The racing history of Daimler-Benz AG (now simply Daimler AG) is a long and storied one, going back to the dawn of the automobile. Both of the firm's predecessors, Daimler Motoren Gessellschaft and Benz & Cie, competed in the first organized motor race, back in 1894. Before the second world war, Mercedes-Benz was involved in almost every form of automotive competition, perhaps most impressively in the late thirties, when the fearsome Mercedes Silberpfeile ("Silver Arrows") vied with Auto Union for domination of Grand Prix racing.

The war put the brakes on competition, and it was not until the fifties that Mercedes returned to racing in full force. Their first serious postwar effort was the 1952 300SL (known internally as W194), with distinctive gull-wing doors and the 3.0 L (183 cu. in.) six from the big Type 300 sedans. The W194 scored both first and second overall in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and did the same in the Mexican Carrera Panamericana. It achieved a 1-2-3 victory in the Prix de Berne-Bremgarten, and dominated the GT class at the Nürburgring. It didn't quite edge out Ferrari to win the 1952 Mille Miglia, but 300SLs scored second and fourth.


Both the original racing 300SL and the eventual street version (shown here) were distinguished by their dramatic "Gullwing" doors. These were necessitated by the high sills of the 300SL's space frame construction, which would have made conventional doors uselessly small. (Photo © 2004 Jason Vanderhill; used under a CreativeCommons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 license)

Rudolf Uhlenhaut's engineering team developed the W194 in only five months, and it was never intended for road use. Only 11 were built, and they were pure competition cars, with complex space-frame construction and a total lack of amenities. The demand was there for a street version, but Daimler-Benz management was reluctant to even consider it. Still, the company was under considerable pressure to produce a road-going 300SL -- particularly from Mercedes' American distributor, the infamous Max Hoffman.

As ubiquitous as they have become in recent decades, most foreign marques had little presence in the United States before the late sixties. A few very wealthy customers imported high-end European luxury or sports cars -- Rolls-Royce actually had a U.S. factory in the twenties -- but imported cars of any stripe were generally rare. Before the war, the average American had probably never seen an Alfa Romeo or an SS Jaguar sedan, and wouldn't be able to identify one if they did.

The man most responsible for ending that obscurity was one Maximilian E. Hoffman (originally Hoffmann). Born in Austria in 1904, Hoffman got into racing as a young man. When the Austrian firm Grofri, which built a licensed version of the French make Amilcar, started a factory racing team, Hoffman became one of their drivers, with some success. Hoffman retired from racing in 1934 to become a car dealer. He was a persuasive salesman, and his racing career had helped him establish a useful network of contacts. By the late thirties, he had obtained distribution franchises for Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Delahaye, Alfa Romeo, and several other makes.

Following Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938, Hoffman moved to Paris. After the fall of France, he fled to America, arriving in New York in June 1941. By then, he had little money left, forcing him to temporarily abandon the auto business. Instead, he began manufacturing costume jewelry, a trade that proved surprisingly lucrative. By the end of the war, Hoffman had raised enough capital to return to automotive distribution. In 1947, he launched the Hoffman Motor Company, with a showroom on New York's Park Avenue.

Over the next few years, Hoffman became the sole U.S. distributor for a wide variety of European marques, ranging from Jaguar, Porsche, and Alfa Romeo to Volkswagen (a franchise he abandoned in 1953, to his later regret). He eventually established showrooms in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and established a network of about 40 franchised dealerships in other parts of the country.

Mercedes-Benz was not a household name in the U.S. when Hoffman became the company's distributor in April 1951. According to some estimates, fewer than 200 Mercedes-Benzs were imported to the States before World War 2. To make matters worse, the only direct experience most Americans had with Mercedes cars was either during wartime service in Europe or from newsreel footage of Nazi officials in their Großer limousines, neither of which was likely to leave a favorable impression. Hoffman sought to reaffirm Mercedes' upscale image by selling Mercedes to high-profile, all-American customers like Marilyn Monroe and Bing Crosby.

Hoffman also established a strategy of premium pricing. While Mercedes made expensive luxury cars, its lesser models were middle-class family sedans that found frequent employment as taxicabs -- not exactly premium products. In Germany, a basic 180 sedan cost around 9,500 DM -- around $2,250 at contemporary exchange rates, comparable to a Pontiac sedan. In America, the same 180 sedan started at $3,350 POE, a whopping $1,100 more than at home. Some of the difference was the cost of transatlantic shipping, import duties, and excise taxes, but there was also a hefty profit margin for the concessionaire. After all, Hoffman's lavish New York showroom -- designed by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who also built Hoffman's home in Westchester County -- wasn't about to pay for itself.

