p.054 / july 2015 / the 1950s

The slow, clockwise churn Lancias, such that collectors worldwide still mine the region for rust-free examples. of The norTh Pacific Gyre is While Robert “Pete” Petersen tramped whaT Gives los anGeles around to the many local drag strips hock- ing the frst 25-cent issues of Hot Rod, iTs famously fine climaTe, capturing a movement and launching a publishing empire, John R. Bond at Road & producing as it does the two dominant weather patterns that the Track capitalized on the burgeoning import bored meteorologists here just call onshore and ofshore. The and road-racing scene. In Washington, onshore winds wafting in from the chilly waters of the Santa D.C., our predecessor, Sports Illus- Monica Bay bring the morning fogs, the afternoon breezes, and the trated, fred up in 1955 to do the same, moderate temperatures that make this otherwise arid basin an breathlessly reporting from a distance on alluring paradise. The less frequent ofshore winds, called the the bespoke, the boutique, and the bour- Santa Anas, are boiling swelters caused by vast high-pressure zones geois foreigners that were routine sights over Nevada that blow the searing heat out of the interior, rushing along Wilshire Boulevard. it through the mountain passes in a dusty, fre-fanning roar. Nine 45-foot-high white letters near Onshore and ofshore, exhale and inhale; the Pacifc Ocean Cahuenga Peak in the Santa Monica Moun- breathes and L.A.’s towering fan palms sway accordingly, heedless tains efectively mark the spot where it all of the people below hustling for their fortunes. began. You exit the crawling Hollywood above: The GT S The nascent movie industry discovered Los Angeles about a manaG e S T o Freeway at Gower north of downtown, evoke T he 300Sl turn right on Franklin Avenue, and hang a century ago, and a money spigot opened to pour wealth into the wiT houT pockets of professional extroverts. Tracing the tracks of the pio- reS orT inG T o left into Beachwood Canyon, over which overT reT ro-iS m the Hollywood sign looms. Once you pass neers, the Duesenbergs and Delahayes and Stutzes and Marmons or unneceS S a r y came across the continent by rail. After World War II, it was Jag- G ullwinG doorS . through the old stone Hollywoodland uars, Maseratis, , and Pegasos. Enzo Ferrari did so well in gates, you’re suddenly back in time. California that he christened a model after the state. Likewise, for /// Before we can do that, though, I have to some who had spent their days riveting up Starfghters and Con- learn how to start a ’55 Mercedes-Benz stellations and DC-8s, it was hard to go home in a Chevy. Angelinos 300SL Gullwing. Pull the knob activating allergic to convention embraced lesser rarities such as Citroëns and the secondary electric fuel pump, push the starter key in and twist, wait for the 3.0- liter overhead-cam six to spit sonorous fame, and then shut the electric pump of so the primary mechanical pump can do its caranddriver.com / p.055

duty. Inhale, exhale; this is going to be a good day in Los Angeles. Whether you call it the 300SL, the W198, or its German nickname, der Flügeltüren, the Gullwing represents a maniacal sword beaten into an exquisite plowshare. Daim- ler-Benz spent the war making direct- injection V-12s, mounted upside down per ­L u f t w a f e design spec to reduce frontal area and give Messerschmitt pilots better visibil- ity. When the time came to at last revive the Mercedes-Benz racing program in mid-1951, the company poured its knowledge into the W194, a racing coupe with an aircraft-style tube-frame chassis; aircraft-style doors hinged at the roof; and a dry-sump, carbu- reted, single-cam 3.0-liter six-cylinder. Engineers dubbed the engine “Schräger the roughly 6 0 -y e a r - o l d Otto” or Sloping Otto, because, as if to prove g u l l w i n g Daimler could still mount engines any which somehow looks more radical way, it leaned 50 degrees to the left to lower and futuristic the hoodline. The W194 chased glory for the than the g t s . silver star at Le Mans; in the 1952 Carrera Panamericana in where co-driver /// and navigator Hans Klenk got smacked in the face by a buzzard; and anywhere else that Mercedes could show that it was back. History abounds with ironies, and one of them is Maximilian E. Hofman, a Vienna-born Jew and car dealer who escaped Europe just as the darkness descended. By 1953, he had enough clout as the U.S. Mercedes-Benz importer to convince the company’s board that roadgoing versions of the W194 racer would be the path to American success. On February 6, 1954, the new 300SL coupe, the p.056 / july 2015 / the 1950s caranddriver.com

