Mercedes-Benz 190SL W121 (1956)
I actually met the owner of this 190SL and everytime he was talking, I felt like brutally attacking him like a jealous cougar (yes, cougars have quite the reputation for jealousy. The animal kingdom is a bitch).
I’ve said this a couple of times before and I’ll say it again: portuguese license plates are the best for vintage cars. Those white numbers extrude at about 1.2 inches from the plate itself. They’re gorgeous.
International Motor Sports Show in New York, 1955.
The premiere of the Mercedes-Benz 190SL & 300SL was about to turn a couple of pages in the book of automotive history.
Mercedes-Benz 190SL (W121, 1955)
During these past few years I have written so much about the W121, again and again.
For once, I’ll let the picture do the talking.
Mercedes-Benz 190SL (W121) assembly line in 1955
(by Auto Clasico)
Mercedes-Benz 190SL (W121) & the 300SL (W198).
Photo taken in 1956, Sindelfinge.
Mercedes-Benz 190SL (1955)
Hey! Eyes on the car.
—I couldn’t find the original source of this fine artwork, if you know it please let me know.
Mercedes-Benz 190SL (1955)
Some years ago, when my mind was being blown away by the fact that you could produce any shape you wanted simply by inputing a few well sorted out mathematical data into a software, I spent an awful lot of time creating curvatures simply because they seemed organic, beautiful. I found myself learning about principal and geodesic curvatures simply to create organic, fluid orchestras of curves and lines.
Nowadays, I find myself struggling with a thirst of vector perfection. No curve is perfect, by any standard and at any given point, and it drives me mad when I’m not able to read the harmony of a set of lines and the flow of the curves of the object I’m creating, wherever and whatever its media may be.
In 1955, a bloke working for Daimler-Benz called Walter Hacker crafted, almost by hand, something that simply defies belief as far as curvatures harmony is concerned. It is no wonder than, that women look especially striking and perfectly blended into the overall dimension that is the 190/300 SL.
Simple hand made math can put a smile in your face.
