1953 Mercedes-Benz 300S Roadster (more photos 👇)
Priced well above a top-of-the-line Cadillac at the time, the 300S Roadster sat at the very top of Mercedes-Benz’s postwar lineup.
Introduced at the Paris Salon in October 1951, the 300S (W188) was available as a roadster, cabriolet, and coupe (all built on a shortened version of the Adenauer 300 sedan’s X-frame chassis). The roadster is the most sporting of the three: it carries a lighter, fully retractable soft top in place of the cabriolet’s heavier hood with its prominent landau bars.
The interior set a standard of its own, with supple leather throughout, burr walnut trim, chrome-accented instruments, and switchgear finished with the precision of fine jewelry. A floor-shift four-speed manual (similar in character to the fitment later seen in the 300SL) was available in place of the standard column-mounted selector.
Under the hood, a 2,996cc SOHC inline-six with triple Solex carburetors produced 150 horsepower and was good for a top speed of about 109 mph. The engine was the M188, derived from the M186 used in the 300 sedan, featuring deep water jackets and a diagonal head-to-block joint.
Between 1952 and 1955, Mercedes-Benz produced 216 coupes, 203 cabriolets, and 141 roadsters (the roadster the rarest of the three body styles by a small margin).
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