The road-going 300SL (W198) was an evolution of the Mercedes-Benz 300 (W194) racing car. The racing W194 was a project led by Rudolf Uhlenhaut to get Mercedes-Benz back into racing after the War. The W194 took the 2996cc 6-cylinder engine from W186 Type 300 'Adenauer' saloon, gave it a new cylinder head and triple solex carbs. The body was built of aluminium over a steel tube frame, and the W194 won the 1952 Le Mans 24 hour race, Nurburgring, and the Mexican Carrera Panamericana. American importer Max Hoffman implored Mercedes-Benz to produce a road-going version, and this was exhibited at the 1954 New York Show as the 300 SL (W198). Friedrich Geiger was responsible for the design of the W198, amending the front to contain an almost rectangular grille bearing a large 3-pointed star in its centre; this grille would define sporting Benzes from now on. twin longitudinal 'domes' top the bonnet, the first defined by the intakes below and it pair just for design symmetry. 'Eyebrows' were given to the wheel arches suggestive of length. Geiger gave the roadster side strakes from the wing vents to tie the design together. The road-going car also used a spaceframe chassis, but most bodies were of steel, and the gull-wing doors of the racer were also given to the road car. Unlike the racing car, the W198 2996cc engine had fuel injection and gave 40bhp more than the W194 racer. 1400 gullwing coupes were made from 1954-57. At the 1957 Geneva Salon the open 300 SL roadster was introduced mechanically based on the gullwing but with a revised chassis and conventional doors for the roadster body. 1858 SL roadsters were made 1957-63.