A Parisian coachbuilder that built bodies for the most luxurious automotive brands in the first half of the 20th century has been revived, and the modern company’s first project is a tribute to the iconic Mercedes-Benz 300 SL.
The body manufacturer is Saoutchik, the original incarnation of which it was founded in 1906 by Jacques Saoutchikborn Iakov Savtchuk, and closed in 1955, just three years after Saoutchik’s son Pierre took over.
Modern Saoutchik was founded in 2016 in the Netherlands and specializes in automotive design and engineering, although it also dabbles in industrial design outside the automotive world. The company says it can handle complete builds, from design sketches to limited series production.
The company’s homage to the 300 SL is called the 300 GTC, and the “GT” in the name is a reference to the chassis taken from a Mercedes-Benz AMG GTspecifically the previous-generation GT Roadster. What gives the hint is the car’s interior layout, which matches the previous-generation AMG GT.
Reborn coachbuilder Saoutchik creates a modern 300 SL
The person responsible for the exterior design is Ugur Sahin Design, who wrote a tribute to the Ferrari F50. The 300 GTC shares many of its lines with the 300 SL and combines this with modern touches.
The body panels are all carbon fiber, supplied by Pogea Racing of Germany, and building the car from start to finish takes about 4,000 hours to completeaccording to Saoutchik.
No mechanical details were mentioned, but the car likely shares the donor AMG GT’s 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 engine and rear-mounted 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.
Saoutchik said he plans to limit production to just 15 units. The price has not yet been announced.