Mercedes-Benz SL Series (Mercedes SL) [Hardcover]

Mercedes Benz has now been manufacturing SL sports cars for fifty years, and for all that time the cars adorned with those two special letters have been admired and coveted by car lovers the world over. It all started in 1954, with the fabulous and iconic 300SL Gullwing, a road car developed directly from the stunning 300SLR racing car. Other models followed, including the more affordable 190SL, the Pagoda' car of the sixties and the stylish ranges of the seventies and eighties. Mercedes now use the SL tag before rather than after the numbers in the cars' designations, but the line is as strong as ever, with a magnificent new range and an SLR supercar developed with McLaren that takes the family right back to its roots.

Mercedes-Benz has built an enviable reputation for engineering excellence and a history of sporting success. The two come together in the glamorous and successful SL series, which have evolved from all-conquering racing cars to successive generations of swift and increasingly sure-footed roadsters.

Andrew Noakes traces the SL story from its beginnings in the early 1950s, when the war-torn Daimler-Benz company sought to rebuild its prestige in motorsport with a low-cost, production-based racing car. Rudolf Uhlenhaut’s 300SL was the result, a blend of sophisticated spaceframe construction and prosaic production car running gear which proved to be stunningly capable, winning at Le Mans in 1952 and dominating that season’s sports car events.

The book details the birth of those ‘gullwing’ racing cars and reveals their extraordinary racing record. It looks at the iconic 300SL road car that was developed from them, and the two very different SL roadsters that would follow later in the 1950s, the 300SL and 190SL. Every subsequent generation of SL road cars is also described in detail, from the classic ‘Pagoda-roof’ model of the 1960s to the very latest R230-series SL of today. In addition the book looks at spin-offs from the SL series including the 1970s SLC coupé, the 1990s SLK roadster and the awesome McLaren-developed SLR.

In racing, the SLs were near unbeatable. On the road, each new generation of SL has become the car to be seen in – and this book is a tribute to that sophisticated blend of speed, style and safety.

Andrew Noakes was trained as an automotive engineer, but quickly moved from the motor industry to motoring journalism. After working as a freelance writer he became Technical Editor of Fast Car magazine, then edited the classic car magazine Classics from its launch in 1997. He went on to become the magazine's Editor in Chief before returning to freelancing in 2002. Since then he has written four books and contributed numerous articles to motoring magazines and websites. He is a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers.

The three-pointed star of Mercedes-Benz adorns all kinds of vehicles, from trucks and taxis to luxury saloons and huge limousines. Sports cars, too, and for more than half a century the sporting side of the Mercedes-Benz range has been represented by a line of cars carrying a simple two-letter designation: SL.

Yet the five main generations of SL-class Mercedes, and the offshoots and derivatives they spawned, have spanned more than just the years. The SL has played many roles: there have been highly successful racing cars, accomplished roadsters, elegant coupés and genuine supercars. The SL has been powered by engines with six, eight and twelve cylinders, with power outputs ranging from 150bhp to more than 600bhp.

The SL has seen enormous changes in technology, too. Right from the start the SL has been at the forefront of automotive engineering, with such features as fuel injection and a spaceframe chassis as far back as the early fifties. Since then the SL-class has introduced Mercedes drivers to sophisticated suspensions, new tyre technology, innovative safety equipment and much more.

So the SL-class Mercedes is more than just a line of sporting cars. It is a fifty-year story of changing technology, developing markets and shifting perceptions of what makes a great driver’s car – and what a sports car from Mercedes-Benz should be like. And it is also clear proof that to the engineers behind these cars, the three-pointed star represents a continuing passion for perfection.