Production milestone at Bremen: One millionth roadster rolls off the line

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The first car with a star to roll off the production line in 1978 at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Bremen was the E-Class Estate. With the introduction of the SL series in 1989, the Bremen team gained know-how on the production of premium roadster. In 1996 came the "little brother" of the SL: the all new SLK. Both models have now reached the third model generation to be assembled at the Bremen factory. The ceremonial handover of the one millionth roadster to its owner gathered around 300 guests at the Mercedes-Benz Customer Center in the city on the Weser river.

Dr. Joachim Schmidt, Vice-President Mercedes-Benz Sales and Marketing, and plant manager Andreas Kellermann handed over the keys of the anniversary vehicle, a black-coloured SL 63 AMG, to a customer from Diepholz / Lower Saxony. "We are very proud to have sent one million roadsters on the road. The three generations of the SL and SLK built at Bremen stand themselves for the technical vehicles advancement and for the of state-of-the-art technology in production. Unchanged remains the passion which the Bremen team manufactures the SLK and the SL with. It makes an important contribution to ensuring that our roadsters are highly sought after worldwide," Kellermann said.

Overview of the roadster production at the Bremen plant

- 1989: Start of production for the SL Series (R 129)
- 1996: Start of production of the SLK (R 170)
- 2001: A new generation of the SL is launched (R 230)
- 2004: The second generation SLK starts assembly (R 171)
- 2011: The new SLK celebrates world premiere (R 172)
- 2012: The new SL comes with an innovative all-aluminum body (R 231)

About the SL and SLK

In 1952, the forefather of the SL came as a racing car on the international circuits. In 1954, Mercedes-Benz launched the first production model: the legendary 300 SL Gullwing. 1963, 1971, 1989, 2001 and 2012 were followed by new generations of the SL roadster series. The early generations were produced at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen. Since 1989, the Bremen has joined the production network for open-top models. Over 675,000 units of the SL rolled off the band after production started in 1954. The iconic sports car finds more and more enthusiastic drivers: in 2012, 10.700 cars were delivered to customers, three times compared to 2011. The United States is by far the largest market for the SL, nearly half of the vehicles being sold there. The legendary roadster is also very popular on the home market in Germany and in Japan. For the assembly of the current series, the Mercedes-Benz plant in Bremen expanded its technological expertise and introduced innovative all-aluminum shell construction standards for future-oriented automotive production. The new SL is up to 140 kg lighter than its predecessor.

In 1994, Mercedes-Benz showcased the compact SLK roadster at the Turin Motor Show as a study. World premiere of the serial model came in 1996 when the "little brother of the SL" celebrated official introduction in Turin. In 2000, the SLK received an extensive facelift. Four years later, the second generation of the SLK was presented at the Geneva Motor Show. 2008 brought the facelift for the second generation. In 2011, the third generation of the SLK hit the market. To date, the SLK has inspired more than 600,000 customers worldwide. In 2012, there were 31,800 deliveries, which makes the SLK the market leader in its segment.

The Mercedes-Benz plant in Bremen

With over 12,500 employees, the Bremen plant is the largest private employer in the region. Currently at the site, eight models are produced: the C-Class Sedan, the C-Class Estate and the C-Coupe; the E-Class Coupé and Cabriolet, the GLK, and the SLK and SL roadsters. In 2012, the plant has produced more than 316,000 vehicles - an all-time record. As a center of excellence for the new C-Class, which celebrates world premiere in 2014, the Mercedes-Benz plant in Bremen also controls the entire production network of the new high-volume series which integrated further foreign factories in Tuscaloosa / USA, Beijing / China and East London / South Africa.

Credits: Daimler AG

Copyright © 2013, mercedesgla. All rights reserved.

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The latest on the Mercedes-Benz SLK and SL: Roadster driving pleasure at its best

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The SLK and SL sports cars from Mercedes-Benz are characterised by fun at the wheel and open-air enjoyment. Now the two Roadster models also boast an extended range of appointments and will be available to order from 8 April.