Hoffman frequently took a hand in product development for the manufacturers whose wares he sold; he was responsible for the conception of a number of notable cars, including the Porsche Speedster and the BMW 507 sports car. Automakers did not necessarily like Hoffman, but they were often baffled and intimidated by the American market. They were usually willing to take his advice, which was frequently correct.

In Hoffman's mind, the racing success of the W194 had created a tremendous marketing opportunity that Daimler-Benz was foolish to ignore. Hoffman knew that many of his wealthy customers would stand in line to buy a road-going version of the car that won Le Mans. He suggested to the Daimler board that there would be a market for at least 1,000 cars -- a respectable number for an expensive sports car in that era. Hoffman also wanted a smaller, cheaper roadster that would appeal to buyers who couldn't quite afford the inevitably towering price tag of the 300SL.

In early September 1953, Hoffman was invited to a board meeting in Stuttgart, where he spent some time haranguing the board on both points. He eventually got his way; the board promised that there would be a road version of the 300SL in time for the 1954 New York Auto Show. It would be joined there by a new small roadster, the 190SL.

Hoffman was pleased about the 300SL, but he was less thrilled with the 190SL. At the suggestion of Mercedes development chief Fritz Nallinger, it would be based on the platform of the 180 sedan. Hoffman was all too familiar with the bread-and-butter 180, and he did not think it a promising foundation for a sports car.

The 180 sedan, known internally as W120, went into production in July 1953. It was the first true postwar Mercedes design; the contemporary 170 dated back to the mid-1930s, while the big Type 300 married a modern body shell and engine to a chassis of prewar origins. The W120 was "three-box" sedan in the contemporary American mode, with integrated fenders and no running boards. It was not quite a true monocoque, but it was unitized, with the body welded to a self-supporting floorpan with integral frame members. The engine was carried on a subframe, with rubber mountings to keep its vibration from being transmitted to the floorpan. The flathead four-cylinder engine was carried over from the 170, as was the suspension, which used double wishbones in front and simple swing axles in back. From 1954, the four-cylinder 180 was supplemented from by the six-cylinder 220a (known internally as W180), which was about 10 inches (254 mm) longer and 30% more expensive. Today, the W120 and W180 are known collectively as Pontons ("Pontoons"), which was originally a generic term for three-box sedans, derived from their streamlined, integrated shape. They were well-built, up-to-date midsize European sedans, though hardly groundbreaking or sexy. They were also more expensive than the old 170, which remained in production concurrently through 1955.


A late-model (1959-1961) Ponton sedan. This is a 190, which shared its W121 chassis designation with the 190SL roadster, combined the body of the 180 with the M121 engine and single-pivot suspension of the 190SL roadster. The 190D, like this one, substituted a 1.9 L (116 cu. in.) diesel engine with 55 gross hp (41 kW). The diesel was slow, but offered 20-25% better fuel economy, and was the more popular of the two. (Photo by Rudolf Strickler)

On the face of it, Max Hoffman was quite right: the 180 sedan was hardly an inspiring basis for a sports car. Its styling was conservative, and it was quite slow. An early 180 sedan with a gasoline engine took around 30 seconds to go from 0-62 mph (0-100 kph), and its top speed was only 78 mph (125 kph). Fritz Nallinger and his team had their work cut out for them in making the W120 into a sports car. Moreover, they had only five months -- a prototype of the small roadster had to be ready to ship to New York by the end of January.


The 190SL's nose, with the prominent Mercedes star in the center of the grille, gave it a strong resemblance to the 300SL, and made it look quite different from the 180 sedan on which it was based.

Although the 190SL (known internally as W121) was structurally similar to the 180 sedan -- albeit shortened by some 10 inches (254 mm) -- it had a number of important differences. First, it had a new 1.9 L (116 cu. in.) four-cylinder engine, known as the M121. Based loosely on the M186 six from the 300SL and Type 300 sedans, the M121 had an aluminum head, iron block, and a chain-driven overhead cam. With two Solex 44 PHH carburetors, it made 105 hp DIN (77 kW, 120 hp SAE gross), twice the output of the 180's old flathead engine. Second, it had the new Eingelenkpendelachse ("single-pivot") rear suspension, shared with the six-cylinder W180 models, which reduced its propensity for abrupt trailing-throttle oversteer.

