Former Mercedes design boss reveals secret Red Pig concept

Former Mercedes-Benz design boss Gorden Wagener has revealed his reimagining of the brand’s famed ‘Red Pig’ 300 SEL.

Described by Wagener as an “unseen show car”, the concept brings the race car up to date with several of Mercedes’ current design cues, which he introduced before his departure last month.

For example, the historic racer’s stacked headlights are replaced by three-pointed stars, and it wears a prominent chrome version of the ‘Iconic Grille’ introduced with the Vision Iconic concept and the new GLC. 

It also wears a modern front splitter, side skirts and rear diffuser, while a number of round running lights are placed around its front and rear ends.

The blocky roofline and rear end of the original 300 SEL are replaced with a curvier design more closely resembling that car’s ancestor, the ‘Ponton’ saloon produced through the 1950s.

The new car’s livery, meanwhile, references that worn by the ‘Rote Sau’ at the 1971 Spa 24 Hours but with significantly fewer sponsors, trading real brand names for mock equivalents. For example, Castrol is replaced with Carlsbad, the Californian city that hosts Mercedes’ advanced design studio.

The new concept is unlikely to point at any concrete plans for retro-modern road cars from Mercedes-Benz, but – together with the Vision Iconic concept – it reveals an appetite among its designers to pay reverence to its heritage as it looks to better differentiate its cars from a wave of new Chinese rivals. 

Wagener previously told Autocar the brand’s new design language will emphasise “respect”, so as not to fall into the “sea of sameness”.

“You deserve some respect if you buy a Mercedes," he said. “You’ve made something out of yourself and you’ve been successful in life, so you deserve some respect for that.”

Wagener left Mercedes last month, ending a 28-year career with the German giant. Bastian Baudy, previously the head of design for Mercedes-AMG, was named as his successor.