Back in 2014, Mercedes wowed the world with the introduction of the AMG GT, a car which seemed to redefine on-road racing-pedigree perfection. Practically every review on the internet gave the 21st-century muscle car their seal of approval, encouraging buyers with the cash to splash out.

But the GT, though a beautiful car, is by no means the first time that the company has had people salivating over its inventions. No, that black magic began nearly seventy years ago with the introduction of what bosses at the company called the “super-light” or SL.

The 300 SL Race

The story of the Mercedes SL began in 1951 when plans were drawn up for a new race car. The company believed that it had to have one because its rivals were doing similar things. Nearly a decade after the war, wealth was beginning to return, and the new economy of the era was creating a class of people who wanted a little automotive luxury.

Unlike the fourth generation SL which weighs over 4500 pounds, the original 300SL had a chassis weight of just 120 pounds. Designed by the then head of Mercedes passenger cars, Rudi Uhlenhaut, the car was constructed of aluminum and magnesium, high-tech and extremely light materials for the time.

What made the SL so exciting, though, was the inclusion of the giant engine, giving the car one of the highest performance to weight ratios of any vehicle available in the world. The car had over 170 BHP, as was, for the time, a genuinely race-worthy machine.

In 1952, the 300SL began its racing career. In just its first year, it scored a podium finish in the Mille Miglia and won the Prix de Berne and Le Mans 24 hours. What the engineers had achieved was remarkable, and it cemented the manufacturer’s place among the racing giants. Mercedes soon became synonymous with both luxury and performance and played a large part in creating an image of Germany and an efficient and productive place.

The Road Legal 300 SL

Of course, after the incredible successes on world-famous racecourses, there was a demand from the public for a road-legal version. At the New York motor show in 1954, Mercedes revealed the new version of the car to the paying public to raucous applause.

The German automaker introduced two version of the vehicle. One was the famous Gullwing Coupe – the version of the car with the iconic vertically-opening doors. And the other was the 190SL, a roadster.

What was so great about the Coupe was that it came with the same 3.0-liter engine that had won so many races at Le Mans and other circuits. Those who were lucky enough to own one could enjoy the same incredible performance as contemporary racing drivers on the road – one of the few times that that has happened in history.

The roadster wasn’t perhaps as exciting as the Coupe, having only 105 BHP, but it was open-top, and still looked incredible in its own right.

The SL W113 And R107

In the 1960s, Mercedes decided to redesign the iconic SL. The new car, dubbed the SL W113, didn’t have the same beautiful front grille or gullwing doors. Instead, it looked like more utilitarian and had less charisma. Mercedes reduced the size of the engine from 3.0 liters to 2.8 on the largest model, and 2.3 liters on the smallest. Suddenly, what had been an iconic car lost a lot of its charm.

In a sense, the Sl W113 was a smart move, even if the car doesn’t inspire us as much today. In the W113, Mercedes laid the groundwork for some of the most successful models of the SL in history. By removing some of the complexity and racing pedigree from the car, Mercedes were able to churn out more of them from their factories and begin to generate a profit.

By the time the 1970s came around, the Mercedes SL was becoming less of a niche race car, and something desirable to drive on the road. It had also become a lot more sensible. The R107 version, released in 1971, came with all sorts of features missing on earlier versions of the car. It had crumple zones, reinforced A-bars, and switches that you could actually press. It could even have passed an emission test.

The R107 was also a lot more potent than it’s predecessors, and the first SL to come with a full V8 engine, rather than a straight six. The 1971 version of the car stayed in production for a whopping 18 years, a testament to the quality of the vehicle, and its suitability for the market. Just under a quarter of a million were sold – an incredible number given the economic turbulence of the 1970s and the fact that it was still a luxury car.

The 500SL, the top of the range version, came in at a whopping 240 BHP. Emissions controls in the US prevented this version from being sold, so Mercedes developed the 560SL for these markets in particular.

The SL R129 And R230

From the 1980s until the 2000s, Mercedes introduced a raft of improvements to their vehicles. Safety went up a notch, as did comfort and utility. Active suspension from AMG adorned the R230, helping to create a more supple ride.

But it is in this era that the car unfortunately departed from its original DNA. The SL was always supposed to be a super light race vehicle. But with the addition of so many new features, gadgets and technologies, the weight ballooned. No longer could the car corner with the same swiftness as it had in the past. It had turned into a luxury grand tourer, almost unrecognizable from its earlier interactions.

The SL is now one of Mercedes least appealing cars and sells well below the levels that the manufacturer would like. That’s why the new GT is so important: it is recreating some of that old racing magic and making us love Mercedes once again.