Dear Readers: Bill Vance was very proud to be able to offer his faithful, loyal, and knowledgeable readers regular columns that were not only engaging and accessible, but also historically perfectly accurate and well-written. He was supremely grateful to have been given that opportunity, and he devotedly wrote for you, his dear readers, until the very end of his life.
His grandsons will work to find a good home for Bill’s incredible and hard-to-surpass automotive history library. Dad’s favourite car was the Mercedes-Benz 300SL and so here is that column, originally written in 2015.Following the Second World War’s devastation, Germany’s Daimler-Benz, manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz cars and trucks, took until 1951 to introduce its all-new post-war 220 and 300 sedans.
As an interim measure it created a sports racer using M-B 300 sedan components. The 300 was not adaptable to racing but its driveline and chassis components were robust enough for competition. The 3.0 litre single overhead cam, 12-valve, short-stroke, inline six’s sturdy forged steel crankshaft was fully counterweighted and ran in seven generous main bearings. An aluminum bodied coupe with a low, aerodynamic drag was created, designated the 300SL .
The 300SL quickly made its mark in competition, winning, among others, the 1952 Le Mans, France, 24-hour race and Carrera Panamericana . It was also successful in rallying. After pointing the way to D-B’s return to Grand Prix racing, the 300SL would likely have been relegated to D-B’s museum like other M-B racers. Before this occurred, however, events took a turn with the intervention of Max Hoffman, Mercedes-Benz’s New York-based American distributor.
Ahhh. RIP Bill Vance....
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