If you found yourself with a healthy bank account during the 1980s and felt that the latest offerings from Ferrari, BMW, Porsche or even Lamborghini didn’t quite cause the stir you expected while parking outside the hottest clubs in Miami, you’d need to give Styling Garage a call. Whether it was an outrageous W126 you wanted, or the sleek C126 such as this one heading to RM Sotheby’s upcoming Munich sale, you can almost guarantee that once the design house had worked their magic, it would turn a sea of heads. 

Styling Garage, or SGS as it was often known as, was born in Hamburg and run by engineer Chris Hahn, offering ultra-wealthy customers quite literally anything they desired. No matter how ludicrous the idea, Hahn and his team could make it happen, from gold-plating to substantial body rebuilds. Once SGS’s first creations hit the streets, it didn’t take long for rich sheikhs, celebrities of the Western world, and world leaders to book in their orders. 

While outlandish customisations were their speciality, SGS were keen to honour the icons of Mercedes-Benz’s past, and their C126 Gullwing conversion quickly became a staple in their catalogue. This pearly white example was converted in May 1984, and was given substantial strengthening to its roof and sills to accommodate the famous upswept door design, costing the customer an eye-watering 83,000 Deutsche marks alone!

This striking 500 SEC is known to have been taken to the United States by Selections Import and later registered to a Ferrari collector residing in Oakland, California. After a stint cruising the mean streets of LA, the car was later returned to its native Germany by its current owner in 2010, where it’s been lovingly looked after by Mercedes-Benz specialist Autohaus Weicker. Along with the crowd-pleasing doors, this SEC dons period-correct and now incredibly desirable BBS split rims, an impeccably finished mushroom-shaded leather interior, which extends all along the upper dashboard and centre console in true 1980s fashion, and a rather peculiar pet to keep you company while driving. Instead of the conventional, somewhat uninspiring gear selector Mercs of this era had, this example has a sculpted falcon’s bust to guide you into P, R, N and D, adding even more charm and quirkiness to this already unique creation. 

With an estimate of between 350,000 and 400,000 Euros as it heads to RM Sotheby’s upcoming Munich sale on November 23rd, you’re not going to want to let this oddity fly away! 

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