3000 Km heat and dust, obstacles at every turn, death-defying fighter pilot at the wheel: in the year 1952 the Panamericana was a real adventure. To search with the 300 SL and his great-grandson of SLS.

According to, hot, hard – so is the 300 SL. Six cylinder to roar their soul from the body and chasing 180 HP on the road. Under the Dome you can sit as in a greenhouse, only through the window slits in the gull-wing doors it sucks a little fresh air into the lungs. Over rocks and cacti, meander the curves of the Pan-American Highway and keep the SL on the go. Staggering the car slightly, but with 870 kg unladen weight is to play well. And a little luxury may well be: the seats are not so uncomfortable, and prior to the passenger, the chrome-plated plate emblazoned proudly.

Time for a breather. Four French doors swing on, switching from the 300 SL on the SLS AMG. There, the speed experience of less is spectacular, although only 3.8 seconds at the Sprint from 0 to 100 km / h elapse. By pressing a button you can switch the chassis from hard to soft. The 571 strong V8 power powerful bubbles to himself, waiting for the next curve – and suddenly a number truck is located in the middle of the road. Intuitively, evasive action, stopping. Help is no longer necessary, the driver has been lucky and has climbed from the driver’s cab. Slowly, the pulse goes back down. Now to win a little respect for the problems of the Pan-American Highway back.

in 1952, when Mercedes sent three 300 SL in the race, the more than 3000 km long line in the “Carrera Panamericana” was paved with dangers. Because the proud Mexicans wanted to present their share of the mammoth project – the road network of the Pan-American Highway ranges from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska – they had created the rally in 1950. The whole country was on its feet, 40,000 troops tried to order to ensure, 3000 doctors and paramedics had plenty to do, 65 guns transported supplies and spare parts of a stage to the next.

“You had to be aggressive.” “In conservative and calculated to drive not was it easy – you would have lost too much time,” recalls John Fitch. The 92-Jährige was sitting at the wheel of the third SL in 1952 and was doing just as reckless as on his missions as a fighter pilot in World War II. “Often you excessively has underestimated the speed in which you could drive a curve, then you just had to have luck”, says Fitch. Finally won Karl Kling and Hans Klenk the race with an average speed of 165 km / h. Mercedes Rennchef Alfred Neubauer was barely behind their 300 SL itself in the air with a Chartered DC-3. Not even the famous vultures which rustled them at rate of 200 in the disk, could stop long Kling and Klenk: the injured Klenk was nursing shortly, the riders welded vertical bars of protection on the disk, and then it went back on the track.

Not everyone had so much luck. Fatal accidents were not the exception but the rule. “It was a real Blutsport, which the audience was probably no longer tolerate”, says John Fitch. “Every year it has lost many friends”, remembers also Hans Herrmann. The today 82-Jährige drove in formula 1 races for Mercedes, drove the 300 SLR in the Mille Miglia and took part in the years 1953 and 1954 with a Porsche 550 on the Pan-American Highway. “Dangers could lurk behind every curve, sometimes, cows were suddenly on the road.” “And the logistics – depots to the refuelling and tyre Exchange – was very difficult to organize,” Herrmann remembers.

It was particularly hairy, are remaining with his Porsche in an inhospitable area, which we previously advised him: “there were Indians who want no stranger – sometimes people have disappeared since just”, tells Herrmann. As approached his car the Indians, the heart beat him up to his neck. But when they saw the German sponsors stickers on the car, its mines brightened up: they had no “gringo” is as Americans hated in some Mexican were called. “The Indians brought even something and cigarettes me to drink”, Hans Herrmann tells. And while many stranded cars were completely cannibalized, they let the Porsche unscathed.

The race in 1954 should be also the last Pan-American Highway. After the catastrophic accident at the race of Le Mans in 1955 was the event cancelled and in life recalled again until 1988. Alone from Geldgründen many automakers are focused today on a few series like the formula 1. You let the rather dedicated private teams racing and make available only the cars. This is after all booming as can be seen on the flood of new models for the Championships to GT3 regulations. Porsche sends the 911 GT3 in the race, BMW has to sharpened the Z4 with spoilers and 480 HP, and also of the SLS AMG is available in September in a GT3 version available.

The normal SLS 177.310 euros, the first annual production is almost sold out. Even if the car apart from the Flügeltürern together with his famous predecessor has little – he knits on the myth of SL. Hans Herrmann today sitting at the wheel of SLS, he raves from the sublimely transmission and the high driving comfort. For the trip he would not take but the car: “Da one would have to say yes the baggage”, thinks Herrmann. Privately, he drives a fast saloon with plenty of room. Even racing legends go at some point just to safe.