ONE COLLECTOR’S OBSESSION WITH RESTORING VINTAGE CARS

One man’s love for the marque’s classic cars sets off a decades-long pursuit of perfecting their restoration.

The Aga Khan, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Karl Lagerfeld all owned one. Grace Kelly, with Frank Sinatra riding shotgun, was immortalised behind the wheel of hers on the silver screen in High

Society. On the streets of Manhattan in the wee hours, Miles Davis once raced his against a baroness in her Bentley.

Produced in the optimistic postwar era, this sporty drop top with its curvaceous wings, art moderne lines and sexy silhouette stole the hearts of many a celebrity. And, apparently, it purloined Allen Lim’s too.

“I was 25 years old when I first set eyes on a Mercedes-Benz 190 SL,” the retired businessman recalls of that day in 1985. “It was the most sublime automobile design I had ever seen. It was at that moment, I wanted to know more about the history and technology behind the ‘three-pointed star’. It was the 190 SL that sparked my decadeslong love affair with Mercedes.”

While the compulsive classic-car collector ( he has four in his stable) did not manage to get his hands on that model, he bought a 1951 Mercedes-Benz 170s luxury two-door sedan four years later. The lengthy restoration project – the first of what would go on to become a string of five – became his preoccupation throughout most of his 30s and 40s.

Lim, 57, elaborates: “The car was mechanically fine after the first restoration in the 1990s. But in the spirit of Mercedes’ motto, ‘The Best Or Nothing’, I wanted to keep improving the car’s interior and exterior so that it would look like it had just left the factory. The second phase used parts and materials imported from Germany. I did a lot of research to get the right paint mix and the correct leather interior. I even managed to find original car accessories offered to its European customers in the 1950s.”

Lim is at the press preview of the inaugural Fullerton Concours d’Elegance (see box). The star of the show is another of his restorations, a stunning 1959 Mercedes-Benz 220s cabriolet, in resplendent dual tone light blue and cream paintwork, and matching cream leather upholstery.

Among the dozens of vintage and classic models gathered, his Ponton (as the model series is commonly called) is the sole car to be presented as “concours quality”. For an automobile to be considered so, it must appear to be, to all intents and purposes, factory fresh. It must also use only original and periodcorrect parts in its restoration. The 220s bore the de rigueur Becker AM radio that then came as a Mercedes factory option, white sidewall tyres and even a German-made battery of the appropriate provenance.

The car has, quite literally, come a long way. Given the dearth of collectibles in Singapore due to the country’s tax disincentives for older vehicles, Lim had to source it from Australia. But, first, he had to persuade the previous owner, who wanted to ensure that it would go to someone responsible, to give it up. To Lim’s