Introduction
This car is an amazing piece of engineering but more importantly, it is one of the most beautiful cars to ever be made. At some point, I will do a full story on the Mercedes SL 300 Gullwing, however today, I just want to talk about some key selling points, and show you some of the best ones on the market today. These cars are extremely impressive and some of the coolest cars that Mercedes-Benz has ever made! If you like this article, it would be amazing if you could follow this blog, just click follow in the pop out menu on the right! Now, let's talk about the high points, the low points, and the quirks of the Mercedes Benz SL 300 Gullwing Coupe!
The High Points
For most people, there are a lot of good parts about this car. For a vintage car enthusiast, there are many, many, many good parts about this car. Let's start by talking about the most obvious high point on this car which is its looks! The car is absolutely beautiful. Many would argue in fact that this is these epitome of cars, that this is the most beautiful car to have ever been made, and I can't say I disagree. The design on this car is one of easy flowing curves and long swooping lines. Everything seems to be exactly where it should be and is in the perfect spot.
The front of the car is what most people see first, and so it has to be good looking. On this car, its better than good looking. The headlights are large perfect circles that sit on the front of the front-wheel arches. The arches are perfectly shaped and flow over the front wheels. They bulge out and create a recession in the middle of the car in which the front grill sits with that beautiful Mercedes-Benz logo in the middle. Right below the headlights are perfectly placed orange blinkers that are, like everything else on the front of the car, outlined completely in shiny chrome.
Moving down the side of the car you start to get to the wheel and wheel-arches. The wheels perfectly fill the wheel arches and leave nothing to be desired, unlike with many other cars. the wheel arches swoop over the wheels with beautiful style and elegance that is unlike any other. The wheel arches are topped off by this aggressive side feature that juts out slightly from the side of the car and is a really cool little design feature. Next, as we move down the side of the car, we get to the side vents. This is a design feature that inspired car design for years to come. And finally, we are at one of the main staple features of this car, the gullwing doors.
I know that every car enthusiast wants a car with gullwing doors. Whether you expressive it or not, everyone secretly thinks that these are the coolest! And to be completely honest, that is because they are the coolest. These doors are some of the coolest features to exist on any car ever. I think that this alone makes the car extremely cool! To add to that, the rear of the car is just as beautiful as the front! The back of the cockpit drops down into a swooping back end that flows beautifully with the rest of the car, and creates a very sleek and aerodynamic look! Overall, this car is easily one of the most beautiful cars to have ever been designed. However, there are more good things about this car!
The car has a great Mercedes-Benz engine! Specifically, it has a water-cooled 3.0L straight-six engine that creates 240 hp. I have said this in previous articles, but I know there are people that will look at this number and think that this is not a lot. However, the point of this car is not to break land-speed records. The points of this car is to be a fun sports car and 240 hp is the perfect amount for that. It means that the car has a great amount of pickup while still being fun to drive! It did 0-60 mph in 9.3 seconds, which is rather slow. However, it would reach a top speed of 163 mph if you kept your foot down which means that it was the fastest production car of its day. On top of that, in 1999, the car was voted the best sports car of the century!
Finally, the interior is another highpoint. The interior is fully done in great materials. The mass majority of those materials being chrome and leather. The interior is designed just as beautifully as the exterior of the car and is even more luxurious. The cockpit allows for great visibility and driving this car is said to be absolute bliss! So, now that we have gone over most of the high points about this car, it is time to talk about the down side that are not quite as good! Let's get into the next section of this article!
The Low Points
I may be biased but I don't think that there are too many low points on this car. However, that doesn't mean that there are none. The first real trouble is that the car is insanely difficult to get into. The gullwing doors allow for a lot of space to get in, but that's about where the good parts about getting in end. The problem is that the door sill is insanely large. In fact, you actually have to climb over it to get in. Then, once you get in, you then have to get down in to the seat as it is much lower than the side of the vehicle. Mercedes actually designed the steering wheel to fold down so that it would be easier to get in. While it is difficult to get into many old sports cars, I think that this one takes the cake.
The next trouble is a more modern day trouble. The brakes and transmission on this car are well... old. For their time period, they were very good pieces of technology but driving them today is difficult. The brakes are not as responsive as the brakes we have on cars today and the trying to switch the car into gear is like fighting an uphill battle that you are very unlikely to win. I will say though, that as a driving enthusiast, this may be exactly what you want. Many people say that to get the best out of an old car, you really have to give it your all. And, while this may be difficult, I think it could also be potentially an upside.
Finally, there is the problem of pricing. I will talk about the actual price of the car in a later section but what I am talking about here is the price of spare parts and repairs. If anything brakes or needs to be replaced on this car, it is going to cost you. In fact, it will most likely cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair even the most simple things. This is because these were limited edition cars that were made almost 70 years ago. Their rarity, age, and complexity all adds up to create a massive service bill that most people probably will not want to pay. Now, let's talk about the weird parts of this awesome car.
The Weird and Wacky
Honestly, many people would consider the doors on this car to be one of the weird parts. However, we are car enthusiasts here and I think that there is nothing weird about some gullwing doors. Instead, let's talk about the steering wheel that folds down. You may not understand at first what this means but let me describe it a little better. To help people get into the car, Mercedes decided that they should make the steering wheel fold at a 90 degree angle on the steering column. While moving the steering wheel is a clever idea to help people get in, the way that this wheel folds doesn't actually create any more space. It would have been a lot more helpful if Mercedes had simply allowed people to remove the steering wheel instead.
Many models on this car had a very luxurious interior with chrome and leather, as I mentioned previously. One thing that is quite odd about the interior though is that the seats were not leather. In fact, they were made of a quite bland and rough cloth like material that often had some really weird patterns on it. This was a very odd feature and in many of the cars, the strangely patterned seats seem almost out of place. They really are very strange and some owners, the ones that didn't care about the lost value, decided to replace the seats with a more normal and comfier leather ones. I will say though, the seats really added some character to the interior of the car and the car as a whole. Now, let's talk about the listing and the current price.
The Listings
If you were hopeful about purchasing one of these, you better be extremely rich! If you are actually interested in purchasing one, you can contact us through our asset acquisition side of the business and we will help you find, purchase, ship, and service one. There are always a few of these on the market but the price just keeps increasing. The most recent on that I have found in good condition is a 1955 model in a beautiful red color. It is currently on sale for a whopping price of $1,295,000. I should mention that, surprisingly, some of the newer ones, such as models made in the 60s, are actually selling for more than some of the earlier models! If you would like to look more into this specific car, you can find the link to the listing here: 1955 Mercedes-Benz SL 300 Gullwing Coupe.
I hope that you enjoyed this article and learned a little more about the Mercedes SL 300 Gullwing Coupe. I will soon be doing another article about this car where, instead of talking about the car itself, I will be focusing more on its story and the history of the car. If you enjoyed this article, please share it with you friends. If you want updates for when new articles are posted, you can follow the blog in the pullout menu on the right hand side. Thank you for reading and I wish all of you the best driving weather!
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