Autocult is releasing for Avenue the 1/43rd scale model of the prototype Mercedes-Benz 190SL (1954), a car that was planned for Daimler-Benz's most important market, the USA, and was to become very successful, just as the 300SL Gullwing had planned and had already become very successful. The impetus for both cars came from the Austrian-American car importer Max Hoffman from New-York, but more about that later. Avenue’s 1:43 model represents the race version which was shown in the first advertising pamphlets issued about the 190SL.
This race version was obtained by simply removing the windshield, the wipers, the bumpers, and the soft-top altogether, and replacing the doors with lightweight “hollowed-out” windowless ones, and with the addition of a small semi-circular Plexiglas-disk in front of the steering-wheel, you had yourself a nice little…racer!
If you really wanted to look the part, you could you participate in races in the hope of decent results.
Apart from the 1955 Macau and Casablanca races, the car did not take part in any major races, especially as it did not receive approval from the FIA (the International Motor Sport Federation) for the GT category.
As a result, the car no longer received any racing support from the factory and slowly disappeared from the brochures.
Total production of this so-called racing version of the 190 SL reached thus just 17 units, and production ceased in March 1956.
By the way, Daimler-Benz was considering producing a more powerful and improved racing version of the 190SL, designated the 220SL. This meant essentially the development of a new more powerful engine. After the construction of 2 prototypes and a lot of back and forth, the idea of a 220SL had to be dropped, since also changes to the chassis, and to the body would have become necessary, and with the simultaneous production start of the new W111 series, production problems would have happened. So, the new engine found its use in the successor model, the Mercedes 230SL.
Maximilian Edwin Hoffmann - who later Americanized his name to Max Hoffman – was born in Vienna in 1904, showed a strong interest in all things motorized already in his youth, and as an amateur racer took part early and successfully in motorcycle and car races.
Among other things, he won on a "Grofri", the name of the French Amilcar built under license in Austria. Soon thereafter, he became the representative of Amilcar in Vienna. In the early thirties, around 1934, he founded with a partner the "Automobilhandel Hoffmann & Huppert", and became Europe's first importer of Swedish Volvo automobiles.
As a result of Austria's annexation by the Third Reich in 1938, Hoffmann relocated to Paris, but eventually left France for the United States at the end of 1939 aboard a Portuguese ship that dropped anchor in New-York on December 7, 1941.
In the U.S., he quickly discovered that the time was not right for a new automobile dealership, and that the market had virtually disappeared, due to the war. In addition, nobody in America was interested in European cars (whose manufacturers were no longer able to produce civilian cars anyway) and certainly not at all in German cars.
Max Hoffmann made his way through the war with the production and distribution of costume jewelry. Nevertheless, he was so successful as a costume jewellery maker, that in 1947 he was able to found the "Max Hoffman Motor Car Company" with the money earned from the jewelry, and to open a showroom at 430, Park Avenue, in New-York's Manhattan district. Park Avenue was, and still is located in one of the chicest and most affluent neighborhoods in the city.
The first and only display piece in the New-York show window was a French Delahaye coupe with bodywork by Figoni and Falaschi.
Shortly thereafter (1948) he opened a second dealership, on the other side of the country, in Beverly Hills, CA.
Anyone who has carefully read the preceding paragraph may have noticed that with the founding of the "Max Hoffman Motor Car Company", the second "n" in "Hoffmann" had also disappeared, and Max Hoffmann thus had Americanized his name.
All beginnings are difficult, but not for long. Max Hoffman was an excellent salesman, and above all he had an incredible sense of what the market demanded, besides he loved luxurious and fast cars. He imported Jaguar, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Rover, and Morgan automobiles.
Thus, as early as 1948, his company became the official dealership of Jaguar in the USA.
On the occasion of his visit to the 1950 'Salon de l'Automobile' in Paris, Hoffman met Ferdinand (Ferry) Porsche, and ordered fifteen Porsche 356 sports cars.
Thanks to his victorious participation in races in Florida in December 1951, the newspaper headlines read: "The most outstanding performance was made by Max Hoffman, driving a Porsche".
This, of course, did not fail to influence sales figures, and by 1952 the U.S. market accounted for 21% of Porsche's sales.
Hoffman was also in 1952 the first to import Mercedes-Benz automobiles, with a total of 253 sold that year.
(<- Ferry Porsche + Max Hoffman in NYC – 1950. Picture: Porsche AG & Wright Studies)
In the meantime, Hoffman had commissioned famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design and build a modernization of its 330-square-foot Park Avenue showroom, which would become Jaguar's flagship display-room and store.
