsome with the windows up and like the Mercedes a little ungainly with the windows down.
Although I make my living as a writer, I have no words to adequately describe the beauty, elegance and grace of these cars.
I have to wonder what could have been had Packard gone this route in the 40’s instead of chasing Cadillac, and Oldsmobile.
When I lived in L.A. in the early ’90s, my daily commute took me from Burbank to Beverly Hills; one morning, I forgot something at the house and had to return. As I motored back down San Vicente, I came upon a first series 300 4-door cabriolet in light metallic blue, dark blue top, landau bars and all. I pulled up along the right side to get a better look at this beauty, and there in the front passenger seat was Ella Fitzgerald.
Her driver was sharp in his suit, tie and chauffeur’s cap, and I noticed she had her window down – so I lowered mine, turned my head and blurted out, “Hi Ella! Good morning!” She waved out the window at me and replied,
“Oh hi, honey!.”
Don’t know what floored me more – the car or who was in it. But I’ve never forgotten it.
Great article. I first learned of this magnificent car as a kid watching Butterfield 8 on the late show. Wonderful to see it juxtaposed against Gloria’s Sunbeam Alpine. The wife’s old money vs. the trashy call girl’s ill-gotten gains (and it was the 50’s so she had to die for her sins).
I remain chagrined that I blanked completely on the 300d when writing about four-door hardtops earlier this year…
Motor Trend’s “Imported Car Issue” of April 1961 (as a kid I used to live for this annual issue) proudly presented the 300 in the photo caption below: “…combines maximum dignity and impressiveness with minimum ostentation.” Even Motor Trend could strive for eloquence back in the day. The accompanying text gets more expansive: “The 300 Automatic sells in the $9000 range and is everything that one could desire in an all-purpose road machine, whether the purpose be motoring to the opera, rushing across a continent or bulldozing new cattle trails on the ancestral ranch. The car fits this crazy spectrum with placid ease. Perhaps no other car can do the same.”
By this measure, LBJ should have had a 300 on the ranch when Adenauer’s successor, Ludwig Erhard, arrived in Texas on December 28, 1963 for the first state visit following JFK’s assassination. Not Johnson’s kind of car, though, and not the image he wanted to project. BTW, Erhard loved the Texas barbecue, drank a tremendous amount of beer, and the event was a huge success – though dramatically different than the one originally planned by the Kennedys for November 25, 1963 at the White House (instead Chancellor Erhard attended JFK’s funeral on that day).
I think I learned more here than from the article Collectible Automobile ran on these cars earlier this year. Well done Paul!
Nice .
Pops had one of these when I was young .
-Nate
A most interesting piece on a car that I’ve known about since the early days, even though I don’t recall ever actually seeing one.
I’m still in a bit of shock that I got close and personal with one of these cars in the mid 1980s. A good friend of mine was from a large Catholic family that had a fleet of cars in the driveway. His dad’s daily driver was a ’67 Impala sedan, a second ’67 Impala sedan was assigned to my friend, his dad’s ’73 Montego convertible occupied part of the driveway. Other kid cars littered the place. His mom had the only “normal” car, an ’81 Chrysler Cordoba that occupied one side of the two-car garage. I rarely had reason to cross through the garage, but when I finally did – there was this big Mercedes four door hardtop sitting in the second bay. It was in remarkable condition.
At the time, you could have convinced me that no one but an American company had produced a four door hardtop. The Mercedes was a darker gray color, with a tan fabric interior that looked very rich. There was a huge air conditioner in the trunk with German writing on it. Simply a gorgeous car.
My friend’s dad had purchased the car at a prep school fund raiser auction. The idea that some well off alum or parent, likely a doctor, had put up the car for auction was plausible. It would be interesting to know the price he paid for the car, and what it would be worth today.
Thanks – this is a really interesting story, from the variety of cars in the household to the discovery and description of that exotic old car in the garage. You should consider writing a feature on this family and their cars. Do you know what happened to the M-B over time?
As usual, the comments and stories here are nearly as interesting as the feature. I am a little surprised at the number of encounters people have had with this rare car. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one outside of a museum setting and you see just about everything on the streets of SoCal. I probably ran across one at some point in time well before we all carried around phones w/cameras and digital cameras.
Thanks. A full write up might be ambitious, but my friend’s driveway was a lot more interesting than average.
His dad was a tall guy and favored big old American cars. He made decent money as an accountant, but divided that over six kids who all went to Catholic prep school. His penchant for penny pinching old cars did not apply to his wife who carefully guarded her Cordoba.
Having two ’67 Impalas seemed to be pure coincidence. He did “refurbish” them with new paint and seat covers in the early ’80s, but they got tired again pretty fast. My friend eventually bought a ’71 Cutlass convertible for himself, and his mom drove his Impala as a beater car before it died. His dad eventually replaced his Impala with a mint condition 1973 Ford LTD Brougham he bought from an elderly aunt. The Montego convertible looked good, but some sloppy frame rust repairs meant the car had a limited life remaining.
I sort of lost track of the family details of cars after the late ’80s, the mom passed some years ago, the dad is in poor health but still in the same house – maybe the Mercedes is still in the garage?
I have occasional contact with my old friend and will have to ask about the Benz next time.
My mother’s uncle (a corporate lawyer in NYC) had one of these 300d’s new. His was a dark blue, if I remember correctly. I got to ride in it once or twice and all I remember about it was that it was very quiet and the back seat seemed….or really was, higher up than in a Detroit sedan of the same period. That, and that you sat ON the seats, not IN them….but they weren’t uncomfortable.
These cars will always make me think “old man’s car”.
Simply breathtaking. In all of their variations, really. But I can’t decide which I like better–the 4-door cabriolet, or the six-light hardtop.
I’d love to see one in person someday.
