The Mercedes-Benz 300SL was introduced in 1954 as a two-seat, closed sports car with distinctive gull-wing doors and was the first gasoline-powered car with direct injection. Later it was offered as an open roadster. It was the fastest production car of its day.
The 300 referred to the threelitre engine and SL stood for Sport Leicht. From 1955 through 1963, there were approximately 1,800 M-B 300SL roadsters built and 1,383 gullwing coupes produced from 1955 through 1957 in Stuttgart, Germany. Gullwing describes the way the doors lift open.
In the '50s, the factory turned out 29 special lightweight alloy body gull-wing coupes with Plexiglas windows. These are among the world's most valued collector cars, worth about $2.5 million each.
Only 28 of the alloy-bodied cars were accounted for. The whereabouts of No. 29 was one of the great mysteries in the classic car world. Koniczek had restored numbers 1 and 6. He knew where all the other alloy-bodied cars were except for No. 21.
Twenty years ago, he heard about a gull-wing that had been stored in a garage in Santa Monica, Calif., for decades. It was a rumour that he and a California enthusiast followed up on over the years.
This spring, Koniczek was able to make a deal with the owner of the car. But getting the Gullwing out of the garage was a challenge. The widower owner was in his late 80s, and his garage was full of old mainframe computers. The car couldn't even be seen in the garage.
He hired two men to clear the way to the car. When the car began to emerge from the clutter, it became apparent that the search for No. 21 was over. "I took a magnet out of my wallet and ran it over the car and it didn't stick," Koniczek recalls of the moment.
The owner of the car, Tom Wellmer, had received the new 1955 special alloy M-B Gullwing coupe in New York as a graduation gift from his parents. He drove it into the 1970s until the transmission broke. Then he put the car up on jack stands and began taking it apart. He took the wheels and hood off, the interior out and removed the transmission. And then the car just sat - for more than 40 years.
"This is the ultimate garage find and may be one of the greatest finds ever in the collector car world," Koniczek says. "It's amazing to know that the car had been there all those years without anyone knowing about it." It still had the 1971 California license plates.
The last 'missing' Alloy Gullwing #21, Ultimate barn find
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Originally Posted by Disoblige
You would think he would have sold it sooner if he had any idea it was worth 2.5 mil, then again if you have parents that will buy you the fastest production car in the world as a grad gift whats 2.5 mil.
