One for the Ages

A storied Mercedes-Benz racing special and the men who built and drove it

Article Gary Horstkorta

Images Corsa Research • Culkin Collection • Horstkorta Collection •

Mike Koslosky • Allen Kuhn • Debbie Porter • San Francisco Region SCCA

During the early 1950s, sports car racing in the United States was in its infancy – an amateur sport for gentlemen. Race grids were packed with British, German, and Italian performance machinery. Soon, a few homegrown “specials” – racecars built by enthusiasts unable or unwilling to buy a factory-made vehicle – began to appear among the European exotics.

One of the most compelling accounts from this colorful period of motorsports weaves together the lives of remarkable men and a unique hand-built racing special, the Porter Mercedes-Benz SLS. It is a story of creativity, victory, loss, and rediscovery that spans generations and stretches all the way from prewar Kansas to the 21st-century’s famed Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, Goodwood Revival, and beyond.

Chuck Porter

Born in 1915, Chuck Porter grew up in the Kansas City area. Mechanically gifted, Porter was passionate about cars. In 1937, he moved to Southern California – a hotbed for hot rods, custom cars, and racing – where he continued to hone his metalworking and customization skills.

During the Second World War, Porter flew missions over Europe and Japan, was shot down, and spent time in a Japanese prison camp. With peace, he returned to California, and in 1950 opened Chuck Porter’s Body Shop in Hollywood.

His superb automotive craftsmanship soon brought Porter business success; his customized vehicles won awards at car shows and graced the covers of car magazines. The growing popularity of sports-car racing reignited Porter’s old interest in motorsports and his thoughts turned to building a racing special.

The car of tomorrow

The talk of car enthusiasts everywhere, the 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Coupe was a futuristic engineering marvel. The sleek gullwing sports car had a tube-frame chassis, independent suspension, dry-sump lubrication, fuel injection and a 3-liter straight-six engine. With a top speed of over 150 mph, it was the fastest production automobile of its day. 

As Gullwings began to arrive in the United States, they were snapped up by both Mercedes-Benz enthusiasts and amateur racers looking for a competitive edge. The elegant sports cars soon began to win races in the hands of such talented drivers as Paul O’Shea (see Artifact, page 6), Tony Settember and Dean Mears.

Around the time that Porter was thinking about building a racing special, a wealthy resident of Palm Springs, California, was eagerly awaiting the arrival of a factory-fresh 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL. The new vehicle was being driven to the excited owner’s home from a Los Angeles dealership.

On an open stretch of desert highway, the dealer’s driver – no doubt tempted by all the power under his right foot – opened up the throttle. At approximately 100 mph, he lost control; the car flipped and slid 1,200 feet on its roof. The lucky driver emerged unhurt; the unlucky car burst into flames. The exotic 300SL was a write-off. The crumpled carcass was hauled off to a junkyard and abandoned.

From scrap to track

At the same junkyard some six months later, Porter was looking for a donor vehicle for his special when he spotted some twisted debris. He recognized the charred hulk as a rare 300SL and bought it on the spot for $500.

Back at his shop, Porter removed the crushed body from the wreck, only to find that the space-frame chassis was badly bent, support tubes were broken and special alloy components had melted in the heat. He straightened the frame, replaced broken tubes, and salvaged and cleaned what he could from the ruin.

The walls of Porter’s workshop were hung with racing posters of that powerful and glamorous automotive sensation, the Mercedes-Benz 300SLR. Porter had keenly followed the SLR’s engineering and racing success. Inspired by his 300SLR posters, Porter designed a new body for his special. He then had his friend, Jack Sutton, one of Southern California’s premier metal shapers, create a streamlined all-aluminum shell. Meanwhile, he spent long hours after work slowly rebuilding the chassis, engine and other components. 

Off to the races

While it was being built, the car had everyone in Southern California racing circles buzzing. A steady flow of racing fans came by the shop to see the skeletal vehicle, many mistaking it for a near-mythic SLR. The herculean task of fabrication was finally completed in early 1956, having consumed nearly 5,000 hours of Porter’s labor.

The result was a lightweight (1750 pounds) and potent 240-horsepower racecar, ready to contest Southern California’s Cal Club D-Modified class. In honor of the inspirational 300SLR, Porter dubbed his new racecar the 300SLS.  The second S stood for “Scrap.”

