Open for joie de vivre, elegance, and departure to new destinations: the eagerly awaited Mercedes-Benz 190 SL (W 121) was launched in 1955. The two-seater Cabriolet technologically based on the upper mid-size category brought joy and colour to everyday life during the years of the economic miracle. Internationally the 190 SL set standards for a culture of comfortable travel with style and sporty elegance. Together with its “elder sibling”, the 300 SL, it paved the way for the successful Mercedes-Benz SL tradition – culminating in the current R 231. Today the W 121 is a classic car that fetches exceptionally good prices.
Experts in the industry and the general public alike had been dreaming of this car since the appearance of a prototype version at the International Motor Sports Show in New York in February 1954. The Mercedes-Benz 190 SL then appeared in its finished form in March 1955 at the 25th International Motor Show in Geneva where it met with a resounding response. German weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”, for example, raved about the “Mercedes-Benz 190 SL with its irresistibly beautiful lines”. The impetus for developing the Roadster came from the US-American Mercedes-Benz importer Maximilian Edwin Hoffman.
The 190 SL, which went into main production in May 1955, was an open-top, two-seater car for comfortable and stylish travel. Karl Wilfert and Walter Häcker designed its body with sporty lines and in a style reminiscent of the 300 SL “Gullwing” (W 198) super sports car. Whereas the Gullwing Coupé was based on a complex space frame, the 190 SL Cabriolet had the shortened floor assembly of the 180 Saloon model (W 120) with self-supporting chassis-body structure. The 190 SL was powered by the newly developed M 121, a 77 kW (105 hp) 1.9-litre four-cylinder engine with an overhead camshaft.
In this sense, the 190 SL dream car came at just the right time. The Stuttgart brand’s open-top two-seater set new standards for comfortable travel with a sporty note by delivering a refreshingly new take on the “Gran Turismo” idea. So 60 years ago, the W 121 also laid the foundations for the excellent tradition of the Mercedes-Benz SL model series as sporty, open-top, two-seater touring cars that combined the highest standards of refinement with good everyday practicality – right up to the current SL-Class model series R 231.
Experts in the industry and the general public alike had been dreaming of this car since the appearance of a prototype version at the International Motor Sports Show in New York in February 1954. The Mercedes-Benz 190 SL then appeared in its finished form in March 1955 at the 25th International Motor Show in Geneva where it met with a resounding response. German weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”, for example, raved about the “Mercedes-Benz 190 SL with its irresistibly beautiful lines”. The impetus for developing the Roadster came from the US-American Mercedes-Benz importer Maximilian Edwin Hoffman.
The 190 SL, which went into main production in May 1955, was an open-top, two-seater car for comfortable and stylish travel. Karl Wilfert and Walter Häcker designed its body with sporty lines and in a style reminiscent of the 300 SL “Gullwing” (W 198) super sports car. Whereas the Gullwing Coupé was based on a complex space frame, the 190 SL Cabriolet had the shortened floor assembly of the 180 Saloon model (W 120) with self-supporting chassis-body structure. The 190 SL was powered by the newly developed M 121, a 77 kW (105 hp) 1.9-litre four-cylinder engine with an overhead camshaft.
In this sense, the 190 SL dream car came at just the right time. The Stuttgart brand’s open-top two-seater set new standards for comfortable travel with a sporty note by delivering a refreshingly new take on the “Gran Turismo” idea. So 60 years ago, the W 121 also laid the foundations for the excellent tradition of the Mercedes-Benz SL model series as sporty, open-top, two-seater touring cars that combined the highest standards of refinement with good everyday practicality – right up to the current SL-Class model series R 231.
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