It was pure necessity
Without a doubt, one of the coolest features on a car ever is the gullwing gullwing doors on the 1950s Mercedes 300 SL. Other brands such as Gumpert, Pagani, DMC and even Mazda followed in the decades that followed with their own gullwing doors as a beautiful design feature. The funny thing is that the gull-wing doors on the 300 SL were not a style element, but a necessity.
The reason for the doors is in the name. The letters ‘SL’ stand for super light, or just Super Light in Dutch. A large weight saving could be realized by means of the spaceframe chassis. The car had to be so light because it was originally a race car – and a rather successful one. However, the sides of the tubular frame were so high that a normal door would be very short. To create more entry space, Mercedes devised the gullwing doors.
The doors weren’t perfect. It seems they were leaking quite a bit through the hinges. And if the car ended up on its head, you were locked up. That’s why the modern Mercedes SLS AMG has explosive charges at the hinges – if the car lands upside down, the doors of the car shoot off. With the SLS, the doors were also mainly a cool style element.
The Roadster had no gullwing doors
The Mercedes 300 SL Roadster lost the gullwing doors for the simple reason that there was no roof to attach them to. For the Roadster, engineers set out to modify the chassis, allowing for a lower sill. Getting in is a lot easier with the Roadster than with the Coupé.
The new Mercedes SL
Mercedes is working on a new SL as a successor to the AMG GT Roadster. For the time being, nothing is known about a coupé version of the new Mercedes-AMG SL, so keep in mind that the characteristic gull-wing doors will not return for the time being.