The Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR is a colourful exception in the racing history of the brand..Almost untouched, though fine-honed for the special requirements of, for instance, the two Italian races, was the W 196 R's wheel suspension with double wishbones at the front and a swing axle at the rear. The lavishly ramified space frame of the sports car, 60 kilograms light, had, by contrast, been derived from the 300 SL of 1952, a latticework of tubes 25 millimetres in diameter and one millimetre in wall thickness, above all along the sides below the doors, and with stronger braces in the area of the suspension.The recommended engine speed, output and tank size changed according to the characteristics of the forthcoming race, from a sprint event such as the Eifel race on the Nürburgring over 228.1 kilometres to a marathon like Le Mans. As of yore forty years earlier, the basic concept of a one-piece unit combining the head and the cylinders was left untouched, the two cylinder blocks with four combustion units each being made of silumin, a lightweight high-strength aluminium alloy, instead of steel, unlike the W 196 R's engine. At a ready-for-installation weight of 235 kilograms.