The showroom, completed in 1955, featured a revolving display turntable on which 3, perhaps four cars could be displayed. From the rear, a wraparound ramp led to a cantilevered balcony from which one could look at the cars.
In the center of the turntable, Wright had planned a circular planter with a giant Jaguar radiator figure in its centre. With the added use of mirrors, the redesigned showroom appeared larger than it was.
Part of the settlement of Frank Lloyd Wright's fee consisted of two Mercedes cars: a 300 sedan and a 300SL gullwing.
In the meantime, of course, Hoffman had become aware of the new 300SL's victories, both in the 1952 Targa Florio race, and in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race of the same year.
The taste of post-war American buyers was for technically modern European cars that were at once powerful, open, shapely and two-seater. This was also what Max Hoffman heard from his various dealers across in the country. The 300SL was just the right car at the right time, also to polish up the image of Mercedes-Benz, because in the USA, Mercedes was considered as a qualitatively good, reliable vehicle, but a bit staid, old-fashioned.
And so, in 1952, the "Max Hoffman Motor Company" became the first importer of Mercedes-Benz cars. Almost immediately he proposed to the Mercedes board, as a way to improve the Mercedes-Benz image, to build a "street version" of the 300SL (W194) Gullwing, and when the Mercedes board rejected his request, he ordered 1000 cars off the cuff, and prepaid them on the spot...At least that's the way the legend goes. And yes, he was also a bit of a self-promoter....
In any case, it is certain that it was he who suggested the further development of the 300SL Gullwing into a roadster. That was in 1954, but it still took another 3 years of waiting, until for the first ones of these roadsters were to leave the factory in 1957.
However, not every American could afford such a car as the Gullwing, nor was it really particularly practical.
So, Max Hoffman proposed a car, which became the 190SL (W121): it had most of the attributes that the U.S. American customer was looking for, it was modern, it was beautiful, it was reasonably fast, it was a Mercedes, it strongly resembled the 300SL, and it was a two-seat open sports car, but above all it was also much more affordable. The 190SL's development costs were partly shared by Max Hoffman.
Both cars were, as stated before, developed mainly for the American clientele, and both were accordingly not first presented in Europe, but celebrated their debut with two prototypes, mostly to test the market, in February 1954 at the "International Motor Sports Show” in New York.
Max Hoffman had once again had the right intuition: both cars became icons of the Fifties. More than 80% of the total production of 1858 units of the 300SL Gullwing, i.e., more than 1400 cars, were sold to the USA, and the image of Mercedes Benz as a producer of good but bland, boring, luxury sedans changed to that of a modern company capable of producing high-performance sports cars.
The relationship with Jaguar, however, was gone. As well, Jaguar and Mercedes were competitors on the racetrack in the early 1950s. Where one was, the other could not be, consequently Jaguar backed out of their contract with Max Hoffman, took their huge radiator jaguar-figure with them, paid Hoffman royalties as compensation for a few years, and opened their own showroom.
The Park Avenue showroom, originally designed for Jaguar, now became the New-York Mercedes-Benz showcase.
Max Hoffman's association with Mercedes-Benz continued until April 11, 1957. In the meantime, sales of Mercedes cars had increased from 253 cars in 1952 to 6048 in 1957, in view of which Mercedes was thinking of restructuring its distribution.
A contract was signed with Studebaker-Packard. Mercedes saw this, given the 2500 Studebaker dealers, as a significant expansion of its dealer distribution network in the U.S. For its part, the financially struggling Studebaker-Packard company saw the agreement as a necessity, both because of the revenue Mercedes-Benz could contribute to the company's bottom line and as another car the Studebaker dealer network could sell in the event the company was no longer able to build its own cars.
Mercedes parted ways with Max Hoffman, and although he received compensation and had no power over the termination of the contract, Hoffman – as he said once - deeply regretted Mercedes' decision.
The sales success of the 300SL Roadster is sometimes attributed to the efforts of Max Hoffman, but this too belongs to legend: the first 300SL roadsters were delivered to Studebaker starting in May 1957, by the new 'Daimler-Benz of America'.
Sources: Automobile Magazine, Motoring Weekly, Mercedes-Benz AG, Wright Studies, Motor Klassik, International 190SL Group - USA, Douglas M. Steiner, Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Architectural Forum Magazine, Wikipedia. Photo page 14: L: Rudolf Uhlenhaupt , R: Fritz Nallinger
The 190SL (W121) prototype.
Basically, the appearance of the prototype and the production 190SL is identical, but on closer inspection, the radiator grille and the air intake on the hood of the prototype and, on the production car, the creases - which often are rather accurately called the "eyebrows" - above the rear wheel arches are the only distinguishing features. The front bumper, the position of the fuel filler, and other small details make the car look different. And, although in general it is already quite elegant, I dare say that the prototype looks plumper than the production car.
