Super-Low miles on these two SLs

Gooding & Company, Pebble Beach, USA 18-19 August

a weather eye on the market for Mercedes-Benz 300SL ‘Gullwings’ will know that original, correct and unrestored examples are few and far between, so it’s a rare treat when one appears for sale. It’s rarer still when one is offered by the family of the original owner, so imagine how jaws dropped in the offices of Gooding & Company when a call came in from a potential consignor who not only had such a car, but also a 300SL roadster with the very same credentials.

‘Unmolested’, ‘timewarp,’ ‘preserved,’ ‘unrepeatable’. Yes, all those well-worn descriptions apply here – but in this case they’re to the power of two.

In a delightful short film made by Gooding about this brace of remarkable SLs, the owner modestly describes how his father ‘liked cars’ and became sufficiently interested in the Mercedes-Benz marque to acquire the Gullwing in 1955. He ordered it from Max Hoffman’s New York dealership, specifying British Racing Green paintwork and tan leather upholstery. That makes it the only known Gullwing to have been BRG from new.

Having bought the car, the owner used it decidedly sparingly and, even now, it displays a mere 16,000 miles on the odometer.

In 1957 he was moved to buy the Roadster version, which was delivered in the light blue metallic finish with contrasting grey leather upholstery that it still carries today. And in the boot, you’ll find the matched set of Karl Baisch luggage ordered at the same time.

Although used more regularly than the Gullwing, the Roadster has covered just 38,000 miles and the cars are (modestly) estimated to fetch, respectively, $1-1.3m and $800,000-1m. Both are on the button, driving perfectly and ready to go.

The vendor took over both SLs from his father and explains in the film that he ‘put them in the garage, didn’t drive them a lot, didn’t restore them. Just kept them.’ Wise man indeed. handh.co.uk