Vehicle Description
Chassis No. 198.042.7500510
Engine No. 198.980.7500470
Body No. A 198.042.7500434
It's often lost on many today, but the roadgoing Mercedes-Benz 300
SL Coupes and Roadsters were directly engineered from their
siblings, the race car stablemates, and winners from the golden era
of motorcar racing. As a result, Mercedes-Benz offered an
impressive number of race-specification options for their most
sporting street car, the 300 SL. While the Gullwing Coupe most
often benefits from this association to the race program, 300 SL
Roadsters were also raced by factory drivers like Paul O'Shea and
Eugen Bohringer in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Roadsters were
available to be ordered with special rear axle differential ratios,
high compression pistons, Rudge knock-off wheels, and racing
airplane-style seat belts. According to a Daimler-Benz Export
Information Bulletin dated 12 March 1957 that lists many of these
special parts, the Roadster could even be specified without
bumpers! Period factory supported 300 SL Roadster competition cars
were outfitted with Marchal driving lights, special brake ducting,
ear-piercing Bosch rally horns, special sport suspension with Koni
shocks, Swiss timing equipment, and more.
Today these options are the veritable "unobtanium" that people
dedicate a lifetime searching for. In period, these options were
infrequently ordered, and even less understood. However, even if
they weren't around to order them new, there are those rare
individuals who have the foresight and specialized knowledge to
place themselves in a position to construct the "sports purpose"
Roadster of their dreams. For Robert Platz, the first glimpse of
this car, 300 SL Roadster chassis number 0510, occurred in 1969 and
as one of these rare individuals, he wasted no time making it
his.
As a graduate of Yale, and with an advanced degree in chemistry and
physics by the mid-1960s, Robert Platz had developed a robust,
analytical mind well suited to his day job as a chemical physicist
with General Electric. Yet like many of us, he became pre-occupied
with automobiles, specifically Mercedes-Benz. Over the next few
years, two 190 SLs and a pair of 300 SLs followed, increasing his
mechanical and restoration skills and deepening his ties to the
brand. So, when a friend came calling one Saturday morning in 1969
about a 1957 300 SL Roadster he'd seen advertised in the local
newspaper, Platz was quick to call and made a convincing offer. By
7am the next Monday morning the Roadster was loaded up from the
local body shop and in his hands. Upon retrieval, the car was noted
to have been repainted dark green and was at the body shop to
repair front end scrapes. Undeterred, the chemical physicist and
now, not-so-amateur restorer, ordered all new NOS body panels for
the car, setting them aside for a later date. Always the student,
he began to research the Roadster's history and began to order
additional replacement parts. Had Roadster chassis number 0510 not
been at the repair shop, Platz may have simply enjoyed the car as a
12-year-old used Mercedes. Rather, he learned that it was the first
of only four Roadsters painted in an eye-catching optional color
named Linden Green and he continured to accumulate soon to be
obsolete parts like the correct Bosch "bullseye" headlights and
rare "no nut" wiper arms.
Soon after acquiring chassis number 0510, Platz founded the famed
Precision Autoworks of Camden, NJ, a service and restoration shop
primarily focused on 190 and 300 SL Mercedes. Like many projects
that begin with a rapid pace, the restoration of 0510 slowed.
Operating a new business and continuing to work at General Electric
were certainly time consuming, but the Lindgr�n Roadster was not
forgotten. Throughout the 1970s, rare and special 300 SL parts
continued to accumulate at Precision Autoworks, and it became
plainly obvious that Platz had a special eye for these items while
building a network of like-minded individuals who assisted in the
project and valued the 300 SL as much as he did. As the pieces
began to fall into place Platz acquired surface dyed vegetable
tanned leather hides as original from Roser, NOS carpeting, an
original Sonnenland weave convertible top and original bituminous
felt cardboard for the trunk walls rather than the hogs hair carpet
as used on later cars. It dawned on Platz, who had owned the car
for a decade at that point, that returning this Roadster to the
options specified on the original Data Card may not be what he
truly wanted. The model student had become well-read regarding the
factory-supported competition variants and each option that could
be ordered on a 300 SL Roadster in 1957. When analyzing what made a
rallye car a rallye car, Platz realized that many of the options
available for the street cars like 0510 were utilized on the 300 SL
rallye cars as well. These discoveries would offer a new direction
and fresh motivation.
By the early 1990s Platz and his team had worked much of the
original sheet metal back into shape. With time and experience, he
rightly understood that the original panels were best left attached
while opting to replace the nose and hood with the NOS pieces
purchased a decade earlier. With a straight body and wind in the
sails Platz went shopping, but not as most would by turning pages
in a catalog. He dipped into an impressive personal parts supply,
traded parts with clients, worked with original suppliers, and
contacted industry friends in high places to corral special NOS
Roadster parts from Mercedes-Benz's vast worldwide dealer network.
The complete set of five Rudge knock off wheels with their special
5 1/2 inch width - specific to the 300 SL Roadster - took
approximately 15 years to piece together and only after buying a
Gullwing that came with four extra Rudge wheels that were used for
trading purposes. The axles, spindles, backing plates, and other
NOS rare pieces to support the rare Rudge wheels were sourced
through a contact at Mercedes. In what may have been one of the
more significant reruns of vintage racing tires, Platz and others
successfully lobbied Dunlop to remake their famous R5 tire, a set
of which continues to provide the perfect complement to the Rudge
wheels and the 300 SL wheel well spacing. In the same vein, a
friend with a connection at Ford Motor Company convinced Mahle, the
German piston company, to produce another small run of their 9.5:1
high compression pistons, noted by Mercedes to only be available to
those in markets with accessibility to fuel with an octane rating
of 100 or higher. The high-performance 4.11:1 rear differential
found in 0510, constructed from NOS pieces, was also offered by
Mercedes as an option in 1957. The same could be said for the
high-flow intake, competition suspension (a mix of Konis and
Bilsteins), the Ansa sport exhaust system, and brake drums with air
scoop cooling. Each of these well thought out additions were all
part of the ethos to add only what was available from Mercedes at
the time the car was ordered.
While the choices above may have come naturally to Platz, the
option to remove the bumpers, just as anyone could have elected to
do from Mercedes in 1957 and a look the factory supported rallye
cars sported, was more difficult. Each issue that cropped up due to
their removal was considered and solved in an academic manner. The
mounting holes received handmade blanking plates with hidden
retainers while up front, the powerful and stellar-looking large
Marchal driving lights filled some of the space where the
wraparound front chrome bumper once stood. The lower rear aluminum
cover, with a seam typically hidden behind the rear bumper,
rema...for more information please contact the seller.