To my mind, thanks to the interventions of the designers of that time, the production 190SL became far more beautiful and elegant than the prototype.
A total of 25,881 of the 190SL were made from 1955 to the end of production in 1963. (BTW: If someone wants to bequeath me one- as restored as possible - I gratefully accept the offer!)
On Model Car Collecting
A Story by Brandes Elitch
(June 28th / 28. Juni 2021)
The following article consists of excerpts from a post by Brandes Elitch about model car collecting. I thank Peter Vack and Bill Noon of ‘Veloce Today’ (San Diego, CA) for their kind permission to reprint these excerpts in the MBMC newsletter.
“There are some people that if they don’t know, you can’t tell them” – Louis Armstrong.
Why would a person in their fifties, sixties, or seventies still collect model cars, spending perhaps hundreds of dollars on an individual model? Well, if I have to explain it to you, this quote from Louis Armstrong is right on the money.
Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? Collecting is so widespread that there is even a “psychology of collecting,” which says that “this allows people to relive their childhood and connect themselves to a period or time that they feel strongly about.” Collecting “helps people to relieve insecurity and anxiety about losing a part of themselves and to keep the past to continue to exist in the present.” Someone once said that collectors have “a genetic defect.” These comments are beyond psychobabble – they are nonsense, of course.
As soon as I got a bicycle, which was I was about ten, my purpose in life was visit all the car dealers in town (South Orange, NJ), and we had every marque, even Hudson, Nash, and Studebaker Packard, and collect brochures. Then it was off to visit a small stationary store next to Seton Hall University that had a display case with Dinky Toys. It was an exciting event when they added Corgi Toys, but then, around 1958 they rocked my world with the introduction of the AMT “Three-In-One” models.
I continued to collect model cars throughout my life and never stopped, so this wasn’t about “reliving childhood,” – it was a continuum.
About 25 years ago psychoanalyst Werner Muensterberger wrote a book titled, Collecting, An Unruly Passion. He wrote that “acquisition acts as both a palliative and a stimulant.” This is a big generalization, but it might be true in some cases, even mine perhaps.
Writer and auction expert James Halperin talks about this in his article “Why Do We Collect Things?”
- Collecting is a basic human instinct, a survival advantage amplified by eons - If you collect, your first priority should be to develop an honest self-awareness of your personal ambitions. This might include such things as knowledge and learning, appreciation of beauty, pride of ownership, a connection to history, etc.
My response to this is: “Who has time to develop an “honest self-awareness” of their personal ambitions?”
Give me a break!
In my case, not much has changed in my motivation during the last sixty years. But the model car world has changed. While the AMT/SMP/JoHan 1/25 plastic models were revolutionary when they appeared in the late fifties, today there are models of extraordinary quality, beauty, and complexity, of cars so obscure that you would never have guessed that there would be a model of them.
Take for instance a model I bought last month: a 1/18 scale model of a car transporter, built by the French transport firm Tissier, based on a Citroen DS. I have only seen one at Retromobile, and there are certainly none in the U.S. But I had to have it: I bought my DS in 1969 and I still have it, along with all the Citroen models I have bought in the intervening five decades. Of course, I immediately put a Solido 1/18 model of a DS on the transporter as soon as I opened the box. It was exhilarating! While we have rules here (i.e. no car parts in the bedroom) the transporter is on display in the dining room.
I want to address the elephant in the room, namely what happens to our collection when we need to downsize or do the ultimate downsizing. This month (June) there is an interesting letter in Hemmings on this subject, by David Allin. He says, in part,
…the International Model Car Builder’s Museum in Salt Lake City might be interested – you can email them at msgsl@xmission.com, and include “museum” in the subject line. The only other museums that might be interested would be those with extra space, and those are few and far between. You could donate them to a local model car club or chapter of the International Plastic Modelers Society…The reality is that building and collecting model cars is a hobby for mostly men of advancing age, and there are fewer and fewer of us as time goes by… Unbuilt kits are a different story, as these are easier to sell and faster to ship. They are welcomed by modeling clubs.”
Well, I don’t want to think about this right now. I need to look at some more models for sale.
About the author: Auto industry payments expert Brandes Elitch writes monthly articles and for VeloceToday , The Green Sheet, , and the CrossCheck blog. He is the director of Partner Acquisition at CrossCheck, a certified cash manager, and accredited ACH Professional. He garnered a MBA from New York University and a JD from Santa Clara University….and: he collects scale models!
(All model car pictures courtesy of Vectis UK)
(с)BERND D. LOOSEN