W198, landed on New York City’s Interna- tional Motor Sports Show like something out of The Airlords of Han. Mercedes-Benz was on its way to New World fame thanks to an Austrian refugee who would eventu- ally distribute cars to 475 Mercedes dealer- ships across the country. The Gullwing and this magazine have a special relationship besides sharing an of- cial birth year of 1955. While stationed in as an Army Signal Corps radio repairman in 1958, our most senior alum- nus, Karl Ludvigsen, traded his Renault Dauphine for a used 300SL that had placed seventh in the 1956 Mille Miglia. Tour over, Ludvigsen shipped the car home, using it to drive across the country and as a daily commuter in New York City while editing this magazine. a bove: r u d g e while Eckberg is needed elsewhere; his old wheels are Six decades later, Craig Eckberg is the kind of classic-car guy we the business. friend, Ron Johnson, a Gullwing owner all think everyone should be. He believes that cars are outdoor b elow: t h e m o s t himself who volunteers to assist, joins us in distortion-free products to be used out of doors. Since buying his 1955 300SL at piece of glass the new (and air-conditioned) AMG GT S. auction back in 2000, immaculately restored and complete with an on this planet. Everybody seated exactly where they want original set of Rudge knockof wheels, he’s put on more than to be, we purr out of Eckberg’s driveway 50,000 miles running road rallies such as the Colorado Grand. The /// and into the California sunshine, the front end of his Gullwing is lightly sprayed with stone chips, and Pacifc exhaling a cool, damp zephyr. the oatmeal-colored leather seats have the inviting patina of Gott- Through the decades, Mercedes’ inter- lieb Daimler’s reading chair. So, in other words, the car is perfect. est in sporty cars has waxed and waned. It I had gently asked Eckberg for a short drive, fguring a couple teased the public with mid-engined con- miles of chaperoned Gullwing time would be enough for this story. cepts and built the hyper-homologation What I get is 10 hours solo behind the wheel, crisscrossing L.A. special, the CLK GTR of 1998–1999, but caranddriver.com / p.057p.057