From now on, all six- and eight-cylinder variants, as well as the four-cylinder models equipped with COMAND Online or the Driver Assistance package, will boast a new, high-resolution colour display in the instrument cluster. The 7G‑TRONIC Plus automatic transmission, meanwhile, has received a technical upgrade in the guise of a new Momentary M mode. The benefit of this: if the driver has shifted up or down manually via the optional shift paddles, after a set period of time the transmission independently switches back to automatic, fuel-efficient shift mode. In addition, the driver also receives shift recommendations. Also now available as an optional extra is a tyre pressure monitoring system.

In terms of its exterior, the SLK boasts some fresh highlights with two newly available exclusive light-alloy wheels as well as two new paint finishes.

Favourably priced Sports package

Priced at €1820, the new Mercedes-Benz Sports package for the SLK makes for an attractive option and comprises the following items:

- 45.7 cm (18-inch) 5-twin-spoke light-alloy wheels

- front headlamps with dark surrounds, rear lamps with darkened glass covers and also rod-shaped LED daytime driving lamps

- sports suspension, lowered by 10 mm

- uprated brake system with perforated brake discs and front brake callipers with "Mercedes-Benz" lettering

- even sportier engine sound

- seats with a specific vertical fluting design with red contrasting stitching on the seats, steering wheel and selector lever gaiter

- instrument cluster featuring "chequered flag" design

- sports steering wheel with perforated leather in the grip area and red contrasting stitching, plus flattened bottom section

- steering wheel shift paddles in conjunction with automatic transmissions

- red seat belts

- shift/selector lever including selector lever gaiter in nappa leather

- velour floor mats in black with red surround

SL with exemplary new features

The SL will now feature a multimedia system with SPLITVIEW technology which enables the driver and front passenger to view two different sets of content on the COMAND display in full-screen mode at the same time. While the driver is checking a navigation instruction, the passenger can be enjoying a film on the same display without being interrupted. The system is priced at €1190 including VAT.

Also newly available for the SL is Night View Assist Plus, which is capable of alerting the driver to dangerous situations involving pedestrians or animals in unlit areas in front of the vehicle by automatically switching the COMAND screen to a pin-sharp night view image and highlighting sources of danger. Pedestrians who are detected can also be flashed by means of a spotlight function. The system is priced at €2618 including VAT.

In addition, two new paint finishes are now available for the SL in the form of polar white and hyacinth red, as well as two new light-alloy wheels.

Credits: Daimler AG

Copyright © 2013, mercedesgla. All rights reserved.

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Huge fascination on a miniature scale

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The distilled essence of fascination in one gleaming silver wind-up toy car: the 300 SL racing car, first produced in 1953 as a tiny model, is a mere twelve centimetres long. But this provides more than enough space on which to project the extraordinary reputation that surrounds the original. The Dux brand toy car, manufactured by Markes and Co. in Lüdenscheid, marked the beginning of a great and fascinating tradition. The history of toy and model cars based on various incarnations of the Mercedes-Benz SL sports car is almost as long as that of the SL class itself.

This link between real-life cars and their model versions is a constant factor in the history of the automobile. From race cars and sports cars to saloons and even heavy trucks, the toys and models represent vehicles of every type and period. “The history of the motor car is always also the history of the model car”, according to the foreword in the catalogue for the exhibition ‘Models. Design, toy, cult. Mercedes-Benz’, which was held from 2000 until 2001 at the Kunsthalle art gallery in Tübingen.

Technological treasures in a miniature format

The desire to represent important elements of our lives in model form is as old as human culture itself, as demonstrated by the prehistoric animal figures and replicas of carts from antiquity. Since the invention of the automobile by Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler in 1886, the motor car has established itself as a firm favourite both in children’s nurseries and collectors’ display cabinets.

