HISTORICAL RACING - MERCEDES-BENZ 300 SLR

Nearly 55 years after the fact, NetCarShow.com has compiled 80 pictures of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR and the Gallery can be seen right here, right now. Unfortunately, one-quarter of the Gallery is tainted by the hints of - or even full frontals of - the '04 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, not the prettiest car on a list of the ugliest cars of all time.

In The Good Car Guy's 100 Favourite Cars feature from early October the 300 SL Gullwing made a strong and unsurprising appearance. The corresponding racecar, the 300 SLR, was said to be as robust as it was elegant; two terms not normally applied to track cars. The inline-six-cylinder engine weighed 518 pounds, generated nearly 300 horsepower, and was once tested on a dynamometer at the equivalent of racing revs for 9,800 kilometres.... plus another 32 hours. Apparently the only part in need of changing was the oil rings at about 6K.

Names like Fangio and Moss, with races like Le Mans and the Mille Miglia and the Targa Florio, combine to make the 300 SLR's history as evocative as that of any ex-racer. In all honesty, the names of today's racers and races will never be remembered as fondly because the cars they drive will not be recognized the same way. The Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR lingers as a proverbial nod to an era before racing efforts were computerized and tested digitally, a stunning retrospect of romantic motorsports.