ultimately it never abandoned the front- engine grand-touring format that began with the W198. In 2010, Benz produced the gullwing-door SLS AMG, a tribute to the original 300SL but with contemporary— meaning outlandish—proportions. This year, with the aging and almost-dead SLS now starting at $224,605, Mercedes released a sort of second draft, the twin- turbocharged AMG GT. It is slightly more humble with its conventional doors, def- nitely more handsome, and a heck of a lot cheaper. The hottest 503-hp S version starts at $130,825. Some bill the new AMG GT as Benz’s 911 fghter, but it’s not a role the car seems to relish. Still overtly large, it’s a fast, menacing machine, but one that puts its best attributes forward when left in com- fort mode. In other words, when it’s behav- ing more like the glorious 300SL. Such a relaxed automobile is the SL, such an unfappable sweetheart. With the son of Sloping Otto snoring out smooth, thick torque enriched by Bosch mechanical direct fuel injection, the Gullwing moves with a surprisingly modern swiftness when you get on it. Eckberg’s has the optional 3.25:1 fnal-drive ratio, the tallest originally available, giving this sports car legs as long as the Rhine. Three fngers of a relaxed hand move the shifter through four gears, and then it’s another endless run to the 6400-rpm redline. At 75 mph, the tach touches 2800 rpm. With its 34-gallon tank flled, we could probably make the Pyre- nees by nightfall. The SL’s designers put the car’s lattice- work structure to the outside, forcing the seats together between two wide runs of triangulated framing. The gullwing doors were thus a necessity, as conventional doors wouldn’t work on a coupe with this design. The extra-wide and its ads for Austin-Healeys. Oil rigs, sills have long served as park benches for winded drivers and fum- lima-bean felds, and citrus groves stood moxed mechanics, but there’s no easy way in. My technique: Stick /// where many million-dollar houses do the right leg in, twist, drop, and then pull in the left. Some people today, and celebrities still took of for their go both feet in at once, which takes more gymnastics than bad ranches in the nearby scrub of the wild San sciatica will allow. A heavy latch and hinge let the steering wheel Fernando Valley. Trafc and smog were just fold down, but that doesn’t help your freedom of movement much. punch lines on The Jack Benny Program. Getting out, you feel like toothpaste oozing from the tube. We steer up cloistered Beachwood Can- Compared with the fashionably cocooned AMG GT S, in which yon, getting lost a couple of times on its the bodywork comes up to your eyeballs, you seem to sit high in narrow lanes in the winding route to the the SL, with a 360-degree surround view through the ample curv- top, where the restored Hollywood sign ing glass. How easy it must have been to spot Clark Gable in his presides over the concrete-colored sprawl. cowboy hat goosing it down the Miracle Mile. Eckberg didn’t Like the SL sitting next to the AMG, bother to explain the many unlabeled knobs on the chromed dash- charming 1930s cottages with arched door- board besides the choke, the fuel pump, and the vital cowl-fap ways and Mexican tile work sit window to lever that lets welcome air into the terrarium-like cabin. He did a bove: i t ’ s c l e a r window with gleaming metal-and-glass that the Gt s airport terminals boasting infnity pools, recommend that I lock the doors, as they have a tendency to has been takinG unlatch themselves over bumps. the b r a z i l i a n private screening rooms, and price tags b u t t- l i f t c l a s s . Los Angeles in the 1950s was no more fully formed than our new t he 300s l? n o t north of $2 million. Writers, directors, and magazine, with its greasy-fngernail features on tuning Solex carbs so much, really. stars have inhabited this sheltered enclave p.058 / july 2015 / the 1950s

SPe c i F i c aT i o n S /// ///

2016 mERCEDES- 1956 mERCEDES- AmG GT S BEnz 300Sl since the 1920s, and this can’t be the frst Gullwing to fnd its BaSe Price $130,825 $7463 way up here. pRICE AS TESTED $151,075 $8897 Feeling hungry, we exit out Beachwood’s back door, past the DImEnSIonS Hollywood Reservoir and up Barham Boulevard into Toluca lenGTH 179.0 inches 178.0 inches WidTH 76.3 inches 70.5 inches Lake, formerly the home of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope and, HeiGHT 50.7 inches 51.2 inches since 1949, Bob’s Big Boy drive-in. We want to snap the cars WHeelBaSe 103.5 inches 94.5 inches against the restaurant’s Googie architecture but were foiled by enGine twin-turbocharged SoHc 12-valve doHc 32-valve v-8 inline-6 a crew repaving the driveway cuts, so we settle for a round of 243 cu in (3982 cc) 183 cu in (2996 cc) double-decker Originals with fries. Every Friday night, Bob’s PoWer HP @ rPm 503 @ 6500 220 @ 6100 hosts hundreds of old cars in a popular cruise-in ritual that has TorQue lB-FT @ rPm 479 @ 1750 203 @ 4600 Fuel delivery direct injection direct injection gone on for years. redline 7000 rpm 6400 rpm Heading back down Barham past the Warner Bros. lot, we lB Per HP 7.3 13.0 DRIvElInE make for the hills and a run at the old Mulholland Drive race- TranSmiSSion 7-speed dual-clutch 4-speed manual track. Dead Man’s Curve (not the one from the song, but equally automatic driven WHeelS rear rear deadly) shows the SL’s steering to be vintage heavy with slingshot-like springback. The period aftermarket Nardi wheel C/D TEST RESUlTS is thin-wood spaghetti in your hands, and its position close to ACCElERATIon the dash makes levering it with straight arms a workout. “I can- 0–30 mPH 1.3 sec 2.9 sec 0–60 mpH 3.0 sec 7.7 sec not see it as anything but a man’s machine,” wrote our own 0–100 mPH 6.9 sec 17.7 sec Grif Borgeson with period sexism in the April 1956 issue. “It’s 0–130 mPH 11.7 sec — 1/4-mile @ mPH 11.2 sec @ 127 15.9 sec too hairy a beast for a woman to drive unless she’s a fairly Top SpEED 193 mph (gov ltd, 138 mph (drag ltd) brawny athlete.” mfr’s claim) CHASSIS The SL’s swing-axle rear suspension is not to be toyed with BraKinG, 70–0 mPH 141 feet — unless you want to spin somebody else’s million-dollar RoADHolDInG, 300–FT–DIA SKIDpAD 1.05 g — antique. You work the frm, vacuum-boosted pedal to engage wEIGHT the four drums, you let the body make its slouch to the outside, curB 3677 pounds 2855 pounds %FronT/%rear 47.5/52.5 — and then you squeeze on the power. By comparison, the mus- FUEl EConomy cular AMG does it with more precision and less drama via its ePa ciTy/HWy 16/24 mpg* — computerized controls. So many advances; it’s tempting to 2016 Mercedes-AMG 1956 Mercedes-Benz wonder whether Borgeson, having fallen through a wormhole, GT S test results from 300SL test results from c/d, June 2015. Sci, April 1956. would be amazed by the AMG’s vogue technology or disap- pointed that cars still can’t fy. *c/d estimated. caranddriver.com / p.059p.059

