here are few cars as iconic in the automotive realm as the Mercedes-Benz 300SL. The SL nameplate is still alive today, with an all-new model arriving for the 2022 model year, but the 300SL is special. Its gullwing doors and sleek design has made it a head-turner for 70 years. It doesn’t need a makeover, but a slew of new renderings from Abimelec Design imagine the 300SL wearing a handful of modern-day AMG GT R touches, and it looks really good.
The changes are subtle, but the small dose of AMG GT R awesomeness does add to the 300SL’s sporty appearance. The 300SL doesn’t lose its sleek shape. Instead, the car gets several AMG touches. The front-end looks quite similar to the 300SL, but the entire face is different, with a reshaped grille, a revamped front bumper, and a lower carbon-fiber chin spoiler. Carbon-fiber side skirts are also added along with carbon-fiber hood garnishes. The fender vent looks larger and squarer, too.
Gallery: Mercedes 300SL Renderings With AMG GT R Touches
At the rear, things are a bit more extreme, but that’s only in relation to what was changed at the front. The rear gets a carbon-fiber spoiler, a repositioned badge, new taillights in a new location, a carbon-fiber rear diffuser, and quad center-exit tailpipes. Black trim replaces the chrome bits all around, except for the trunk latch, the grille emblem, and the American Racing VN427 wheels. It’s finished in the AMG GT R’s satin metallic green.
The design is one you have to look at to truly see all the changes. Many are so subtle you need to put the renderings next to a real 300SL to spot the differences. The new SL is only available as a soft-top convertible; however, Mercedes is making a new AMG GT Coupe that will serve as the fixed-roof companion to the new SL, though it won’t have gullwing doors like the 300. Mercedes did that trick already with the SLS AMG.
The Mercedes 300SL will be an icon for a long time, and it’ll be hard for Mercedes to recapture that magic as the industry has changed so much since then, and it continues to do so.
Gallery: 2022 Mercedes-AMG SL-Class: First Drive
