Review and test Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3: the Red Pig

In the late 1960s, the Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3 was the world’s fastest four-door car. What it certainly wasn’t was a sports car, much less a track tiger. Melcher and Aufrecht had other plans. They enlarged the V8 to 6.8 liters and squeezed out 430 hp. Weight saving? Oh yes: it has aluminum doors. Boy young. Fortunately, the thick leather sofa remained as the back seat, and the luxurious door trim, the deep-pile carpet, plus a wag of a dashboard.

What was the Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3 used for?

With this car they entered the Spa 24-hour race in 1971. Everyone laugh; they called him the Red Pig. But AMG came in second with it, in a field that also consisted of real sports cars, and made the German evening news with that performance. It is rumored that the Red Pig would have won even if he hadn’t had to stop so many times for gas and new tires.

The original was sold to test aircraft tires and later scrapped. But a few years ago, AMG took the yellowed blueprints from the attic and decided to build an exact replica. We drive into that today.

The V8 growls confidence-inspiring. Grab the aluminum poker, and notice the old-fashioned German dogleg shifting pattern of the five-speed: one sits down towards you, the rest is in an H-shape. The shifter shifts firm and heavy, with short gear spacing, but there’s no spring action to guide it to the center of the shift pattern, so you’ll have to pay attention when going around a bend and going from four to six. a three has to shift gears – while trying to keep its heavy body in check.

Is the Red Pig tricky to drive?

But the timing of the shifting isn’t all that important in the end, because the Red Pig has so much torque. That will have helped the drivers to last 24 hours in this machine. It runs at a maximum of 5,500 rpm, but it is not really necessary. The robust sound of the V8 is a pleasure that we rarely hear in cars these days; in addition, the transmission does not rattle like in most racing cars. Maybe that’s because of the deep-pile carpet.

None of this is surprising, but cornering could be a problem. Yet that is not so. He turns out to be a nice bus. It may be old and big, but it doesn’t tilt much and the steering is sensitive enough. You feel what the tires are up to. So if you turn the corners smoothly, you can keep things in check with the throttle. He drives very nice, but also has a certain peace and calm about him. We can imagine that 24 hours in this car should not have been a punishment.