French Coachbuilder Returns After 70 Years with a Salute to the 300 SL

A forgotten French firm called Saoutchik, which used to build custom bodies for a wide variety of marques from Austin to Voisin, is back with a re-bodied Benz modelled on the 300 SL.

In his pre-war heyday Russian emigré Iakov Saoutchik was one of France’s most renowned coachbuilders, with his four-door open-topped Art Deco “transformables” being a particular speciality.

Saoutchik’s successes included Bentleys and Bugattis, Cadillacs, Duesenbergs, Hispano-Suizas, Isotta Fraschinis, Jaguars, Maybachs, Renaults and Rolls-Royces, but by 1955 the business was no longer viable.

For its 2024 revival the Saoutchik name will appear on a current model Mercedes-AMG SL63 that’s been reimagined to resemble a classic 300 SL. Early images show the Saoutchik 300 GTC as wearing a curvaceous carbon fiber body that appears longer in the tail, with sculpted fenders evoking its 1950s inspiration. Other highlights include retro round headlamps and a slimline rear rear light signature, together with some stunning lightly-dished chrome wheels and almost jewel-like chrome side vents.

The design work has been done by the Netherlands’ Ugur Sahin Design, while the carbon fiber fabrication is to be handled by Pogea Racing in Germany.

With power from AMG’s 577-hp four-liter twin-turbo V-8 the Saoutchik could even eclipse the performance of the factory-built SL, thanks to that lighter carbon body.

Production is set to be extremely limited and the price probably won’t fall too far short of a million dollars. For that money you could buy four of Mercedes’ own Maybach SL680 Monogram editions, but no matter how you spec them, they’ll never stand out as much as the Saoutchik.