In a case of “highly delayed CC effect” I did see one in person (or, at least, through a window) recently. I was looking out the window at work, which overlooks Interstate 95 in Richmond, when I noticed a rollback tow truck go by carrying a big black sedan. It didn’t click that I was looking at a classic until it had already passed, but I could still see the tail of the car as it drove away, and after another second of “what the heck is that?” it dawned on me that I was looking at an Adenauer 300, specifically a 300d hardtop. My jaw quite literally dropped open. By that time it was gone, but I got a good enough look to say that it was either a well-kept survivor or an older restoration–not perfect but in quite good shape for 50+ years old.
Magnificent car, even when seen on the back of a rollback from 75 feet away!
They are such stately cars.
The 4th picture was taken in Freiburg, Germany. The little run of water you might mistake for a gutter gives it away. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiburg_B%C3%A4chle
Not only Freiburg but a several more cities and towns in Baden-Württemburg have those runnels in the city centres. Waldshut-Tiengen has them, too. The photo below was taken prior to the renovation that converted the street into pedestrian zone. Interesting colour choices!
My father grew up in Waldshut-Tiengen, and we visited his parents and siblings there often. As a small kid, I delighted in dipping my shoes in the runnels whenever I could. My parents and grandparents kept me away from them until I got older and wised up.
We lived in Freiburg for a few years until we emigrated to the US due to my father’s secondment.
We had one of these when I was a kid. My father was in the US Air Force, and we were stationed in Japan in the early 60s. Dad bought it in 1963, and we shipped it back to the US when we returned. I remember the electrical suspension leveler, and the station-seeking tuner on the radio. Unfortunately, the car was hit broadside in San Antonio, TX, in 1968 and totaled (sprung the frame). As it happened, another 300d owner in south Texas saw the accident on the evening news and bought the remains to do a drivetrain transplant, since his was shot. So maybe, somewhere, part of our family’s Mercedes lives on.
Great post Paul, one of the best on the site. Like other commenters I’ve seen a couple of these cars, including I think Gary Cooper’s former 300S convertible but I must make a point to have a closer look next time.
A guy by the last name of Crabtree on Allegheny Ave had several ’50s or early ’60s big 300s parked under a carport and under tarps back in my Towson Days. The house was a bit old and somewhat neglected but in a fairly decent neighborhood. He obviously had stellar taste in cars, and I think he may have been a mechanic so knew good stuff when he saw it, I even recall a 300SL being there for awhile. This would have been around ’64 – ’68. His kids were in our school and always looked like they could use some attention, but clearly the cars got some. Wonder where they are now.
About the same time a neighbor down our street whose kids I sometimes babysat for bought a rather ratty 190SL, and I think he told me he paid $300 for it, this was in 1967,
and he was the lacrosse coach at Hopkins. Hard to believe what those cars bring now!
I remember that house all too well, especially the ratty 300SL in the carport. Unforgettable.
That 300d hardtop is just breathtaking. It reminds me of the Facel Vega Excellence.
Great article and pictures. I’ve never seen a 300 in the metal, but these cars definitely showed the world that Germany was back and open for business. When I was a kid I saw an ad for them in an old National Geographic from the ‘50’s, and I remember the Studebaker-Packard logo at the bottom. A few years ago, I saw a black 170S in the showroom of a Mercedes dealer near us in Toronto, and I was curious about it but I’m pretty sure some guy off the street on a bike with a backpack would have been hustled out of the showroom in short order.
I never saw these while growing up in the Pittsburgh area. They’re beautiful cars, and here’s one we happened to pass on I-78 in central NJ over a decade ago. It’s a final-year 1962 model if the license plate is accurate.
The 300 Adenauer. Luckily for Germany, the Adenauer coalition edged out the peg-leg Schumacher- head of the SPD- in the 1949 election. Schumacher’s idea was to create workers councils to run the factories. Soldiers councils would run the military. Adenauer’s 14 year run saved Germany from a “Democratic Socialist” experiment. See Britain.
I just can’t imagine this car sharing showroom space with a Studebaker Scotsman…
Great feature, thanks.
My family rode in a 300 during a trip to Poland in 1973. My father hired a taxi driver at the airport to take us to the relates village 2 hours away. 18 year old me came away impressed with the old Mercedes. I recall it was super comfortable, solid and handled well as the taxi driver pushed it through many a curve. So much so my father told him to dial it back a few kms per hour.
Was the 600 the first MB with squared-off styling?
Someone should graph the W designations over time, with a little picture for those of us who can’t keep the numbers straight. That’s one advantage of Detroit changing model names so often.
I have never thought of these as beautiful cars, with the coupe excepted ( and even that stares a bit rudely at one through its oversized eyes). They’re without doubt impossibly glamorous, and perhaps a bit intimidating, in the sense that the original buyer cannot have been anyone other than one of wealth and implied power, but not necessarily aesthetic masterpieces.
You can notice that the US ads lower the uber Benz a tad, to remove a bit of the pre-war stance, but the reality is different. It’s tall, and wee bit narrow. Those same ads also try to adjust the ever-so-slightly-awkward proportions that come from draping 1930’s ideas over integrated ’50’s metal by ignoring a few folds here and there, or by stretching them. They also embiggen the road wheels to better match these 540K-ish-sized shapes, as the ’50’s ones look just to small to mount such a creation.
As for the motor, Mercedes seemed to have some engineering philosophy against crossflow heads, which lasted right till the twin-cam six of about ’71, and on the big-selling fours till 1980-odd. A mystery, particularly as the proof it worked better was right there when those very fours got more power by adopting the same at that time, just as the twin-cam six had earlier.
To be clear, I do love these old coaches, but just don’t reckon they’re amongst the greats in that pantheon of the great-looking glamour cars of history.