Mercedes-Benz W194

The Mercedes-Benz W194 (also called 300 SL) is an endurance racer produced by Mercedes-Benz for the 1952 Sportscar racing season, its first after World War II.

Powered by the 3.0 litre SOHC straight-6 M194 engine, it ran off an impressive string of victories that included 24 Hours of Le Mans, Bern-Bremgarten, the Eifelrennen at Nürburgring, and Mexico's Carrera Panamericana.

Only ten W194s were made. This led to the iconic Mercedes 300 SL W198 Gullwing road car in 1954. The W194 was succeeded, as race car, by the W196 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR in 1955.

The racing W194 300 SL was built around a mere 140–150-pound welded SAE 4130 steel tube spaceframe chassis to offset the relatively underpowered M194 engine. Designed by Daimler-Benz's chief developing engineer, Rudolf Uhlenhaut, the metal skeleton saved weight while still providing a high level of strength. Since it enveloped the passenger compartment traditional doors were impossible, giving birth to the model's distinctive gull-wing arrangement, with the doors not yet cut into the top half of the car's side. In the first versions only the windows opened, but Le Mans demanded bigger doors, thus new chassis had to be made.

Like the production W198 300 SL "Gullwing" it birthed, the W194 used a variant of the overhead cam straight 6 M186 engine introduced with the flagship four-door 300 (W186 "Adenauer") luxury tourer in 1951. Its M194 engine received the high-output triple two-barrel Solex carburetor setup from the exclusive 300 S (W188) coupe/cabriolet. Designed with an innovative diagonal aluminium head (that allowed for larger intake and exhaust valves) and canted at a fifty-degree angle to the left to fit under the W194's much lower hoodline, it produced 175 hp (130 kW) in racing trim, considerably up from the 300's 150 hp (112 kW). Maximum torque was 207 N⋅m (153 lb⋅ft). Top speed was approximately 160 mph (257 km/h). A mechanical direct fuel-injected version of the M194, the M198, was developed two years later for the introduction of the production 300SL in 1954.

Aerodynamics played an important role in the 2497 pound car's speed. Unlike many cars of the 1950s, steering was relatively precise and the four-wheel independent suspension allowed for a reasonably comfortable ride and markedly better overall handling. However, the rear swing axle, jointed only at the differential, not at the wheels themselves, could be treacherous at high speeds or on imperfect roads due to extreme changes in camber. The enormous fuel tank capacity also caused a considerable difference in handling depending on the quantity of fuel on board.

The 300 SL was raced only in 1952, one year before the World Sportscar Championship was introduced with the inaugural 1953 World Sportscar Championship that had seven races. Four of them were also run in 1952, thus could be called the "core" races of the WSC, and part of a hypothetical 1952 WSC season.

Considering that only the four best results counted in the first WSC seasons, the two 1-2 wins by Mercedes, plus a 2nd place and a no show, would have secured the 1952 championship with 22 points out of a maximum of 32, with Ferrari in second (one win and 19 points).