We cruise the palm-lined boulevards of 90210 looking for photo ops and run up the drive of the Beverly Hills Hotel, the site of so many glittering rendezvous since its 1912 opening. Through city stop-and-go, the SL’s water temp never breaks 180 degrees, while the oil in its 14-quart system never rises above 150 degrees. That’s how overbuilt this race-ready car is. In 1956, we printed the 300SL’s pricing and extras: base price, above: There $7463; Rudge wheels, $350; Becker radio, goes oT T o , $264; leather upholstery, $165; competition sloping again. springs, $88; ftted luggage, $85; and so on. r ighT: T h e arrow decal is It’s a 13-item list that foreshadows today’s so robinson k n o w s w h i c h era of endless options. way T o go. The GT S might sufer in a styling com- parison, but all of its numbing concessions /// to safety, from the plastic bumpers to the thick pillars, were paid for with blood and tears. It bristles with its Google-age tech- nology, from a high-res infotainment screen to driver-programmable performance settings to carbon-fber trim to the many unblinking sensors that warn of encroaching danger. The 300SL only looks like it should have that stuf. So new and foreign and electrifying, the 300SL was exactly the kind of car our budding magazine lived for in 1955. Neither Mercedes-Benz nor the car industry stopped there, however, and neither have we. All this time later, our wonder endures.

los angeles in the 1950S was no more fully formed than our magazine, with its greasy-fingernail features on tuning solex carbs. p.060 / july 2015 to caranddriver.com 60th Anniversary Appendix A: the ’50s est. 1955 Testing Gear In the 1950s, we conducted our tests using little more than a stopwatch-wielding passenger taking notes. Editor-in-chief Karl Ludvigsen purchased a rather crafty timepiece in 1959; its secondary button, to the left of the stop- start trigger, marked split times by depositing a bit of removable red liquid on the watch’s dial each time it was depressed. These splits corresponded to 10-mph acceleration increments, determined from the passenger seat after calibrating the vehicle’s speedometer.

a TradiTion is born In the March 1959 issue, SCI posed the question that has stymied us since. We asked, “iS thiS the next corvette?” The illustration of the “next Corvette” appears to be a whimsical combination of a ’70s Fiat Spider, a Datsun 240Z, and a George Barris custom. We can now assure you that it was not the next Corvette. Meanwhile, in France . . . who’S the longeSt At the 1955 Paris auto show, Citroën boSS? car for Sale launched an automotive interstellar Number of editors in 1955 voyager, the DS19. The Déesse, or Goddess, since 1955: 18 featured a plastic roof, easily removed Number of owners since 1955: 6 237.0 iNches fenders, and unibody construction. A Number of months caDillac fleetwooD hydropneumatic system pressurized at SCI’s frst editor, 2500 psi controlled the four-position George Parks, longeSt lasted on the job: 5 car for adjustable suspension, assisted the Sale steering, and powered the front-disc and in 2015 true value rear-drum brakes. A 75-hp 1.9-liter four Price of the July drove the front wheels. We called it “the 1955 premier current be-all and end-all of automotive issue of SCI: 239.8 iNches 35 cents ($3.07 in rollS-royce phantom extenDeD wheelbaSe gadgetry.” Citroën laid the still-modern 2015 dollars) Goddess to rest in 1975. chris philpot by illustration length charlie bettinson, by photograph watch p.062 / july 2015 to caranddriver.com 60th Anniversary Appendix A: the ’50s est. 1955

