The Mercedes 300SL Gullwing, probably the most beautiful car ever made. (in my opinion anyway) This car has the most beautiful and pure lines ever to grace an automobile. Already 50 years old, but it still has the visual charisma to shame many present day supercars. This car was never built, it was sculpted. To describe this car as stunning is an understatement. Cars like these are what dreams are made of.

Minichamps has undertaken the task of replicating this beauty into a 1:18 scale model and what a fine model it is. It was with great anticipation when i finally bought this car, i had waited for a quality manufacturer to produce this car for many years and when Minichamps announced it was in their lineup, i was overjoyed. The only other alternatives are the Bburago and Kyosho cars. The Bburago is quite an old model, very crude detailing and ruins the car for me. The Kyosho is just as old, though slightly better detailed, but is hard to find and is not as great as well. This new Minichamps release though, is hard to fault.

Paint

Paint on this car is flawless. It is very well applied and even throughout. The only drawback is that if you are not careful when opening the engine cover, you might chip a bit off the paint work along the sides if you opened the engine cover too much. Do take note of that small detail when opening up to see the engine. All the paint on the car is top notch. No complaints at all.

Exterior

Minichamps have really captured the timeless beauty of the 300Sl Gullwing car, all the pure lines of the original classic are on this model. The car is also very heavy being made with a metal chassis. It all feels very high quality. The vents behind the front Mercedes star grille are perforated and under proper lighting, you can look into the engine compartment The side vents are also proper openings with nicely done chrome slats on the outside.

Tampo printing was used on the Mercedes logo, the other logos on the car are made using photo-etched parts. Superb. The bumpers are proper the only main plastic parts of the model, but they are very well made and do not have a plastic-ish look to them at all. The single side mirror is made of plastic as well but is very well made and has fine detailing. Front lights and turn signals are made with seperate plastic lenses and are very well detailed with negligible signs of any attachement stubs. Only the rear lights have a slight hint of them, but are not as obvious because the rear lights themselves are quite small. Wiper on this car are rather small compared with their modern day counterparts but they are very well made with even a slight hint of the black rubber wiper blades being reproduced in 1:18. Many small details like the door handles, door locks and boot latch are all made with seperate pieces. Great work.

When opening the long engine bonnet, you are treated to a view of a rather simple looking but well made replica of the 1:1’s engine. The original car’s engine is by no means a visual feast (Unlike the engines of some Italian Supercars), but the effort put in here by Minichamps shows of quality work.

I personally really cannot find fault with the way the exterior of this car is made, it is just beautiful. Maybe small things like the small opening on the bottom of the sides being made with a black sticker, and the rear vents behind the cockpit are not real openings. But these small things really do not matter when you look at the car as a whole. This car is really a stunning effort on Minichamp’s part.

Interior

The interior of the 300SL Gullwing is quite a beautiful place as well, the wonderful thin rimmed steering wheel, the lush red cabin color in contrast to the silver paint makes a great combination. The model has replicated all these very very well, there is carpeting on the floorboards and the small cargo area behind the seats. The steering wheel is very well replicated and every small detail here is represented very well with seperate parts being used for each different item. The gear shifter is also very delicate and very nicely executed in 1:18. There is not much headlining present, probably due to the mechanisms of the Gullwing doors on the ceiling. The only things needed for the interior to be almost perfect would be for them to put in gas-struts for the doors and maybe make the steering wheel foldable, like the real car. But even with these very particular details omitted, the interior of this model is still top-notch.

Wheels and brakes

The wheels and on this car is very well made and the detailing is pretty good with seperate piece of chrome forming the tri-star attached to the silver plastic rims. Detailing on the rims cannot be faulted, but for the tyres, even though well made and having a very nice thread pattern, they are still ultimately, brandless. What a shame. Due to the design of the rims and wheels, the brakes are almost fully hidden away from view. They can still be seen when looking from the undercarriage, but not enough for me to comment on them. If going by previous minichamps releases, they should not be too shabby.

Summary

Honestly, this car is to me, my ultimate dream car. It’s probably the most beautiful car ever made in my opinion and having this wonderful model in my collection feels great. Minichamps have made a model the 300SL truely deserves. You really cannot go wrong if you decide to purchase this car. If it is true that Minichamps models all have a limited production run, i have a feeling this car will hold it’s value very well over time. Eithey way, this car plays a very significant part of Supercar history, as one presenter on TopGear once said, this car is “Genesis”. The first and original Supercar. The first road car ever with such radical door openings as well. Get this model if you can find it. You will not regret it. Even if you are not a Mercedes fan. It is THAT good and superb value for money. It will be a very beautiful and worthy addition to anyone’s car collection.

Overall 8/10
(A model that recieves this score is flawless in so many ways that its relative drawbacks are not very important if at all. Improving upon this model will take very little effort)

*Rating system and review was written with reference to DiecastXchange’s review guidelines*

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 17th, 2005 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Updates, 1:18 Reviews, Mercedes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.