The suspension on the 300SL is unique in the Corgi range. They retain the tin bottom and instead of lateral wires or plastic extensions from interior or bright trim as used on some later models, this one has a butterfly spring for each axle mounted cross-way. It can be stiff and prone to rusting up which is what had happened here. After doing a bottom-off restoration on a 303s open sports I looked again at this model and found, contrary to my initial thoughts that it actually does have suspension.

The Mercedes 300 casting is found in a confusing array of versions, both open sports and hardtop. The first hardtop was released in 1959 a year after the open sports car. Those first releases are yellow with a red top or yellow all over and do not have suspension. In 1961 it was given springs and two new finishes, vacuum plated in silver or gold with a red top or white with a red top. In 1964 it was given spoked hubs before being deleted in the same year.

The ones to look out for are the all-yellow car without suspension and the white/red car with suspension as both are hard to find and priced a lot more highly than the other versions.