By THe numBerS Then & Now TesTs: 137 6

Top 5 TesTed 4. (Tie) makes: ausTin-Healey

1955 Ford F-100 2015 Ford F-150 8 6 Base price ...... $1330–$1611 Base price ...... $26,995–$52,545 ($11,649–$14,110 in 2015 dollars) engine ...... 3.9-liter pushrod v-8 engine ...... 5.0-liter doHc v-8 power ...... 132 hp @ 4200 rpm power ...... 385 hp @ 5750 1. mercedes- 4. (Tie) Torque ...... 215 lb-ft @ 1800 rpm Torque ...... 387 lb-ft @ 3850 Benz mg l/w/H ...... 189.1–203.2/75.7/75.4 in l/w/H ...... 209.3–250.5/79.9/75.1–77.3 in wHeelBase ...... 110.0–118.0 in wHeelBase ...... 122.4–163.7 in curB weigHT ...... 3240–3270 lb curB weigHT ...... 4050–5000 lb max gVwr ...... 4800 lb max gVwr ...... 7050 lb 1955 producTion ...... 124,842 2014 producTion ...... 600,708 7 6

press Time STaRTiNg OuT SCI’s Bill Carroll 2. (Tie) 4. (Tie) took a ’57 Plymouth In June of 1959, Toyota bought an ad in SCI cHeVroleT porscHe Fury to Daytona for its Toyopet Crown Custom Sedan, the Beach, Florida, and ran frst car exported from Japan to the U.S. 124 mph on a After ditching the Toyopet name, Toyota mile-long pass. 7 6 The car was a loan went on to become the world’s largest from Plymouth, carmaker, selling 10.2 million vehicles in which started our tradition of “racing” 2014. We like to think that none of it 2. (Tie) 4. (Tie) borrowed cars. would have happened without that ad. Ford saaB

car cosTs weigHT oF Average price of a THe sporTing liFe 54 issues: new car in 1955: In the April 1957 issue, SCI tested $2506 ($21,948 in the Triumph TR3, a car with 2015 dollars). “just enough power on tap to give 12 lb Average price of a you an idea of what drifting is

new car now: all about.” In addition to the better- i $33,993. known sports-car marques, the ToTal pages T magazine fearlessly tested cars from in THe 1950s: now-dead brands such as Austin,

Borgward, Morris, Simca, and Singer. affrun T

3852 T re B y Chevrolet brought out the small-block V-8 B

SHOW ME THE MONRONEY ion T

in 1955. Designed by a team led by Ed Cole, the Before 1958, we often left out the cost of test cars because no ra T frst version displaced 265 cubes (4.3 liters) base price was readily available. In a December 1957 review S of a Corvette, we said, “. . . check with your Chevrolet dealer; with gross output ranging from 162 to 195 illu GM says they’re all independent businessmen who are free H horsepower. The design proved to have legs. In to set their own prices.” That changed in 1958 when riump 2011, the 100 millionth senaTor almer sTillwell T ki,

monroney of Oklahoma pushed S e small-block V-8 rolled through the Automobile Information H uc of the assembly line. Disclosure Act of 1958, which S e Today, its successors mandated that new cars had to wear T y pe continue to power many a “window sticker” that displayed B the manufacturer’s suggested retail S ion

GM cars and trucks. price (MSRP) as well as other bits of T ra

In the Corvette Z06, a basic vehicle information. Also T S 6.2-liter supercharged known as a Monroney label, the list illu

of info would grow to include EPA fuel-economy fgures, S small-block makes crash ratings, and component country of origin.

650 horsepower. f-Serie