In 1952, a resurgent Mercedes-Benz stormed back into motorsport with the dramatic gullwing-doored 300SL, which, in its debut year, took 1-2 finishes both at Le Mans and the Carrera Panamericana. The following year, legendary New York importer Max Hoffman began to lobby Mercedes-Benz to build a road-going version and backed his conviction with a commitment to sell a thousand. The rest, as they say, is history. The race-derived 300SL Gullwing coupe with a 3.0L overhead-cam straight-6 was the fastest road car of its day, no argument, with a claimed top speed up to 165 MPH, depending on gearing. That shattering performance was due, in no small part, to the fitment of mechanical fuel injection (by Bosch), a world first on a production car with a 4-stroke engine. Another contributor was the weight-saving, tubular spaceframe chassis, which resulted in the “Super Leicht” acronym and necessitated the signature gullwing doors. But Hoffman didn’t stop there. As Gullwing sales wound down, he believed a convertible version would go over even better, particularly on the West Coast. He was right again. Produced from 1957 to 1963, the 300SL Roadster outsold the Gullwing with 1,858 total sales. Adapting the spaceframe to accommodate conventional doors on the Roadsters was a considerable engineering challenge. At the same time, the compression was upped and power output increased to 240 HP. The Gullwing had been noted for being extremely twitchy at high speed with a nasty tendency to bump oversteer. Again, the Roadster improved on this with a lower pivot rear swing axle and revised coil-spring setup, making it all the more compliant and comfortable. As Road & Track put it: “The car handles beautifully under all conditions. This is a tremendous improvement over the hardtop models, which had a tendency to oversteer violently if pressed to hard.” Richard Grant III believed beautiful cars were meant to be driven and enjoyed, and that may explain why he opted for a 300SL Roadster rather than Gullwing. Whether with the roof up or down, the 300SL Roadster was a breath of fresh air compared to the confines of a Gullwing. This 1961 example in Fire Engine Red on color-matched factory wheels with a black interior is one of 250 built that year. As Road & Track stated: “There is no doubt the 300SL Roadster is a truly great dual-purpose sportscar, equally at home in traffic and the open road, or on the track.” Indeed, at $10,928 at launch, the Roadster was considerably more costly than the out-going Gullwing had been. Yet, despite the price premium, it was also considerably more popular. With Chassis No. 10002722 and Body No. 1000233, this 1961 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster is the result of mechanical and cosmetic reconditioning in the 1990s by Paul Russelland Company of Essex, Massachusetts, before then-owner Elliot Brodsky of Providence, Rhode Island, sold the car to Joshua Teverow in 2005. A wonderful example of the follow up to Mercedes-Benz’s Gullwing coupe, this 300SL Roadster has been in the care of the Rick Grant collection since 2007.