Sports cars evoke particularly strong emotions in their original versions, so it’s no surprise that their scaled-down counterparts also present an exciting chapter in the story of model cars. Among the types most often represented in miniature format is the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Coupé (W 198 I, 1954 to 1957) and the 190 SL (W 121, 1955 to 1963). Both remain popular models for new miniatures. These classic sports cars showcase the wide range of sizes, materials, and attention to detail that characterises the culture of model cars.

The collections show how innovative processes entered the toy industry, as deep-drawn tin bodies gave way to injection-moulded plastic and metal versions. Wind-up engines were replaced by electric drives – both for cable and radio-controlled cars and for electric race track models.

Reflecting the SL tradition

All of the other Mercedes-Benz SL sports cars also enjoy great popularity in the world of toy and model cars, right from the moment they are first launched. Six decades of SL tradition have seen the creation of a whole universe of miniatures of these Mercedes-Benz sports cars, from the W 194 racing car and model series W 198 (300 SL) and W 121 (190 SL) to the ‘Pagoda’ W 113 from 1963 and model series R 107 (1971), R 129 (1989), R 230 (2001) and R 231 (2012).

Over the same period, there was an increasingly noticeable differentiation in the purpose and the target groups for these miniatures. On the one side were the sturdy replicas of Mercedes-Benz originals made for active play, while on the other was an increasing number of more and more detailed models whose intricate designs appealed mostly to collectors who wanted to display these little works of art in showcases.

Sports cars – a new beginning for Mercedes-Benz and the toy industry

When the miniature of the 300 SL racing car (W 194) was released under the Dux (lat. ‘leader’) brand in 1953, the legendary Mercedes-Benz 300 SL gullwing coupé of model series W 198 was still a secret development project of the engineers and designers. Just a few years after the end of the Second World War, this achievement of the toy manufacturing industry must be rated as highly as the innovative power and performance of Mercedes-Benz, where the groundbreaking sports car was being developed at the same time. Matthias Braun reminds readers of this fact in his book ‘Mercedes. Sportscar scale models’ published in 1998.

The design of the 1953 Dux model was, of course, based on the profile of the racing car. But the W 194 already gave a taste of the line and the aesthetics of the 300 SL production vehicle that was launched at the International Motor Sports Show in New York in 1954. The toy industry was happy to take this bright new beginning for Mercedes-Benz in the sports car sector as an incentive to create a whole new world of models.

In technical terms, the 1953 Dux miniature was designed and built according to the traditional principles used in most toy cars of the period: the body was deep-drawn from tin and then joined to the frame. This technique was used as long ago as the mid-1930s, in the legendary replica of the Mercedes-Benz W 25 racing car produced by Schuco. This little Silver Arrow is still being made today.

For its 300 SL, Dux decided not to use the normal process of sticking tin flaps through slots and then bending them over, but instead went for screw fastenings. This method enabled the proud owner of the model to open the 300 SL (screwdrivers and spanners were supplied) and even to remove the wind-up engine. A few years later, the metal construction kit ‘Auto-Dux’ even contained a dismantled version of the 190 SL (W 121), which had to be assembled before you could play with it.

SL sports cars were later also offered as plastic model kits by a variety of manufacturers. The change from tin to plastic represents a paradigm shift that affected the entire model car sector. Not only were new materials introduced, but different manufacturing techniques and other forms of propulsion became established, especially from the 1960s.

But the fascination of the original remains when you hold a wind-up tin car in your hands: these toys are technical reminders of the period characterised by the 300 SL as the first series sports car in its family. In the 1990s, Märklin used this very technology to produce an impressive large-scale model of the W 198 I, including a limited edition for the 40th anniversary of the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg (silver) and a museum model (red).

