Description
Chassis No. 198. 040. 5500680 Engine No. 198. the details below Body No. 198. the details below On 1 May 1955, Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson brought their Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR back into Brescia to win the Mille Miglia in record time. Four places behind them came a car far closer to anything a customer could buy. John Fitch and navigator Kurt Gesell had driven a largely standard 300 SL Gullwing Coupe across roughly 1, 600 kilometers of Italian roads, finishing fifth overall and first in the Gran Turismo class. Later that season, Werner Engel drove another 300 SL to the 1955 European Rally Championship. Competition shaped the design from the start. Mercedes-Benz returned to sports car racing in 1952 with the W194 300 SL, developed under technical director Fritz Nallinger and test department head Rudolf Uhlenhaut. Its welded tubular space frame was light and very stiff, but its tall side members left no room for conventional doors. The engineers hinged the doors at the roof instead. That season the W194 finished second at the Mille Miglia, swept the sports car race at Bern, and scored one-two finishes at Le Mans and the Carrera Panamericana. Max Hoffman, the New York importer then handling Mercedes-Benz sales in the eastern United States, saw a market for a road-going version. In September 1953 he persuaded the Daimler-Benz board to build one, and in February 1954 the production 300 SL made its debut at the International Motor Sports Show in New York, before it had been shown in Germany. Known internally as the W198, the road car kept the racer's space frame and roof-hinged doors while gaining Bosch mechanical direct fuel injection for its 2, 996-cc inline-six. Mercedes-Benz credits the 300 SL as the first four-stroke production car with this arrangement. The engine was canted 50 degrees for a low hood line, with dry-sump lubrication letting it sit lower still. Output was 215 PS, and depending on the rear axle ratio, top speed reached 250 km/ h, making the 300 SL the fastest production car of its day. The Gull Wing Group Registry records that this car was completed on 30 August 1955 under order number 759 212, with shipment on 1 September 1955. Marked as a special order, it was consigned to Mercedes-Benz Distributors, Inc., the New York distributorship operated by Max Hoffman. It was finished in Fire Engine Red (534), with a Black leather interior (953). As one of the 10 standard colors offered on the Gullwing, Fire Engine Red was selected for only 155 Gullwings when new as researched by Chris Kramer. Its original service book shows the car was first registered on 1 December 1955 and delivered four days later, on 5 December, to Alexander G. Raymond of Stamford, Connecticut. Raymond was the illustrator who created the Flash Gordon comic strip for King Features Syndicate in 1934, and by the 1950s he was drawing the detective strip Rip Kirby. He put his new Gullwing to use straight away. By 22 December it had already covered 1, 226 miles and received its second service. A 300 SL Gullwing later found its way into his work, appearing in the Rip Kirby strip, quite possibly drawn from the one in his own garage. While Raymond passed in September 1956, and stamps continue in the book through 21 August 1959. The car then crossed the Atlantic, heading back to Europe, where 300 SL historian Hans Hürlimann believes Lukas Hüni, a well-known car dealer in Zürich, may have brought it to Switzerland. The registries record Jürg Heer of Zürich as an early Swiss owner. The car later passed to Klaus Brand of Meersburg, Germany. In 1970, Brand and Heinrich Baumgartner founded BBS in the Black Forest town of Schiltach, naming it after their surnames and the town. It began by making plastic body parts and introduced its first wheel in 1972. The cross-spoke design that became its signature followed in 1975. BBS has since become one of the world's most respected and recognizable wheel makers. In 1994, the 300 SL went from Brand to Hans Hürlimann of Wil, Switzerland, a 300 SL dealer and the model's first historian. His connection to the Gullwing began in March 1956, when his father bought an ivory 300 SL directly off the Mercedes-Benz stand at the Geneva Motor Show. Hürlimann went on to handle some 30 Gullwings. Buyers kept asking about each car's origin and equipment, so in 1978 he began gathering records from clubs, dealers, and owners. The result, published in 1981, was the first 300 SL Register. Hürlimann then sold the car on 14 June 1994 to the current owner's mother. The family has owned it for more than three decades, now with the son offering it today. In March 2025, LIGA Lindengut-Garage in Wil gave it a major service, including overhauled brakes and new front drums. The following year, in July 2026, marque specialist Michael Plag of Plag Classic examined the car in detail. He found that it has never been fully restored or disassembled, only repaired where needed and refinished in its original Fire Engine Red. The body has never been lifted...
