Below, you will see one of the 1,400 Gullwing coupes built between 1954 and 1957. Its listed for sale at Bring A Trailer. The current bid as of this writing is $1,350,000. It will probably go for more than that when the auction ends next Tuesday. The restoration appears flawless — this effectively is a brand new (albeit 1956) car.
With a top speed of 163 mph, this was the fastest production car of its time.
I saw my first 300SL Gullwing in person decades ago on the North Fork of Long Island, back when the wineries there were still a well-kept secret. It was early 1990s, and the car was valuable, but not insanely 7-figures expensive.
I recall being struck the first moment I saw it how devastatingly beautiful the car was in person. This judgement was before the 300SL was blessed by the auto collector literati (at least as far as I knew). The dashboard is spectacular, the gull wing doors when open were startling, and the lines and body proportions were just right. She is a perfect 10, simply gorgeous from every angle. I recall it was parked next to a Porsche 911, and that was the very moment I uttered aloud the blasphemy: “Damn, that 911 is one butt ugly car.” It’s an unfair comparison because anything pales next to the MB 300SL in its lines and innovative exterior.
I never recovered from that moment. To this day, the only Porsche I have ever owned was a Macan S. That Gullwing totally ruined the 911 for me…
There are several delightful comments at the listing, but my favorite is the story of someone’s father-in-law, returning home from serving in the Marine Corps in the Korean War, with $6,800 in savings. In New York, he test-drives a ‘57 Porsche Speedster and a 300 SL Roadster. At $10,000, the Porsche is too expensive. He returns home to Chicago, goes to the local Mercedes Benz dealership, and the Gullwing was exactly $6,800 – and buys one. Too bad he only kept it 20 years; selling that in the lat 70s left millions on the table.
This one is not my favorite color combo — I prefer the one Paul Newman owned. (I don’t know what’s up with me and blue cars, but that seems to be my thing lately). Still, if I had a few million dollars burning a hole in my pocket . . .
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