300 SL models emulate export success

Soon after the launch of the W 198 I, a large number of tin miniatures of the gullwing coupé hit the international toy market. Many of them were rather crudely made, like the many versions manufactured in Japan. These tin models of the 300 SL didn’t sell very well in Germany, and the vast majority of them sold in foreign markets. This is another parallel between the original Mercedes-Benz car and the model versions: both were successful exports right from the start.
However, now and again some very fine miniatures were produced in Germany, such as the model made by Tipp & Co./Tippco, “with an electric drive and a properly functioning steering column shift”, according to Matthias Braun. This toy car not only lived up to the technical standards of the original, it also matched the luxury sports car in price: the 300 SL from Tipp & Co./Tippco would set you back DM23, an awful lot of money for a toy in the mid-1950s.

While German toy manufacturers showed some reluctance towards the 300 SL at first, this all changed in 1955 with the 190 SL Roadster. Matthias Braun reports that over 80 per cent of all models of this open-top sports car were made by traditional German firms such as Gama, Huki (Kienberger), JNF, Kellermann, Schuco, and Seidel. In terms of design, these miniatures followed the models of the 300 SL, i.e. they had a tin body that was painted or lithographed.

Technical innovations in the toy sector

Not all technical details of a real sports car can be accurately reproduced in a model. But since the launch of the first 300 SL as a competition car, development in the toy sector has been characterised by a number of innovations. These range from the production of the body through injection moulding to using processes such as photo-etching for the decor. This development can be seen particularly well in the 300 SL from model series W 198 I and the 190 SL from model series W 121. Both of these Mercedes-Benz sports cars are still being offered in model form by a number of manufacturers – with huge variations in their attention to detail.
The process of evolution undergone by models can be demonstrated using the example of the 300 SL Coupé by Wiking, made from plastic on a scale of 1:87, which was first introduced with the 1956 price list. At that time, the gullwing sports car, on the same scale as an H0 gauge model railway, had a body without holes for the windows, and with the glass of the headlights represented by colour. In 1960, this was followed by a 300 SL with a transparent windscreen and windows – to go with the 190 SL with coupé roof introduced by Wiking in 1957. Wiking continued to produce more and more refined versions of the gullwing coupé, culminating in a version with an intricate radiator grille and bumpers.

In addition to the finer details, technical functionality is also in demand. Around 1960, there was not only a model of the ‘Pagoda’ by Gama with a removable hardtop, but even a 230 SL (W 113) by Schuco with a fully-functioning four-speed transmission.

Mercedes-Benz quality in model form

Many manufacturers continue to strive for ever-better models in a range of different scales. This inevitably leads to an increased demand for precise information about the originals. Mercedes-Benz has always been a much sought-after partner for the toy industry. Back in 1961, a manufacturer of ‘children’s cars’ contacted Daimler to ask for detailed drawings and photos to use as templates for their pedal cars, which were about 1.5 metres long.

Today, Mercedes-Benz promotes the development of high-quality collectors’ models for its own Classic Collection, in collaboration with well-known manufacturers. These models are sold exclusively through Mercedes-Benz sales and service outlets, Mercedes-Benz dealerships, the Mercedes-Benz Museum and the online shop. In these collaborations Mercedes-Benz puts a great emphasis on authenticity, for instance regarding original paint finishes, trims and decors – all the way to the correct starting numbers for special models commemorating important racing wins for Mercedes-Benz.

And so, when an ardent collector finds exactly the high-quality miniature of an 300 SL coupé or 190 SL Roadsters he has been looking for in the Mercedes-Benz Classic Collection, we come full circle. Because the enthusiasm for the “harmony of design reconciled with the finesse of technical construction”, which the ethnologist Hermann Bausinger has described as the source of our fascination with collectors’ items, is a modern-day echo of the enthusiasm felt by the audience in 1954 at the launch of the 300 SL Coupé and 190 SL in New York.

Credits: Daimler AG

Copyright © 2012, mercedesgla. All rights reserved.

