Hasta La Ideas

Before we can get to Mercedes’ iconic 300SL Gullwing, we need to delve into a little auto design history. The lightweight and groundbreaking 300SL, believe it or not, had its roots in this rather unwieldy machine:

That’s the Mercedes-Benz Type 300, their top-of-the-line model in the early 1950s. It was strong, powerful, heavy, expensive to produce, and could be kitted out in luxury style; if Jay-Z was a German living in 1950, he would have owned a 300 for sure.

Options inluded an onboard radio, a freaking mobile telephone that operated over VHF, a dictation machine, a writing desk, a sunroof, window curtains, and dividing partitions. It could be made in coupe, four-door, convertible, hardtop and limousine variants, as well as a pimpish parade-going landaulet version:

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