COOL RUNNINGS

A frozen lake in St Moritz and Mercedes Benz's own homage to the long lost Paul O'Shea 300 SLS racer? Sounds like the perfect job for Massimo Delbo

- Massimo Delbo

The call came unexpectedly from Octane's associate editor Glen Waddington. As you are going to be judging at The ICE, would you like to drive the Mercedes 300 SLS on the frozen lake while you're in St Moritz?' It was very short notice. And it took me no more than a nanosecond to accept, without even thinking about potential consequences. The first Mercedes I drove was a Stroke-8 220D, and the first I owned was a W123 200D. Humble cars both, but I've also been lucky enough to drive many a kilometre in 300 SL Gullwings and Roadsters - though never on snow. And certainly not along the frozen surface of a body of water!

The car I'll be driving in St Moritz is no ordinary 300 SL. No, this is Mercedes-Benz's own perfect re-creation of the long-lost 300 SLS, based on a 1958 Roadster. The original was the final result of the marketing vision of Max Hoffman and the racing passion of Paul O'Shea. At the end of 1952, after a successful season with the radical W194 300 SL, Mercedes-Benz withdrew from competition while it developed its next racing car. Alfred Neubauer, architect of the works racing department, wanted a car that could win at the highest levels, both in sports racing and Formula 1. From that vision came the 300 SLR, and history tells us that Neubauer was right, even if the project had left the company without a steed for a couple of seasons.