The Mercedes-Benz 190 SL Assembly Line, February 1958

 

In February 1958, production was underway on the Mercedes-Benz 190 SL open-topped sports car. Made between May 1955 and February 1963, and known by the company as W121, the 190 SL roadster made its debut at the 1954 New York Auto Show at Madison Square Garden (February 6 – 14, 1954).

Production began a year later. According to Mercedes‑Benz designer Josef Müller speaking in 1957, the 190 SL was “intended for a group of buyers who want to travel long distances at high speeds in this very sporty-looking vehicle”.

 

The 190SL’s body, designed by Karl Wilfert and Walter Hacker, was closely modelled on the company’s Gullwing, but designed as a two-seater roadster. It was available with a fabric top and with a removable hardtop. A third seat could be accommodated in the rear, albeit at right angles to the direction of travel.

The car’s four-cylinder engine with overhead camshaft delivered 77 kW (105 PS) and reached 0 to 100 km/h in 14.5 seconds, with a top speed was 170 km/h. During its production period from 1955 to 1963, the Sindelfingen plant produced 25,881 cars.

 

 

Post-War Recovery

The SL had been a long time in the coming. After the end of the World War 2, German factories damaged by Allied and Soviet bombing were being rebuilt. At the Mercedes-Benz assembly plant in Sindelfingen, south Germany, its first new passenger cars after the War rolled off the production line in 1949, the 170 S and 170 D models.

The 1948 currency reform and the introduction of the Deutsche Mark boosted the company’s economic growth. Daimler-Benz AG completed the first phase of plant reconstruction in 1950. That year, the company built its 50,000th passenger car after the end of the war at the expanded Sindelfingen site.