While know as the Mercedes-Benz 300SLR the car was based neither on the famous 1954 300SL (W198) Gullwing road car, nor the earlier 1952 (W194) race car, although it bears a strong resemblance to both. Instead, it was based on the 1954-1955 Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz W196 race car. The name was in fact a product of the Mercedes’ marketing department, who found ‘W196S’ an uninspiring name and instead ordered the name ‘300SLR’. It is generally accepted that this name references the car’s lightweight construction as ‘Sport Leicht Rennen’.
The car used a space frame chassis using 25 mm diameter tubes of 1 mm thickness. This coupled with a magnesium-alloy (Elektron) bodywork giving it a dry weight of just 880kg. The car had a wheelbase of 93.3 inches and front and rear track measurements of 52.4 and 54.4 respectively. Ground clearance was 6.9 inches. Under the rear deck the car carried two spare wheels.