The styling of the sports car, designed by Walter Häcker's team under the supervision of chief stylist Karl Wilfert, was directly inspired by Friedrich Geiger's design for the 300SL. Scaling down its styling cues to the smaller dimensions of the 190SL gave the latter a faintly cartoonish quality. It was inarguably pretty, but more cute than sexy.


One of the most distinctive styling features of both the 190SL and 300SL was the fender "eyebrows" above the wheelhouses, which on later cars are often chromed. Mercedes called these "splash shields"; they originated on the W196 and W196S race cars, which had very small, cut-down windshields. (The road-going 300SL and 190SL didn't really need the splash shields, although Mercedes would never have admitted that.) The original 190SL prototype had a prominent hood scoop, which was mercifully omitted on the production version.

The 190SL's proportions made it look smaller than it really was. It was 14 inches (356 mm) longer than an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider and 10.2 inches (259 mm) longer than a Porsche 356. Despite the use of aluminum for the hood, decklid, and doors, it weighed 2,560 lb (1,160 kg), nearly 600 lb (272 kg) more than either the Alfa or the Porsche. In compensation, it was solidly built, with a level of assembly quality quite alien to most of its British or Italian contemporaries.

The 190SL was initially available only as a roadster, which was actually a proper cabriolet, with roll-up windows and a well-insulated top. A detachable aluminum hardtop was added shortly after introduction; Mercedes considered cars with the hardtop to be coupes. As with the early Thunderbird, coupe buyers could opt for the hardtop only, or purchase both hardtop and soft top.

A prototype of the 190SL made its debut on schedule at the New York Auto Show in early February 1954. The styling of this early prototype differed in a number of respects from the eventual production version, and Mercedes cited both power output and performance figures that would prove to be somewhat optimistic.


The 190SL is 166 inches (4,216 mm) long on a 94.5-inch (2,400-mm) wheelbase. It's also only 52 inches (1,321 mm) high -- the Toyota Prius behind it towers over it. Note the color-keyed hubcaps, a common Mercedes styling feature at the time; on this car, the wheels themselves are also body-colored.

The 190SL was well received, but its bigger, faster, more famous sibling inevitably overshadowed it. Even without its impressive racing pedigree, the 300SL "Gullwing" coupe (known internally as W198) would have been a showstopper. It made the same sort of impression the Jaguar XK120 had made at the Earls Court show five years earlier. Sleek, aggressive, and beautifully proportioned, the W198 Gullwing was also among the world's fastest cars. Next to it, the smaller 190SL seemed faintly anemic.

Nonetheless, response was very favorable, and the 190SL was soon approved for series production. A new prototype bowed at the Geneva show the following March, and went into full production in May 1955. While it was less desirable than the 300SL, the 190SL was far more attainable, though hardly cheap. In Germany, the roadster started at 16,500 DM (about $3,900 at contemporary exchange rates). It went on sale in America with a starting price of $3,998 -- for once, Hoffman had resisted his customary markup. The 190SL was barely over half the price of a 300SL, although it was $300 more than a Porsche 356 cabriolet and about $700 more than a Giulietta Spider.

The 190SL performed much better than the 180 sedan on which it was based, but compared to the 300SL, its performance was disappointing. 0-60 mph (0-97 kph) took around 13 seconds, with a top speed of about 106 mph (171 kph), a bit shy of the factory claims. The 190SL's speed and acceleration were roughly comparable with a Triumph TR3 or a basic Porsche 356A 1500, although a well-driven Porsche Super Speedster would leave it for dead. The 190SL was not as nimble as these rivals, but its handling was entirely competent; Tom McCahill actually held it superior to the trickier 300SL, which still had the old dual-pivot swing axles. The 190SL also offered a high level of general refinement, rare in contemporary sports cars.


The 190SL was available only with a four-speed manual transmission. To the best of our knowledge, Mercedes' curious Hydrak semi-automatic transmission was never offered on either the W121 or W198, although it was available on the 220 sedan. Mercedes was very reluctant to introduce a true automatic. Heinz Hoppe recalled development director Fritz Nallinger declared somewhat imperiously that, if Americans wanted to buy Mercedes, they should learn to drive stick!

Tom McCahill summed up the 190SL's virtues quite neatly in the April 1956 issue of Mechanix Illustrated, calling it "one fine little car, and one that'll appeal especially to the connoisseur who likes to get his Zippos in a Tiffany box," although he noted that it was no match for a comparably priced Thunderbird or Corvette.

