Just three owners from new, with rare service book and documents

“If only one car built since World War II could be called a classic, it would have to be the ‘Gullwing’ 300 SL” US magazine Road & Track revisits the iconic ‘Gullwing’ in a 1968 road test 14 years after the model was launched, driving it in 1960s traffic and concluding: “Too bad Mercedes isn’t building something like the 300 SL today”.

The immortal 300 SL Gullwing was the finest sports car in the world by some margin when launched at the February 1954 New York International Motor Sports Show and is instantly familiar seven decades on, an iconic classic that has never gone out of fashion.
The new supercar was soon bought by many of the most discerning drivers of the day, a roll-call that included the Shah of Iran, Sadruddin Aga Khan, Stavros Niarchos, Porfirio Rubirosa, Gunter Sachs and Tony Curtis. In the UK, Adrian Conan Doyle, Rob Walker and David Brown ordered new 300 SL Gullwings and the latter friends took delivery of theirs only days apart.

Like so many, this car was delivered new to New York and, after only three owners – one of 42 years – is available today, still remarkably original and with the rare books and papers that accompanied it when new – almost unheard of in the world of 300 SL collecting.

The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL ‘Gullwing’

Mercedes-Benz, the Stuttgart Titan that dominated the racetracks before the war, returned to motor racing in 1952. It did so with futuristic sports cars that looked as if they’d just landed from another galaxy. The six-cylinder Typ W194 300 SL was entered in five races that year and won four: victorious at Bern, the Nürburgring, Le Mans and the Mexican Carrera Panamericana, only just beaten on the Mille Miglia by an inspired Bracco at the wheel of a Ferrari.

Thanks to a spaceframe chassis that ran level with the driver’s thighs, the 300 SL Coupé needed special doors, hinged at the roof and meeting the sills halfway up the side of the car. The ‘Gullwing’ was born.

Work was proceeding apace on the company’s challenger for 1953, a more svelte Gullwing racing car with a now fuel-injected motor, when Mercedes received an urgent request from its East Coast US agent, Max Hoffman. The factory saw the new car as a stopgap before the pure, straight-eight racers of 1954; Hoffman believed it could be marketed as an ultra-expensive roadgoing supercar.

Hoffman’s initial guarantee for 500 300 SLs clinched it. Rather than building the planned five specialised racing cars for the 1953 Mille Miglia, Mercedes productionised the prototype and the 300 SL was launched to the public at the February 1954 New York International Motor Sports Show.

Until final deliveries were made in early 1957, when replaced by the 300 SL Roadster, 1,400 300 SL coupés found homes in the garages of the world’s wealthiest drivers. They were also raced and rallied hard by the most talented all-round professionals of the day. Stand-out Gullwing drivers included Olivier Gendebien (winner of the 1955 Alpine and Liège-Rome-Liège rallies), Count Wolfgang von Trips (who at one point led the 1956 Mille Miglia) and of course Stirling Moss, who finished second overall on the 1957 Tour de France.

Many sports cars, by virtue of their performance, are described as ‘racing cars for the road’. The meticulously built Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, with searing acceleration and up to 150mph+ performance on everyday highways, really was one.

This Motor Car

Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing chassis no. 198.040.5500459 was delivered on 30 June 1955. In his respected Register, historian Eric Le Moine notes the car’s colour as DB 180 Silber (silver) with an interior in 1079 red leather – the timeless combination the car wears today. The Gullwing’s destination was Mercedes-Benz of New York. Former Mercedes-Benz Museum director Michael Bock confirmed the car’s major component numbers to us in 2013 when we first discovered it thanks to Sports Car Market publisher Keith Martin of Portland, Oregon, whose advice on selling had been sought by its long-time owner.

Research by the current keeper reveals that the first owner took delivery in New York, drove the car to Vancouver, Canada and used it for the 20-mile daily commute to his office at the local sawmill. The Service Book which accompanies the car – incredibly hard to find nowadays – has stamps for 14 December 1955 (2,439 miles), 13 November 1956 (10,116 miles) and 27 January 1957 (15,362 miles).

In conversations with the second owner, dentist Dr Richard Jones of Portland, Oregon, the current third owner learned that it was during this first period of Canadian ownership that the car was repainted, having suffered from resin and sawdust residue while frequently parked at the mill.

Dr Jones purchased the Gullwing in 1971, his second example, having written off the first in a a road accident. The amateur racing driver had been drawn to the model following defeat after defeat on the racetrack while driving his Corvette in the 1950s. The Gullwing had covered 79,000 miles from first delivery and the original owner asked for the same price he paid new, $7,250. A deal was done immediately as Dr Jones realised the car was “straight and clean” and others were on the market for around $10,000.

During his ownership, in a barter deal with a bodyshop-owning patient, Jones commissioned a full respray which took seven years, redone later by a more accomplished firm on the suggestion of model expert Jon Cumpton of Oregon. When Cumpton first examined the car, he asked if Dr Jones had actually seen the new paintwork? “Yes”, was the reply, “but only in the rain.” While the car was in Cumpton’s care it had a new headliner fitted plus other small areas requiring work attended to.

In late-summer 2013, the car – bearing an odometer reading of ca. 122,000 miles – was sold to the current owner, an Australian enthusiast working in London for whom Gullwing ownership was a dream come true. A charming handwritten letter from Richard Jones dated 20 September 2013 that accompanies his old car wishes the new owner well:

“Please enjoy this wonderful car as much as I have for the past 42 years! If I can help you on any history, etc, please call, as I feel it is still part of the family! Enjoy!”