Dream garage. Name your top 3 cars. Money is no object. Now everyone’s choices would be wildly different, I think I would have a Ferrari F40, Mclaren F1, and a Jaguar E-type or Delorean. One car which may feature in some people’s lottery list of dream cars is a classic Mercedes Benz 300 SL Gullwing. But if you are reading this and are lucky enough to have a spare £1.1 million to £1.3 million then follow the link to the Gooding and Company auction here and take part in the bidding taking place on the 3rd of September. If you, like me, don’t quite have a few million in spare change then read on to find out more about the history and provenance of this car, or check out the website for some other amazing cars going up for auction. Thanks to Larry D. for this tip!
Not only is this million-pound plus car available for auction, but the auction is being held in the prestigious Hampton Court Gardens outside London. However, back to today’s car – this is of course numbers matching car and has undergone restoration in its past. It also comes with its original luggage set, manuals, and tool roll. The car has the 2.9l inline 6 engine giving 226hp, which is not a lot, but this is a car for cruising rather than downright speed.
With auctions like this, they come with some really thorough and often interesting history, and this is no exception. The Gullwing started off its life in California before being sold in Minnesota where it covered a huge 111,000 miles in two decades of use. After this, it went into restoration after damaging the gearbox and passed through several owners’ hands due to the high costs of restoration but ended up back in Germany for its restoration. Eventually, it ended up back in the US where it spent the next 20 years before being reimported back to Europe in 2021 and where it eventually goes up for auction in a few days’ time.
Few of us will likely be able to afford this, but it’s good to see a classic car of this caliber has a lot of miles – meaning the car was used as it should be rather than stored in a collection and driven only a few times a year. However, with the costs of these rising, it’s likely destined to a life in a collection without too much use for fear of expensive damage. If you had an unlimited budget, would you rack up the miles again in this, or leave it gleaming in the garage of your 23-bed mansion?
I would buy it in a heartbeat if I had unlimited funds available. It’s n SLR but it’s the next best thing IMHO.
I would love to buy it, but once inside I would be trapped for life!
I beg to differ on the statement that this car was just built for cruising and not speed. When I worked at the Alfa/Saab dealer the owner had one at one time. He told me stories of him walking away from C2 Corvettes on the highway. The Corvette would get him out of the hole but not on the long stretch. This car was so advanced for its time. Direct mechanical fuel injection. Mitsubishi would be the next car maker to offer direct injection in a gasoline engine which we now see as the norm. Car is truly a work or art.
If I was up to my gills in money I’d buy this to look at and one of beautiful clones to drive.
I would buy and convert to electric so I could drive it continuously thru my old age.
An icon? Shure. But im more tempted to the roadster pendant.
The gullwing was, as we know, the “derivate” from the earlier
successful car in race competition, the Uhlenhaut coupe.
The false legend states this car with its doors as gullwing
but the passengers opened them for better cooling.
The ventilation system is not the very best. It can get very
hot under the sphere.
I remember as this gullwings are for sale for 30’000 DM
in bad condition. Good examples usually went under the table.
My Dad drove one for an afternoon when his 356 was at Kroll’s garage being tuned.His friend Al had one and let him use it for the afternoon.This was in the late 60’s before things went value wild.
My mothers cousin owned a Mercedes dealership on long Island and brought one of these to the local fire company picnic.. What a car. His wife was of big stature and hated it because she had to have help to get out of it.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but this sure was a dream car for many. I doubt many actually knew anything about the car, just the entry method was so unusual. This was as close as I ever got,,,NINETY-NINE BUCKS,,good grief.
https://www.modelroundup.com/product-p/amt-2065.htm
When I was a wee bud, John Bond and his wife Elaine lived down the street and he would bring home various cars from R and T and have them for the weekend week etc. I remember him driving around in a Car almost identical with the wings up as it got a tad hot inside the cabin in the summer. Love the car though- nice wide sills – he had some great ones a facel vega , ferraris, lambos, alfas, Jags Porsches evidently it was fun to be an owner of a car mag
I love them as well but I have had a chance to work on them and they are difficult to work on and have some very surprising traps the worst of which is in the body. The eyebrows over the wheel wells are not stamped in but are Leaded on and as such have absolutely no rust protection. The one I worked on had rust eating up the inside of each of the eyebrows and from what I have heard from others that is not uncommon.
