This car gave Mercedes one of its first major post war successes when it won the 1952 LeMans 24hr race. Mercedes had been one of the dominant makes in motor racing prior to World War II, and decided to return to the sportscar and Formula One racing circuits in the 1950s with great success. A similar car won the grueling Carrera Panamerica race, and it too is modelled by CMC.
LeMans has always been one of the toughest races to win as it is not enough to have the fastest car, it must also be strong enough to last the distance. Mercedes have always been tough, and the 300SL was no exception. The 3 litre straight six was developed from a saloon car engine and proved to be reliable as well as powerful. The chassis was a lightweight spaceframe, which led to the adoption of the unusual "Gullwing" doors. To give the car conventional doors, large deep cuts into the spaceframe chassis would have been necessary, robbing the car of its strength. The Gullwing doors gave reasonable access without compromising the chassis. A street version of this car was developed with slightly different styling and remains one of the most desirable classic Mercedes to this day.
Jaguar won LeMans in 1951 and 1953 with the beautiful C-Type, but they failed in 1952 and Mercedes took the top place. It was to be the last Mercedes victory at LeMans until 1989, as even though they were dominant in sportscar racing in 1955 (with the exceptional 300SLR) they withdrew from the '55 race while leading, following a terrible accident involving one of their cars that resulted in the deaths of dozens of spectators.
CMC make this model of the 300SL and it is a nice model but has a number of faults, mostly in terms of quality control (which is unusual for CMC given that they are considered high end models). The straight six engine is nicely represented, although you have to undo two tricky real leather straps to open the bonnet (tricky, but a nice detail!). The headlights with their mesh protection are very realistic, as are the lovely tartan patterned seats (somewhat of a Mercedes tradition). The boot opens to reveal two spare tires, which leave little room for anything else. The underside is completely plain, which is a pity as it is an expensive model, and on my 300SL, one of the large racing number decals was damaged (on the list of things to repair if I ever get the time!). The other quality problem concerns the paint which is noticeably rippled and poorly applied in areas such as the bonnet and on the bootlid. A shame this model had such quality control problems as otherwise it would have scored more highly. As it stands it is the best (and I think only) model of the 1952 LeMans winner available in 1:18th to my knowledge.
