AUTOCULT'S SPECIAL GULLWING MERC 300SL OOZES STYLE
1/43 scale
Mercedes 300SL Gullwing AMG - Red 1974 - owned by industrialist, F.K.Flick PRICE: £103.99 REF: ATC 90060
THE 300 SL (type W198) can trace its origins back to a racing sports car, the Mercedes-Benz W194. In 1951, Daimler-Benz built a sports car for racing, using a development of the large M186 engine.
In its first season, 1952, the W194 took second place at the Mille Miglia and famously took first and second at Le Mans. There were successes elsewhere too, including at the Carrera Panamericana.
Along with the 190 SL roadster, the Gullwing made it s début at the 1954 New York Auto Show. Production laster for three years and 1,400 were built.
This Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing belonged to Friedrich Karl Flick, a major shareholder of Daimler-Benz in the seventies. According to the press at the time, Herr Flick wanted his car to be the fastest in Germany. So he instructed the AMG technicians to make it faster than a Porsche 930 2.7 RS and unofficially to give the finished product his name. The car has since been known as the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Flick. Along with a number of other interior and exterior modifications that took most of a year to complete, this red gullwing became not only the fastest, but also the most expensive German car at the time, with the total cost of the work at least half a million German marks.
Perhaps not one for the purists, the word sacrilegious springs to mind, it cannot be denied that this is a spectacular automobile.
AutoCult's superb replication has been released as part of its Masterpeice range, and the result is really rather stunning. Whatever your feelings about this car, the standard of workmanship afforded this delightful resincast is top notch.
Superb finish, fine detail and perfect body shape really add to this most outrageous car - I love it!