The doors are a pain to fit properly. Not as bad as a Jag E-Type hood but close. In an accident I would suggest a breaker rod to smash out the windshield because if that body gets bent you are not leaving that car.
I like them and I think they are a wonderful ride but there are a number of others that I have owned and or driven that I would much rather have. Including my Maserati Sebring that I had to sell. Also a six and except for a water pump from hell and perhaps the worst head gasket design in the world (it works but Got you have to be careful fitting it). Buy a few spares in case you mess up the first one. They are much more comfortable to drive and offer similar performance.
All that being said the Gullwing is most certainly automotive art at it’s finest and for its day a tour de force.
A couple of years ago there were TWO of these parked on the Plaza in Sonoma. The owners laughed when I passed in my 56 356 knowing I would be back.”I know what you want to see,” they laughed as I ran up. One was concours, the other was hard driven, no bumpers and loaded with that “:P” word. These gents were on a driving tour up to Oregon..rain or shine.Now that is how these spectacular cars should be used and seen..and that’s what I do with my 356. I wished them Bon Voyage..I bet they had the time of their lives!
In my 60 plus years of loving cars and getting to own many, but mostly buying and selling and working on and building others, it has been a great ride, and it started when I was a teenager. I had a brief in counter with a Gull Wing. It was probably close to 25 years ago and I was negotiating the deal for a customer. As it turned out ,as many car deals do, ,it went south ,at the last minute. I was very disappointed ,because I felt like I had really made the big time, to be part of the process to get a 300 S L. At the time it was a big deal ,but I didn’t realize how big. I wish I could remember the exact number, I know it wasn’t six figures. Now I can only tell stories about the one that got away. If that doesn’t make you feel old, I don’t know what does.
Sorry, but I won’t bid unless the original matching luggage that came with the car is included. There is a great image of at least 10 cars lined up at the factory with the luggage behind them waiting for the new owners to take delivery.
They might be low on their estimate.
Back in the 70’s I traveled Montana for work. A guy àt a gas station in a small town had one parked behind the station. I asked him if it was for sale and he answered nope, that is my retirement. He was probably thinking 10k or so, which I could not afford anyway then, but I sure would have looked good in it.
My friends father was an amazing craftsman. He had hand built an aluminum stream liner in 1939 and was the “expert”. One day he got a gull wing for repair. You all know the story. Owner comes home. Opens the doors. Gets the groceries and heads into the house which had a slanted driveway into the garage. Enough said.
In late ’79 a good American friend of mine was in town to visit. He had just got out of the U.S. Army in West Germany, having served for three years. We went for supper to a restaurant and on the way back we passed by Milo’s European Cars, in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. We spent quite a while staring at and studying THREE silver Gullwings, parked together side by side in the showroom. They all had their matching luggage, but the one in the middle had a difference. Instead of the conventional Mercedes wheel covers, it had centre-lock Dunlop magnesium wheels with chrome knock-offs, suggesting it may have had a racing history. While the memory of that trio of 300 SLs was memorable, it was a bitter-sweet experience, as that was the last time I ever saw my good friend Paul. Like quite a few U.S. servicemen who get out of the army, he committed suicide shortly afterwards. Both of us gawking at those Gullwings is my last memory of him.
That’s a very sad story Aurie. At least you have good memories of your friend. Rest in Peace, Paul.
Thank you Ken. Very kind of you.
Built a couple of those in my youth Howard, but the Italeri kit is much better. I agree it’s a world gone mad when plastic model car kit sales for almost a hundred bucks
and THIS one, writer DIDN’T ask “will you be at the auction?”
“Yes”, I can finally answer (rather than all those ‘no’s). To
watch of course…
As said Elliot, 1 of my top 3 or 4 (I think 6th gen F250, 4 WD
short bed, step side w/2 18 inch race stripes is 1st B4 this one)
aahahahaa
Tied w/the same era beemer? the 507… (2 in second place? uh-huh)