Although it was no match for cars like the 300SL or Porsche Carrera, Mercedes did develop a competition (Rennsport) package for the 190SL. This was not a factory option, but a customer-installed kit, including new cut-down doors without side windows, and a smaller Perspex windscreen. Combined with the removal of the convertible top mechanism and bumpers, the kit trimmed the 190SL's weight by around 10%. Only 17 of the Rennsport kits were sold, but "190SLRs" won the GT class of the 1956 Macau Grand Prix and Casablanca Grand Prix. New FIA regulations subsequently barred the 190SL from the GT class, however, and its racing career was brief.

The 190SL was more in its element as a posh touring car. It was owned by a number of international celebrities, notably the Aga Khan and actresses Grace Kelly and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Its most famous owner, however, and the source of no small notoriety, was call girl Rosemarie Nitribitt, who bought a black roadster in 1956. Nitribitt's network of wealthy clients made her one of the most financially successful women in Germany in the mid-1950s; German police estimated that she made 80,000 DM (around $19,000 in those days) in 1956 alone. She was murdered in her flat in Frankfurt in October 1957, a crime that was never definitively solved. Nitribitt's short life quickly inspired a novel by Erich Kuby, two feature films, and eventually a musical. The 190SL soon became known as the Nitribitt-Mercedes.  


The 190SL was strictly a two-seater, but it was a reasonably practical car, with full convertible top, proper roll-up windows, a usable trunk, and space behind the seats for a briefcase or overnight bag. Upholstery was normally MB-Tex leatherette, although full leather was optional.

Max Hoffman eventually warmed to the 190SL, which sold reasonably well. Mercedes sold 1,727 in 1955, about half of them in America, and 4,032 in 1956, its best year. In fact, the 1,849 190SLs sold in 1956 accounted for nearly two-thirds of Hoffman's total Mercedes sales.

By 1956, Daimler-Benz had become thoroughly disenchanted with Hoffman. Heinz Hoppe, who later became head of Daimler-Benz's North American operations, told Thomas Bonsall that Hoffman's treatment of his franchise dealerships was arrogant and dismissive, and Hoffman Motors' dire reputation for after-sale service seriously hurt Mercedes' reputation, as well as driving up warranty costs.

That fall, Carl Giese, head of Daimler's international operations, began negotiating with aviation company Curtiss Wright, which had recently signed a management agreement with the ailing Studebaker-Packard Corporation. On March 6, 1957, Daimler-Benz signed a seven-year agreement for Studebaker-Packard to distribute Mercedes automobiles in North America. They notified Hoffman that his own contract would be terminated effective May 1.

Getting rid of Maxi was not as simple as that. As soon as the Daimler-Benz board notified him of his termination, Hoffman threatened to sue. Afraid that a protracted court battle would threaten their tenuous foothold in the American market, Daimler-Benz agreed to a substantial out-of-court settlement that eventually cost them around $2 million.  


The 190SL had a well-appointed interior, with a full set of VDO gauges (although the secondary gauges are hidden by the steering wheel) and an optimistic 140-mph (225-kph) speedometer. Two novel features are turn signals operated by the horn ring and separate heater controls for driver and passenger. A glaring omission, in a roadster with natural appeal as a rally car, is a trip meter or a tenth-of-mile increment on the odometer.

Studebaker-Packard was not a great improvement over Hoffman Motors. For one, the company was lurching toward collapse. Packard's death warrant had already been signed by the time the Daimler-Benz agreement was concluded, and many financial experts doubted that Studebaker would survive to the next presidential election. Most Studebaker dealers (save a few who'd had Packard franchises) had no idea how to sell luxury cars, and few had any interest in trying. Daimler-Benz management ended up spending much of the next seven years trying to disentangle themselves from Studebaker-Packard, which eventually cost them millions of dollars in franchise termination fees.

In 1965, Daimler-Benz established its own distribution organization, Mercedes-Benz of North America, with Heinz Hoppe as president and CEO. As reluctant as the home office had been to tackle the American market alone, it proved the right decision. Hoppe nearly tripled American Mercedes sales by 1970, and they doubled again by 1982.

Max Hoffman eventually sold all his other franchises to concentrate on BMW, with great success. He retired in 1975, selling his business to BMW, and died in 1981.

