Mercedes celebrates Le Mans winners as part of SL 60th anniversary

Feb 1, 2012, 3:06 GMT

Paris - Mercedes is showcasing some of its most famous winners of the 24 hour Le Mans race at the 2012 Retromobile as part of the 60th birthday anniversary of the SL sports car, the company has announced.

Three original 'gullwing' vehicles from the Mercedes collection that won at Le Mans will be shown. Next to an original 1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL (W 194 series), the brand is showing a 1931 model SSK and a Sauber-Mercedes C9 from 1989.

The designation 300 SL marked the return of Mercedes to racing for the first time after World War II. In 1952 the Hermann Lang/Fritz Riess team won the 20th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in their Mercedes-Benz 300 SL (W 194 series), ahead of Theo Helfrich and Helmut Niedermayr.

The 300 SL (W 194 series) on show at the Retromobile 2012 is an original vehicle with chassis number 06 of ten racing vehicles made. The first 300 SL, the premiere car from 1952, no longer exists. It remained in company ownership and was eventually scrapped. The second car still exists and was restored at the Mercedes-Benz Classic Centre in Fellbach, Germany in 2011. It is the oldest existing SL and, together with two other W 194s, belongs to the Mercedes-Benz Classic collection.