Mercedes-Benz SL-Class

The Mercedes-Benz SL-Class (marketed as Mercedes-AMG SL since 2022) is a grand touring sports car manufactured by Mercedes-Benz since 1954. The designation "SL" derives from the German term "Sport-Leicht", which translates to "Sport Light" in English.

Initially, the first 300 SL was a racing sports car built in 1952 with no intention of developing a street version. In 1954, an American importer Max Hoffman suggested the street version of 300 SL for the wealthy performance car enthusiasts in the United States where the market for the personal luxury car was booming after the Second World War.

Whether the abbreviation SL was derived from a 1931 Mercedes-Benz SSKL (Super Sport Kurz Leicht—Super Sport Short Light) isn't known. At the public introduction of 300 SL in 1952, Mercedes-Benz did not define the abbreviation SL.

The German magazine, Auto Motor und Sport, declared in its 2012 special edition issue of Mercedes-Benz SL that Rudolf Uhlenhaut—in his notarised letter—indicated the abbreviation meant Super Leicht. This contradicted with the abbreviation proposed by Engelen, Riedner, and Seufert who worked with Rudolf Uhlenhaut: they indicated the abbreviation means Sport Leicht. On 15 March 2021, Auto Motor und Sport published a photocopy of an undated "Informations-Unterlage" (press release) from 1952 in its issue, showing the definition of SL as super-leicht.

Mercedes-Benz used Sport Leicht and Super Leicht interchangeably until 2017 when a chance discovery in its corporate archive clarified the abbreviation stood for "Super Leicht".

According to the German definition, Leicht means light (as in weight, amount, and feeling, for instance) or easy (as in little effort). For this abbreviation in English language, the definition light is used.

The 300 SL was a road-going version of the W198 racing car with extensive modifications to the body. The 300 SL in coupé form was introduced in 1954, featuring its trademark gullwing doors. In 1957, the roadster succeeded the coupé and had the larger conventional passenger doors and larger form-fitting headlamps and was in production until 1963.

In 1955, the smaller 190 SL presented an attractive, more affordable alternative to the exclusive Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, sharing its basic styling, engineering, detailing, and fully independent suspension. Both cars had double wishbones in front and swing axles at the rear. Instead of the 300 SL's expensive purpose-built W198 tubular spaceframe, the 190 SL used a shortened unitary floorpan modified from the W121 base saloon. A 1.9-litre four-cylinder in-line engine was used instead of the 300 SL's engine.