Saoutchik 300 GTC is a Mercedes SL with plenty of chintz
New Saoutchik 300 GTC sees French coachbuilder return after 70 years
This may well look like the result of an AI image generator being fed words like ‘retro’, ‘Mercedes’ and ‘garish’, but this is a real car - the Saoutchik 300 GTC. Details on the eye-catching creation are slim, although the company says it will be produced in “low volume for extremely discerning clients”.
You might not have heard of the name, but Saoutchik was a renowned coachbuilder in the 1920s and ‘30s, having been founded in 1906 by Jacques Saoutchik. While the company worked with a variety of different chassis (from Jaguar, Bentley, Cadillac and even Duesenberg), Saoutchik became known for creating bodies for Mercedes-Benz, such as the 680 S Torpedo and 500 K Cabriolet.
Despite the coachbuilder going bankrupt in 1955, the link to Mercedes has been resurrected with the 300 GTC. While it hasn’t been confirmed by Saoutchik, we suspect the car uses the underpinnings of the current-generation SL, although as you can see, the body has been heavily revised.
Saoutchik says the 300 GTC Roadster is handcrafted and retains “all the spirit and personality of the iconic Mercedes 300 SL”. There are plenty of classic elements, such as the wide, low-set grille, round headlights, flared wheelarches, the 12 vents behind the front wheels, and the small rear lights. The chromed wheels are 22 inches in size.
The interior of the car is also on show, but there are several key changes from the SL; in fact, it looks like Saoutchik has been able to pick and choose elements from a variety of Mercedes models. The driver’s display appears to be from the previous-generation SL, the dash layout is similar to the current model’s, aside from some new air vents, and the touchscreen looks like the 10.2-inch unit found in the old C-Class. The roof design has also been changed from the current SL, with no rear three-quarter window.
There’s no charging flap visible on the rear (where it’s usually found on the SL E Performance plug-in hybrid), so we expect the 300 GTC will get the hottest version of the SL’s 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 with 577bhp.
Just 15 examples of the Saoutchik 300 GTC will be made, and while its price hasn’t been announced, we expect it will easily eclipse the most expensive Mercedes SL 63 S E Performance Ultimate, which costs £198,345.
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