Mercedes made a number of minor improvements to the 190SL during its eight-year lifetime, notably the addition of an ATE Hydrovac brake booster in mid-1956, but its basic shape and design were little changed. Fritz Nallinger and his engineers were never very happy with the M121 engine, but several plans to improve its performance were abandoned because they would have cost more than they were worth.

In 1956, Mercedes engineers tried installing the 220 sedan's M180 six in a modified 190SL, with far more promising results. The Daimler-Benz board actually approved the production of a six-cylinder 220SL in April 1957, but the M180 engine was not available in sufficient quantities. By the time a production 220SL would have been feasible, both the Ponton sedans and the 190SL were nearing the end of their run. Instead, Nallinger decided to wait and develop a new six-cylinder sports car to replace both the 190SL and 300SL. That car, based on the W111/W112 sedans and known internally as W113, bowed in 1963 as the 230SL.

Production of the 190SL ended in February 1963, and totaled 25,881, about 10,000 of which were sold in the U.S.


The comparatively affordable price of the 190SL increased rapidly. By its final year, the U.S. POE price was up to $5,215 for the roadster and $5,443 with the hardtop -- a hefty $700 or so more than a Porsche 356B cabriolet. The higher prices didn't seem to deter buyers, although sales slowed somewhat in its final year and a half.

After the death of the 190SL, Mercedes didn't build another small sports car for more than 30 years. The bigger six-cylinder W113 SLs survived through 1971, when they were replaced by the remarkably long-lived R107. This lasted until 1989, and sales remained strong till the end, despite an elderly design and eye-watering prices. Its sophisticated 1990 replacement, the R129, was the biggest and heaviest SL yet. That generation's top-of-the-line 600SL, with its big V12 engine, was neither particularly sporty nor especially light, tipping the scales at over 4,400 lb (2,000 kg).

It was not until 1997 that Mercedes offered a modern equivalent to the original 190SL, the SLK230 (known internally as R170), with a neat retractable hardtop. Although Mercedes mercifully resisted any temptation to retro styling, the SLK's combination of modest size -- actually some 8.7 inches (221 mm) shorter than the 190SL, on the same wheelbase -- cute styling, refined (if not exactly sporty) demeanor, and relatively attainable price was very much in the tradition of the 190SL.


The noveau SLK proved to be a big hit for Mercedes, selling more than 16,000 units in its first year, alone and started a new vogue for retractable hardtops. The year of its debut, Mercedes' U.S. sales topped 100,000 units for the first time.

Surviving 190SLs have become increasingly collectible in recent years, although still not with the fervor that attends the bigger Gullwing 300SL. Ironically, that fervor has been partly responsible for the interest in the 190SL, which has become more desirable as prices of its big brother have reached ever more stratospheric heights. Although a little slow, the 190SL is still comfortable and competent by modern standards. Unfortunately, it is not a great deal less expensive to restore than a 300SL, particularly if serious rust (to which the steel body is very vulnerable) has set in.

We are rather fond of the 190SL. Its styling has aged very well, and while a more powerful, smoother engine would be nice, it suits our taste far more than contemporary English roadsters. Given a choice, we'd probably opt for an Alfa Romeo Sprint (mostly because we don't like convertibles), but the pretty, polished Mercedes has charms of its own.

# # #

Our primary sources for this article were Gavin Farmer, "1955-1963 Mercedes-Benz 190SL: Stuttgart's Lost Classic,"  Collectible Automobile, February 2001 (Vol. 17. No. 5), pp. 26-37; C. Danielson, "The Mercedes-Benz 190 SL" (7 August 2008, eMercedesBenz.com, http://emercedesbenz.com/Aug08/07_001326_eMercedesBenz_Feature_The_Mercedes_Benz_190_SL.html, accessed 30 July 2009); and "Technical Information for the 190SL" (author unknown, 31 January 1994, The International 190SL Group USA, http://www.190slgroup.com/tech/tech.htm, accessed 29 July 2009). We also consulted Tom McCahill, "The Mercedes-Benz 190 SL," Mechanix Illustrated, April 1956 (reprinted at http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2009/05/12/the-mercedes-benz-190-sl/, accessed 29 July 2009).
Information on Mercedes' "Ponton" sedans came from Jeff Miller and Ray Ilich, "Mercedes-Benz Pontons (1953-1962)" (22 July 2009, http://www.mbzponton.org/, accessed 29 July 2009). Details on the life and death of Rosemarie Nitribbit came her Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemarie_Nitribitt, accessed 30 July 2009).

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