When Mercedes-Benz Took an Automatic SLC to the World Rally Championship. And Won!
Enter the Rally 500SLC
Once again buoyed by its against the odds success, at World Championship level this time, Waxenberger and his Mercedes men developed the sizeable coupé for even bigger things. By then evolved to the 500SLC, the team prepared the C107 to less modified Group 2 Touring Car specification, rather than the previous Group 4 Special Touring Car rules.
That also meant that Mercedes had to build 1,000 units of the 300 hp M117, now fitted with a 4-speed automatic transmission. Power was upped to 329 hp by the end of the run. On the World Rally stages meanwhile, Mikkola and Hertz powered the new Mercedes 500SLC to second in Argentina and third in New Zealand, while Preston Jr. and Doughty took their 450SLC to third at the East African Safari Rally.
Rally SLC Leaves WRC Best-for-Last at the Ivory Coast Again
The team once again kept the best for last as Björn Waldeard and Hans Thorszelius won the Ivory Coast Rally as he led a Mercedes-Benz 500SLC 1-2 home ahead of Jorge Recalde and Nestor Straimel. That was enough to see the SLC to fourth overall in the World Rally Manufacturer’s Championship.
In the ultimate development of the 107 chassis, Waxenberger proposed a move to the shorter and lighter convertible SL platform in search of better cornering response. Packing the 722.2 four-speed automatic, window glass was replaced with Lexan and the roll cage hewn from aluminum. A large, high-rise handbrake was added to help rotate the big Benz, with world Rally Champion Walter Röhrl and Ari Vatanen signed to drive for the 1981 season.
Sadly, the Daimler board cut funding to the rally program, leaving the ultimate development of the 500SL stillborn.
Perhaps the WRC’s Most Remarkable Success Story
Either way, in one of the least likely World Rally Championship success stories, Erich Waxenberger and his pioneering Mercedes-Benz motorsport men contributed among the sport’s most remarkable stories. Not only did they engineer near-standard SLCs packing supposedly inadequate automatic gearboxes to compete in the World Rally Championship, but also, they won while at it.
That’s a rather different way of going about it to specifically developing a car to win on the stages. And a sure sign of a proper SLC pedigree!
Images: Mercedes-Benz
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