Car of the Week: Mercedes Made Only One 300 SL in This Rare Green. Now It Could Fetch $2.2 Million.
From March 28 through April 1, Mecum Auctions will be at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., for five days of auction action, culminating with a sale featuring high-profile collector cars that include this 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL. A quintessential classic, the 300 SL “Gullwing” coupe and its successor, the 300 SL Roadster, are considered bellwethers of the health of the collector-car market as a whole.
With only 1,400 examples of the coupe made between 1954 and 1957, the model is as rare as it is esteemed. Of these, only one is known to have been delivered in Mittelgrun (Medium Green, paint code DB-229G), and once seen, it’s difficult to erase the mental image of a curvaceous SL painted such a vibrant, period-correct color. And kudos to the car’s custodians for keeping this unique vehicle true to its original paint specification.
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“The 300 SL is a bona fide investment-grade icon,” says John Kraman, lead TV commentator and analyst for Mecum Auctions. “The successful race history carried into the road-going touring versions as a high-performance sports car with high build quality and advanced technology as well. The striking and rare color scheme on this example adds to the appeal.”
Chassis No. 5500263, made for the US market and shipped from the factory on April 30, 1955, was delivered to the exclusive stateside importer of the marque, Mercedes-Benz Distributors of New York. Not only was that company owned by Max Hoffman, but so too was the very concept of the Mercedes-Benz SL itself. Hoffman (who also “fathered” the BMW 507 and Porsche Speedster by urging the respective automakers to develop these models for the American market) asked Daimler-Benz to build a grand-touring coupe derived from its recently successful W194 Grand Prix racer.
Daimler’s chief development engineer at the time, Rudolf Uhlenhaut, utilized a spaceframe chassis of welded tubes in an effort to increase strength and minimize weight. Highly complex and beautiful in its own right, the chassis had high sills that precluded the use of traditional hinged doors, challenging entry and exit. The solution was a tilt-away steering wheel and audacious gullwing doors, a design synonymous with supercars ever since. Interestingly, Uhlenhaut’s namesake 300 SLR variant from the same year recently became the most expensive car ever sold when it fetched approximately $142 million at auction.
The sumptuous bodywork was aerodynamic for its day, incorporating “eyebrows” over each wheel arch to direct air, and using aluminum for the hood, doors and trunk lid in an effort to further reduce weight. And the coupe was powered by the world’s first fuel-injected engine to be put into a production car. The elaborate Bosch direct-injection system was derived from the V-12 power plant in Germany’s formidable World War II fighter, the Bf 109E Messerschmitt. With Bosch direct-fuel injection, Mercedes’ single-overhead cam, straight-six engine displaced 3.0-liters and shifted through a four-speed transmission. Performance was impressive. With 215 hp and a top speed of 161 mph, the 300 SL was the fastest production car of its day.
This green Gullwing has been owned by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation since January of 1973, and has been occasionally displayed in the Speedway Museum Collection from 2015 through 2020. Retaining its original, matching-numbers rebuilt engine, the car has seen regular care, and benefitted from a meticulous body-off restoration by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.
In 2022, further attention to the final fit and finish, plus additional service work, was carried out by noted Mercedes-Benz restorer Scott Grundfor Co. in Arroyo Grande, Calif. The original green-and-gray leather interior has been retrimmed in beige leather and square weave carpets overlaid with correct black rubber footwell mats.
Importantly, this 300 SL is accompanied by its original belly pans, tools and numerous spare parts, along with a copy of the factory build sheet, restoration photos, service receipts from Scott Grundfor Co. and correspondence between previous owners. Recent sales of the classic 300 SL model are trending up, and with this example’s published auction estimate of between $1.8 million and $2.2 million, it will be instructive to see how much green this green machine will bring.
Click here for more photos of this 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL “Gullwing” on offer through Mecum Auctions.
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