1959 Mercedes-Benz 190 SL
The man most responsible for its existence initially doubted it would amount to anything. When Austrian-born New York importer Max Hoffman pressed Mercedes-Benz for an affordable sports car at a board meeting in Stuttgart in September 1953, he was disappointed to learn the proposed car would be built on the platform of the 180 sedan.
His immediate reaction was that it wasn’t going to come to anything (though he later conceded the point).
From that meeting, Stuttgart’s engineers had barely five months to produce a presentable prototype for the February 1954 New York Auto Show. The body was developed from wooden bucks without formal production design drawings, and early prototype panels were hand-formed.
Despite the steel unitary construction, the hood, doors, and trunk lid were aluminum. The styling drew directly from the 300 SL (round headlamps, prominent grille badge, muscular rear haunches) in a two-seat roadster package with an optional removable hardtop.
The 1.9-liter M121 inline-four produced 105 horsepower at 5,700 rpm through twin Solex carburetors. Priced at just over $4,000 new in the United States, it was still more expensive than a 1955 Corvette (which cost under $3,000) but it offered a standard of fit and finish neither the Corvette nor the Thunderbird could match.
Of the 25,881 built through 1963, approximately 10,000 were delivered to the United States.
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