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    The Mercedes 190SL
    The Mercedes 190SL
    The Mercedes 190SL
    Ebook147 pages1 hour

    The Mercedes 190SL

    By Bernd S. Koehling

    ()

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    About this ebook

    As the 300SL has reached price levels that are out of reach for the large majority of SL aficionados, many opt for the next best thing, which is in case of the SL the 190SL. This has the consequence that also prices for the small sibling have risen beyond one's belief.

    If you want to know more about the 190SL, then this e-book with BUYER'S GUIDE will interest you. It was completely revised in summer 2015 and covers the 190SL from its development to its lone racing success. It also explains in detail the chassis number and data card, so that one gets a better understanding, how these cars were equipped. Superb recent color photography highlights many details and covers also the car's underside. The guide evaluates the price increases over the last couple of years, covers the paint options, all technical features and gives an overview of annual upgrades and sales. One chapter deals with the car's short racing history and offers some rare photos of this event. Another chapter is devoted to Max Hoffman, who was instrumental in the car's development.

    With over 25 books and e-books written about Mercedes-Benz cars, Bernd S. Koehling has proven to be an authority on the brand. Those books cover cars from the 1947 170V to the 2012 SL R231.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBernd S. Koehling
    Release dateNov 3, 2011
    ISBN9781465779298
    The Mercedes 190SL
    Author

    Bernd S. Koehling

    With over 25 books and e-books written about Mercedes-Benz cars, Bernd S. Koehling has proven to be an authority on the brand. Those books cover cars from the 1947 170V to the 2012 SL R231. Bernd has been involved in the Mercedes scene since the early 1970s, when he restored his first 170 Cabrio B. Since then he has not only owned many classic Mercedes including a 220S, 300d Adenauer, 200D, 250SE, 280SE coupe 3.5, 300SEL, 350SL, 280E, 450SE, SLK230, he has also gained a wealth of knowledge and experience, which he shares with his readers in his books. Bernd has always considered Mercedes one of his favorite car manufacturers and has driven almost all Mercedes models built since the 1950s. His other weakness revolves around British cars, here especially Jaguar and Alvis. If you would like to know more about Bernd's books or want to read his blog with selected Mercedes stories, why don't you visit his website: benz-books.com

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      Book preview

      The Mercedes 190SL - Bernd S. Koehling

      MERCEDES - BENZ

      The Mercedes 190SL

      W121

      1955 – 1963

      and

      Max Hoffman

      By Bernd S. Koehling

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2015 Bernd S. Koehling

      All rights reserved

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      CONTENT

      Foreword

      The Cars

      190SL W121 (1955 – 1963)

      The development of a sports tourer

      The technical aspects

      The 190SL

      A bigger engine is needed

      The racing history

      The sales performance

      The 190SL in brochures and advertisement

      Driving a supercharged 190SL in 1959

      Technical chapters

      The chassis number explained

      The data card explained

      List of annual changes

      What is my car worth

      Buying a 190SL

      The paint options

      The interior colors

      Technical specifications

      Production history

      Max Hoffman, the man behind the US SL-story

      About the author

      One last thing

      FOREWORD

      First of all I would like to thank you for having purchased this book and I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. It is part of an e-book series that covers all cars produced by Daimler-Benz during the 1950s and 1960s.

      This was an exciting time for Daimler-Benz, as it started to develop again the export business. But it was also a time, where more powerful engines for the 190SL had to be shelved as due to a booming economy suppliers were booked solid for months and could not deliver the necessary machinery tools. Global sourcing had not been invented yet.

      But the economy was not only booming in Europe in the second half of the 1950s. The general situation was even more upbeat in the US, where a high employment rate and increasing wages created a burgeoning more affluent middle class that proved to be a fertile breeding ground for imported sports cars from Europe. While the British were naturally the first to develop that still small niche successfully with affordable cars such as the MG A, Austin Healey 100 or Triumph TR 2, the market proved to be so lucrative that also high-end thoroughbreds from Aston Martin, Jaguar, Ferrari, Porsche and Daimler-Benz could achieve sales volumes that would have been impossible to reach in Europe.

      The flamboyant Austrian born New York entrepreneur and car importer Max Hoffman was the initiator of the 190SL, as he saw a big market for such a car in the US. It was unveiled in February 1954 at the New York Motor Show right next to the mighty 300SL and made a very positive impression on North American motorists. Together with the 300SL, the 190SL was important in changing the American public’s view on German cars. It had heard before very little about a company called Daimler-Benz. And if it did, it was not necessarily positive.

      For Daimler-Benz the 1950s started with an old warmed-up four-cylinder car dating back to the 1930s. Management had big uncertainties of what the future might have in store for them. The decade ended with an impressive line of modern cars such as the 190SL, which were ready to take on the finest that competition could throw at them.

      This edition was completely revised and explains in detail the chassis number and data card, so that the owner has a better understanding of the options his/her car was ordered with. In addition it offers a buyer’s guide, looks at the recent price development and how the SL was featured in advertisement and brochures. As before it comes with detailed technical specifications and the annual production history.

      August 2015

      Bernd S. Koehling

      MB 190SL W121 BII (1955 – 1963)

      The development of a sports tourer

      Life for the 190SL did not start easy. Not that it was the black sheep in the family, but it was not the white swan either. It was the smaller brother of a show star that had been sent to a gifted cosmetic surgeon to make it look similar. That beauty was just skin deep though, because underneath it did not offer the talent of a thoroughbred, it carried the genes of a reliable, hard working farm horse.

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      In order to understand the need for such a car in the 1950s one has to go back in history a little bit, leave old Europe and cross the pond to take a look at the situation in the US in the mid 1940s.

      After WWII European automobile manufacturers, especially the British, were eager to establish a foothold on the large US market. American GIs had seen and fallen in love with cars such as the famous MG TA and TB, while serving during the war in Great Britain. Now they wanted to drive them back home. And the British, supported by subsidies from their government, were only too willing to help.

      For most Americans in the late 1940s, such a small sports car seemed as strange as the people who wanted to drive them. Although Detroit’s Big Three had long offered fancy rumble-seat models and even flashy two-seaters, most of these cars were based on a sedan chassis and not comparable to what the British had in mind, when they talked about sports cars. Most Americans preferred what they already had and were looking forward to buy similar cars again. Why would any person in his right mind waste money on an old-fashioned small car such as the MG? So, initially after the war, distribution of these cars was extremely limited and people, who drove them, lived in ritzier places of California or the East Coast. They were a tough nut to crack by cars that were offered by Detroit, they just did not want them. The Big Three could not care less of course. In the late 1940s, early 1950s they had a huge demand to satisfy, because Americans did not have any new car to buy for several years.

      The MG, although in the heart of many young Americans, never achieved any real sales success. But it had ignited a fire that slowly started to spread throughout the US. The sports car, European style (or let’s say in all fairness: British style), had landed and the American car

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