All the publicity surrounding the striking race car heightened interest in the car’s racing debut on June 6, 1956, at the fairgrounds in Pomona. The SLS ran well, taking third in class and eighth overall. Porter entered three more events that year, running two races at each for a total of six races.  He chalked up two firsts and two seconds in class, great results for a car built basically of scrap.

The SLS’s acclaim continued to grow. The special was featured in glowing articles and on  the covers of magazines (see below, and StarryEyed, page 112). In March 1957, the car was repainted white for a starring role in the racing movie “The Devil’s Hairpin,” with Cornell Wilde and Jean Wallace.

Porter ran the SLS in 1957, notching up several top-10 finishes. He updated the special to stay competitive, and added a supercharger for more power. Still on the hunt for more performance, Porter turned to fellow driver and noted constructor Max Balchowsky, creator of the famed “Ol-Yeller” racing special; Balchowsky built Porter a Buick V-8 to replace the Mercedes-Benz engine. His appetite for power still not sated, Porter eventually swapped out the Buick for a lighter and even more powerful Corvette V-8 with Hillborn Fuel Injection.

With his body shop and custom-car business keeping him on the go, Porter put his driving helmet aside until August of 1958, when he ran the SLS at Santa Barbara, but did not finish (DNF). The one-off vehicle raced once more that year at Riverside with Johnny Parsons driving, again suffering a DNF. During 1959 and the first half of 1960, Porter loaned the car to several drivers for nine different races; the best result was a first overall at Riverside won by Billy Krause.

New owners

Later in 1960, Porter decided to sell the SLS to fellow racing enthusiast Richard Becker. Becker entered the hand- built racecar in three events for drivers Chuck Stevenson and previous Riverside winner Billy Krause. After Krause took a first in the SLS at Riverside in March 1961, Becker put the SLS up for sale.

Racing driver Mike Koslosky was a regular customer of engine builder Keith Black. Black’s shop maintained the SLS for Becker, a task performed by Louie Unser, one of the famous Unser brothers. Koslosky knew of the car’s recent races, including Krause’s big win at Riverside. He was interested in buying the vehicle and had a talk with Krause about the car. A short time later, Unser contacted Koslosky. 

“I bought the car through Louie and I never did talk to Richard Becker, the actual owner,” Koslosky recalled. “The car was in need of a complete overhaul so I spent the next four months updating the engine, rebuilding the front suspension, installed a Halibrand quick-change rear end and repainted the car from brown, back to Porter’s Goldenrod-yellow color.”

After the rebuild, the SLS ran three times in 1961 with Bob Edmison at the wheel. Edmison liked the SLS’s Corvette power and scored second overall at Pomona. “I could hit 150 mph down the straight at Pomona, which allowed me to pass several cars in the early stages of the race,” Edmison said of the SLS.

With Koslosky due to join the Marine Corps after the 1961 racing season, he placed a for-sale ad in Competition Press, ending the SLS’s Southern California racing career. It would soon reappear in the northern part of the Golden State.

A racer is born

Peter Culkin was a very successful businessman and motorsports enthusiast in Northern California. In the late 1950s, Culkin owned and managed a winning oval-track racing team, with his cars cared for by Bing’s Speed Shop in Santa Rosa. Culkin also enjoyed watching his friend Dan Herman race a Porsche 356.

In 1956, Culkin bought a new 300SL as a daily driver. Having seen both his team and his friend race, Culkin decided to try it himself. Why not use his 300SL?

In mid-1958, the car was prepped at Bing’s, and he went to racing school. Graduating with flying colors, Culkin soon placed 14th at the Nevada Road Races in Minden. Then at Palm Springs, he took first in class and third overall. A week later, he won at Laguna Seca. Peter Culkin was a quick learner, and his 300SL was reliable and fast. In 1959, Culkin earned enough Pacific Coast Championship points to finish third in C- Production class, a fine showing for his first full season. Still, no one could have foreseen what would happen next.

Championship years

Culkin’s ambitious goal for 1960 was to win the Pacific Coast C-Production class. His quest began at Stockton in March, where he won both his races. Then followed an almost unbelievable 22-race win streak, right through the final race at Laguna Seca in October. Culkin led his class by a wide margin over the second place driver, won the Pacific Coast Championship and both San Francisco Region and Cal Club (S. CA.) class championships. To say Culkin’s 300SL ran well would be an understatement: he had no DNFs all season. To top it all off, Culkin won his class in three drag race events and Best of Show at a concours. The 1960 season was one to remember.