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World debut at the 2012 Essen Motor Show: BRABUS refines the Mercedes-Benz SL Roadster (R 231)

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Exclusive refinement for a unique automobile: BRABUS now also customizes the sixth generation of the Mercedes SL. The measures include a striking BRABUS designer outfit, thrilling alloy wheels up to 20 inches in diameter, even more agile handling as a result of professional suspension tuning, a power increase to 382 kW / 520 hp (512 bhp) for a top speed of up to 300 km/h (186 mph) for the SL 500, and interior options custom-tailored to the owner’s personal style.

Sporty-elegant body styling components, tuned in the wind tunnel for maximum aerodynamic efficiency, are the BRABUS designers’ specialty. Custom-tailored front fasciae, add-on components for the side skirts and rear fasciae were developed for both body styles of the SL, with or without AMG Sport package. There is also a BRABUS rear spoiler and side air vents for the front fenders. For a perfect fit all components are manufactured in OEM quality from high-grade PU plastics.

Just as important for a custom look are the OEM-quality BRABUS Monoblock wheels, which can be mounted on the new roadster in four different designs and with diameters of 18, 19 and 20 inches. The largest combination to fit the R 231 model series SL features BRABUS Monoblock F, Q or R wheels in size 9Jx20 in front with size 255/30 ZR 20 tires and size 9.5Jx20 wheels with 295/25 ZR 20 tires on the rear axle. BRABUS recommends high-performance tires from Continental, Pirelli and YOKOHAMA.

To be able to further improve upon the already high level of driving dynamics of the new Mercedes roadster BRABUS has developed custom-tailored suspension components in collaboration with technology partner BILSTEIN. BRABUS sport springs are available for the SL 350 with conventional steel suspension. For all SL models with active ABC suspension the BRABUS suspension engineers have developed an electronic module that lowers the ride height by about 25 millimeters.

This makes the SL 500 the perfect beneficiary of even more power. The BRABUS B50 - 520 PowerXtra CGI power kit wrestles an additional 85 horsepower from the 4.7-liter eight-cylinder Biturbo engine. BRABUS recommends the use of fully synthetic high-performance motor oil from MOTUL.

The BRABUS PowerXtra module with plug-and-play design is integrated into the engine electronics to generate more power as a result of special mapping for injection and ignition as well as of moderately increased boost pressure. But that’s just one part of the equation. The conversion also includes an auxiliary water-to-air intercooler powered by an auxiliary electric pump. The drop in charge air temperature benefits not only power yield but also engine life even under extreme operating conditions such as in the desert, for example.

After the conversion the engine puts 382 kW / 520 hp (512 bhp) instead of the standard 320 kW / 435 hp (429 bhp) on tap, accompanied by a peak torque of 820 Nm (604 lb-ft). Consequently the two-seater accelerates to 100 km/h in just 4.4 seconds. The BRABUS Vmax unit, another component of the engine tuning, allows limiting the top speed electronically to 250, 275 or 300 km/h (155, 172 or 186 mph).

A BRABUS stainless-steel sport exhaust system with four chrome-plated tailpipes is indispensable for an SL with BRABUS high-performance engine. It is also perfect for all roadster owners longing for a sportier exhaust note and a more striking rear appearance of their two-seater. BRABUS will offer a version with butterfly valve for the SL 500 shortly. It will allow choosing between a soft and a thrillingly sporty exhaust note via a button on the steering wheel.

The BRABUS limited-slip differential with a locking rate of 40 percent can improve handling even further.

The two-seated cockpit can receive even more individual character and luxury attributes at BRABUS. The product lineup ranges from scuff plates with backlit BRABUS logo and a speedometer with 320-km/h or 360-km/h dial (200 mph or 225 mph) to carbon-fiber or fine wood trim sets in any imaginable color and with a variety of surface finishes.

The company upholstery shop creates exquisite BRABUS interiors from especially soft yet durable BRABUS Mastik leather and Alcantara.

~ Official photos and details courtesy of BRABUS GmbH ~

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