Mercedes Bent

Few automotive icons have perfected a combination of elegance and engineering as the Mercedes-Benz series of SL luxury roadsters. The 1961 190 SL, in particular, offered a sense of timeless style that set the design benchmark for all future successors to the SL line. Today, the Mercedes-Benz SL class has defined its own mark offering unmatched performance and technology while retaining its SL pedigree.

The Challenge

When client Richard Mott presented Hot Rods & Custom Stuff with the unique challenge of taking a 1961 Mercedes-Benz 190 SL roadster and updating the classic with modern Mercedes-Benz technology, Hot Rods answered.

The Result

Dubbed “Mercedes-Bent,” Hot Rod’s took a pristine 2004 Mercedes-Benz SL600 (with only 9,000 miles on the odometer) – and de-skinned it to create the platform for the creation. The next step was to slice a 1961 Mercedes-Benz 190 SL into panels that would later be grafted to the 2004 platform.

The 1961 was lengthened by 8-inches across 5 different points and widened by 6-inches to accommodate the modern chassis and components. The interior, still entirely modern MB, was updated to feel like the 1961 roadster while retaining all of the modern comforts and technology.

With subtle details such as the custom-machined grill (which started its life as a 640lb chunk of aluminum), one-off 20-inch billet MB hub-cap-inspired wheels, and the custom leather luggage tray quickly offer a glimpse into the over 4,000 hours of fabrication and machine work that were spent on this project.

To put an exclamation point on this “Bent” concept, the 6.0L twin turbo V-12 power plant was fitted withRENNtech Performance upgrades pushing the horsepower over 650 at the rear wheels and the torque over 750ftlbs.