In 1961, an unstoppable Culkin reeled off 10 wins in the first 11 races. He then won four of his last seven races, to repeat as Pacific Coast C-Production champion and Cal Club C-Production champion. During two magical seasons, he won 38 out of 44 races. Culkin’s house was overflowing with racing trophies.

Culkin and the SLS

Culkin, now ready for the challenge of a faster car and tougher competition, noticed the Porter Mercedes SLS Special advertised for sale in Competition Press. He bought the car, and took it to Bing’s Speed Shop, asking owner Ed Binggeli to coax more power out of the brawny 410-horsepower fuel-injected V-8 engine. Binggeli found about 50 more horses, and managed to reduce the car’s weight as well. Culkin was ready to go racing.

However, as the 1962 racing season unfolded, two things became clear: The car was very fast – topping 150 mph in the Oakland Airport race – but the brakes were simply not up to the task of slowing the beast down. The SLS ran in six races: The best showing was third, with three DNFs and two finishes outside the top 10 – not the results Culkin had hoped for.

The end of an era

After the disappointing 1962 season, Culkin worked diligently to improve the SLS’s reliability, but never had a chance to fully test the results. In March 1963, just before the first race of the new season, his wife was killed in a tragic auto accident. Suddenly a single parent responsible for a daughter and son, Culkin abandoned racing, stored the SLS and 300SL and focused on his family.

In 1969, Culkin sold the SLS – after removing the Corvette engine – to a San Francisco man who had vague plans to rebuild and race it. The SLS disappeared.

Culkin held on to his 300SL for a time before selling it locally. The car’s buyer kept the car hidden and never drove it. Over time, Culkin’s son, William, made many fruitless attempts to contact the reclusive owner, then heard an unverified rumor that the 300SL had been sold to a Japanese collector. The trail went cold.

Both of the Mercedes-Benz racecars owned by Culkin had simply vanished.

Search and rescue

Aficionados kept hunting for any trace of Porter’s renowned SLS; in the 1980s, former owner Mike Koslosky spent two years looking for the car. “I heard several different stories about what had happened to the car, including that it was destroyed in a fire or had been sold to someone in Japan,” he recalled. “With no concrete leads, I finally gave up.”

Then, late in the 1990s, Hans Kleissl, a well-known Mercedes-Benz restorer and owner of HK-Engineering GmbH, took up the search. In 1999 he unearthed the elusive vehicle, right where it had been hiding in plain sight for decades: San Francisco. The car was engineless, just as when Culkin had sold it in 1969. Kleissl purchased the SLS, and had it shipped back to his shop in Germany.There he refurbished the one-of-a-kind racecar to Porter’s 1956 specification, complete with a correct 3-liter straight-6 Mercedes-Benz engine.

The restored Porter Mercedes-Benz SLS special was reunited with Porter’s daughters at the 2003 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, raced at famed Goodwood Revival in 2003, 2004, and 2006, and has since appeared at other European events. Resplendent in all its original glory, the SLS honors the memory of the gifted man who built it, and the skilled competitors who raced it in an illustrious era.

The rolling chassis at Chuck Porter’s Hollywood shop, January 1956.

That summer, Porter sits in the beautiful SLS, a definitive example of the racing special.

The car was featured on period magazine covers. 

A race at Santa Barbara, August 1957: Porter leads a C-Type Jaguar.

Peter Culkin (with his daughter) owned an oval-track race team in the 1950s.

Culkin preps his 300SL for a club race, 1958.

Culkin leads a Porsche Speedster at Riverside, December 1959.

At Santa Barbara in 1960, Culkin’s Gullwing shows battle scars, both front and rear.

In November 1961, Culkin’s 300SL is featured on racing program cover for the Cotati Raceway, in Cotati, California.

The SLS on the cover of the race program, Cotati Raceway, 1962.

In 1962, the SLS in the inaugural race at the new Oakland Airport.

The Corvette V-8 engine.

Peter Culkin at Cotati, 1962.

Chuck Porter’s daughters in the restored SLS at the 2003 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.