VIN: the 1952 Le Mans 24 Hours & German GP-winning Mercedes-Benz W194 300 SL chassis 00007/52
History of chassis 00007/52
Chassis 00007/52 was one of three brand new W194 300 SL Coupes raced by Mercedes-Benz at the 1952 Le Mans 24 Hours which took place over the weekend of June 14th and 15th.
Ahead of the trip to la Sarthe, this trio were consecutively registered W83 3784 (chassis 07, silver with blue noseband), W83 3785 (chassis 08, silver with green noseband) and W83 3786 (chassis 09, silver with red noseband). All three cars featured newly extended doors that cut into the sides of the bodywork.
Chassis 07 was allocated to Hermann Lang / Fritz Riess and, during the week-long build up to the race, Lang set the fastest unofficial speed down the Mulsanne Straight (150mph) along with the fastest practice lap. However, grid positions were dictated by engine size which meant the Mercedes lined up ninth (Helfrich / Niedermayr), tenth (Lang / Riess) and eleventh (Kling / Klenk).
The race got underway with the Mercedes initially running at a steadier early pace than their rivals, but after a couple of hours they began to close the gap and, in the fourth hour, Lang moved chassis 07 up to second spot. Thereafter, he and Riess circulated in either second or third (exchanging positions with the sister car of Helfrich / Niedermayr) while out in front was the Talbot-Lago of Pierre Levegh / Rene Marchand.
With one hour to go, it seemed that Levegh was set for a famous victory. The Frenchman had driven single-handedly for 23 hours, but a fairytale win was not to be as his Talbot-Lago broke a con-rod near Maison Blanche and was eliminated.
This left the two Mercedes firmly in the lead. They were circumspectly driven to the finish and crossed the line almost together with chassis 07 of Lang / Riess taking a fortuitous win a lap clear of team-mates Helfrich / Niedermayr.
Having secured Mercedes’ first victory at Le Mans, chassis 07 was converted to the latest Spyder trim, fitted with side exiting exhaust and entered as part of a four-car team in the ten lap German Grand Prix support race for Sports cars at the Nurburgring (August 3rd).
Now painted silver with blue wing flashes, chassis 07 was allocated to Hermann Lang who qualified second behind team-mate Kling.
After nearly two hours of racing around the giant 22.8km circuit, Lang took chassis 07’s second victory and also set fastest lap.
Following its wins at Le Mans and the Nurburgring, chassis 07 served as a service car during Mercedes’ victorious attack on the Carrera Panamericana where it was driven by German journalist, Gunther Molter. The car was then displayed a variety of German shows, converted back to Coupe trim and fitted with an experimental fuel-injected engine.
1959 saw chassis 07 pass into the hands of renowned American motorsport photographer, Jesse Alexander. The following year, it was reputedly damaged in an accident and sent back to the factory for repair.
In 1963, the by now green car found its way to an owner in San Francisco, after which it disappeared from view until August 1999 when its rolling chassis was jointly auctioned off along with the fire damaged remains of chassis 06.
Notable History
Daimler-Benz
300 SL Coupe
Registered W83 3784
Silver with Blue noseband
15/06/1952 IND Le Mans 24 Hours (H. Lang / F. Riess) 1st oa, 1st S3.0 class (#21)
Converted to Spyder
Silver with Blue flashes
03/08/1952 IND German GP Support Race, Nurburgring (H. Lang) 1st oa, 1st S3.0 class (#21)
23/11/1952 IND Carrera Panamericana (-) T-car (#-)
Converted to Coupe and fitted with fuel-injected engineer1959 sold to Jesse Alexander, USA
1963 sold again
