The 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing has just been listed for auction at Bring A Trailer with a selling price of more than 1 million USD, equivalent to more than 27 billion VND.
Expensive and rare cars like the 300SL rarely appear on online auction websites. Because of their high value, these classic cars are often sold by auction houses such as RM Sotheby’s, Gooding & Company and Mecum. Therefore, when appearing on the Bring A Trailer site, the 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing caused a small craze.
Clearly the dealer who owns this Gullwing thought he could make enough profit by bringing this vehicle to Bring A Trailer – and they were right. The model sold at Bring A Trailer is a vehicle manufactured in 1957. The vehicle’s first owner was a customer in Belgium, who owned the vehicle until 1981. After that, the vehicle spent another 22 years followed in the UK and later imported to Canada.
The car underwent a major clean-up between 2014 and 2016. During this time, it was returned to its original Blaugrau paint and the interior was reupholstered in a rather nostalgic blue-gray plaid fabric. There’s also blue leather on the trims, seatbacks, door panels, sills and center tunnel.
No matter what condition they are in, Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwings are always sought after by classic car enthusiasts and paid at huge prices. The super product Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing was produced by the German car company from 1954 to 1957. In those 3 short years, only 1,400 Gullwings were born. The special thing is that 80% of those cars are owned by Americans.
The car is inspired by the Mercedes-Benz W194 racing car. The letter “SL” in the car stands for “Super Leicht”, which in German means super light. The name also reflects part of the “temperament” of this car line. The car’s body is made of lightweight aluminum alloy, helping to reduce weight and increase the vehicle’s maximum speed.
Mercedes-Benz 300 SL uses the M198 6-cylinder in-line engine, 3.0L capacity, for maximum power of 243 horsepower and maximum torque of 294 Nm. The car uses a single-disc dry clutch and a 4-speed manual transmission. It also uses direct fuel injection technology and independent rear suspension. Thanks to that, the 300 SL was able to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 9.3 seconds before reaching a maximum speed of 263 km/h, which was the highest achievement at that time.
The Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing quickly became known for its impressive performance and outstanding manufacturing quality. The car quickly became the king of speed and luxury, the desire of many men. The 300 SL’s opponents at that time could be mentioned as BMW 507, Porsche 356…
The superiority in appearance design style, as well as car styling materials, not only helped the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing be popular in the previous era, but is also popular today. Readers of the trade magazine Motor Klassik voted the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL the most sought-after classic car model. Not only was it a symbol of sports cars at that time, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing was also the design inspiration for many modern Mercedes-Benz models such as the SLS AMG, SLS AMG Roadster…
Currently, the SL-Class has gone through 6 generations including: W198/ W121 (1954 – 1963), W113 (1963 – 1971), R107 (1972 – 1989), R129 (1989 – 2002), R230 (2002 – 2011 ) and R231 (2013 – present). In particular, the most recent Facelift upgraded version was introduced in 2017.
Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing 1957 currently has 91,000 km odo on the clock. The car has just reached the auction mark of 1,152,000 USD (equivalent to 26.7 billion VND) on Bring A Trailer site.
