1959 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster

Sammlung Sonderklasse - Auction

Lot 081: 1959 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster

Vehicle description

ONE OF ONLY 1,858 EVER MADE

BEAUTIFULLY PRESERVED IN UNRESTORED CONDITION

DELIVERED NEW TO BELGIUM, ONLY THREE OWNERS

COMES WITH ITS ORIGINAL HARDTOP

Technical details

Year: 1959

Chassis N°: 198.042-10-002460

Frame head N°: 1065

Engine N°: 198.980-10-002511 (replacement engine)

Body N°: 198.042-10-00182

Gearbox N°: not found

Rear axle N°: 9500151

Front axle left N°: 002516

Front axle right N°: 002516

Steering box N°: 003323

Paint: 158 WHITE GREY

Interior: 354 LEATHER BLUE

Options

896 SOFT-TOP DARK BLUE

55 318/1 HARDTOP WHITE GREY 158 MOUNTED

10 278/1 5 BLACKWALL TIRES 6.50x15

ANTI-FREEZE FILL

Provenance

14/12/1959 N.V. ELEKTRISCHE HOUTZAGERIJ, HOVE, BE

THEN YDDES VERBIERE, KNOKKE HEIST, BE

12/07/2011 JAAP BRAAM RUBEN, MAASTRICHT, NL

Documents

DUTCH KENTEKENBEWIJS (2022)

BELGIAN INSCHRIJVINGSBOEKJE (1959, COPY)

About the model line

W 198 II

The laurels of Mercedes-Benz’s famous one-two finish in the race of all races, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, were still fresh when the factory team arrived at the Nürburgring in August 1952. Just in time for its home race, the tenth and final 300 SL racing car had been completed. It not only featured a shorter wheelbase than the previous nine cars, but, more importantly, it had lost its roof. Three of the team’s already successful coupés had likewise been converted into open roadsters for the Nürburgring. It did little to diminish the 300 SL’s dominance. Victory followed victory, first at the Nürburgring and later at the Carrera Panamericana.

By the end of 1952, the fate of the 300 SL appeared sealed and its story seemingly over before it had truly begun. The surviving racing cars became development mules for the engineering department. The short-wheelbase roadster was sacrificed and eventually scrapped. Two others regained their roofs and distinctive gullwing doors before embarking on promotional tours around the world. Only a single open 300 SL remained. In 1953, it received the new fuel-injected engine. By then, the decision to put the Gullwing Coupé into series production had all but been made, and this lone roadster was dispatched to the Großglockner High Alpine Road for extensive altitude and endurance testing. Once production of the 300 SL Coupé had begun, it too appeared to have fulfilled its purpose.

As the Gullwing became an instant success, calls for an open version quickly grew louder. One of the most persistent voices belonged to the very man who had already been instrumental in bringing the Coupé to market: Max Hoffman, the ambitious Austrian-born importer based in New York, once again came knocking on the door in Untertürkheim. The production 300 SL had not even celebrated its first birthday when Rudolf Uhlenhaut’s competition department, together with Head of Development Fritz Nallinger, was commissioned to create an open version.

Attention soon turned to the mothballed final open racing car, whose second life began here as the prototype for the future roadster. Little of the original racer remained beyond its spaceframe chassis—and even that underwent extensive surgery. Proper doors were now required, forcing engineers to modify and reinforce the tubular frame. By the summer of 1955, the exterior styling had also been finalised, and in early November the completed prototype stood before the company’s board of directors.

At the top of the engineering brief was an entirely new rear suspension. The twin-pivot swing axle fitted to the 300 SL Coupé had earned a formidable, even intimidating reputation when pushed to its limits. Those limits were notoriously narrow, and once the car broke away, recovering control could prove extremely difficult. The solution came in the form of a new single-pivot swing axle with a lower pivot point and a horizontal compensating spring mounted above the differential. The result was greater ride comfort and a suspension that became noticeably more composed under compression.

Throughout 1956, the prototype proved itself in extensive testing, much of it conducted on the high mountain passes of the Alps, well away from public view. Despite its increased weight, its performance remained thoroughly convincing. Yet the uncompromising 300 SL sports car had evolved into an open high-performance grand tourer. For its primary export market, the United States, this transformation was more than welcome. It was there that the first photograph of the car appeared, famously captioned „The Secret SLS“, showing the prototype on the Stelvio Pass. By then, the decision to put the Roadster into production had been made, and in late October the prototype was finally unveiled to the public.

The production cars would once again bear the name 300 SL, while the designation SLS remained reserved for two lightweight open competition cars, intended as little more than an experiment to assess the Roadster’s racing potential. The experiment proved successful, but it went no further. In March 1957, at the Geneva Motor Show, the new 300 SL Roadster celebrated its glamorous world premiere. Before the spring was over, it had replaced the Gullwing Coupé, whose production came to an end.

The footsteps it was expected to follow belonged to nothing less than a legend. The 300 SL Roadster continued the Gullwing’s story with remarkable success. By early 1963, 1,858 examples had been built, most of them once again destined for the other side of the Atlantic. Throughout its six-year production run, the Roadster was continually refined. A removable hardtop became available in 1958 for year-round usability, four-wheel disc brakes replaced drums in 1961, and in 1962 the engine received an aluminium cylinder block.

Then, in March 1963, the glorious story came to an end. There would be no true successor. The new 230 SL simply could not fill the void. Even Bruno Sacco would later admit that the W113 represented a step in the wrong direction—albeit a remarkably successful one. There would never again be another automobile quite like the 300 SL.

Auction information

Auction: 07 November 2026, 14:00

Auction house: Humer Granner & Co

Starting price: 300,000 EUR

Reserve: No reserve

Viewing: 05. November 2026 10:00 – 18:00, 06. November 2026 09:00 – 18:00, 07. November 2026 ab 09:00

Location: Gewerbeparkstraße 17, 4101 Feldkirchen an der Donau, AT

Bidding: In person · Online live · Telephone · Written bid

Auction registration: Schriftliches Kaufangebot, Als Telefonbieter, Online - live

Contact: Wolfgang Humer, +43 650 7262524 / Reinhard Granner, +43 699 17127272

About the auction

This Mercedes-Benz is part of the Sammlung Sonderklasse, one of the largest private Mercedes-Benz collections in Europe. The entire collection will be auctioned from 5 to 7 November 2026 in Feldkirchen an der Donau, Austria. All 83 cars are offered without reserve.

The collection also includes around 1,000 automobilia items and several fully furnished rooms, which will be auctioned on 6 and 7 November by Ni-Cola Classics. Please note that if you want to bid on automobilia, you must register in advance at nicola-ac.de. You can also view all lots at https://auction.nicola-ac.de/

The car auction starts on Saturday 7 November at 14:00, and you can bid in person or online. The cars can be viewed on Thursday 5 November from 10:00 to 18:00. Please note that if you want to bid on this car, you must register in advance with Humer Granner at https://hg.auction/auktionen/auktion-november-2026/.

You can order the catalogue at metropole-auction.com. It also serves as your admission ticket for two people. The catalogue does not replace registration with the auction house.

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