Comments by "John D" (@johnd8892) on "American Reacts to the Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing - Germany's First Supercar" video.

  1. We can thank the US market and specifically the US Mercedes Benz importer, Max Hoffmann for getting the car into production. He pressured Daimler Benz to make a road version of the very successful racing 300 SL from the early fifties. The sealer from this, amid nevousness from the factory about how many of such a car could be sold, was Max Hoffman putting in a firm order for 1000 cars. That order got the road car proposal underway and unusually shown first at the New York Motor Show around January 1954. The Gullwing doors were to provide clearance for the very strong and light (50 kg) tubular frame extending to where s normal door would require an opening. First non diesel car to have fuel injection. The biggest US market, California, really preferred a convertible, so that was developed soon after. The slanted six cylinder motor, to make things lower , may have inspired Chrysler and others to develop the slant six and other makes slant four design. As you suspected there was a very successful race car 300SL but earlier and perhaps less than ten made but far too stripped of luxury as well as expensive to be sold as a road car. Think the early uglier racing cars won LeMans 24 hour in 1952 as well as the Carrera Panamerica road race rally through Mexico. These wins got Max Hoffmanns attention for the road version and knowing how much money the US market was willing to spend on cars.
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  2. Yes that's Peter from Legendary Motorcar in Canada. Lots of exotic stuff from him was on TV and now on the tube.
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  3. Australian Ford Falcon taxis most commonly driven for 900,000 km before any major work needed on them. Running on LPG they dominated the Australian Taxi fleet before production ended in 2016. LPG fuel made even the four litre Barra engine economical but still powerful.
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  4. The US importer , putting his money where his mouth was, with his order for 1000 cars convinced Daimler Benz to get this road version of their 300SL race car into production.
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