AutoTrader Find of the Week: 1959 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Has Transcended Being Just a Car

How do you even begin to describe a car with an asking price almost triple the average new home in Toronto?

The $2,050,000 USD (about $2,870,000 CAD) asking price of this 1959 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL for sale through Marianetti Motors in Vaughan, Ont., leaves me at a loss for words. I’m just not entirely sure what I could possibly write to entice you into believing that’s money well spent on a car.

Even for someone who is a millionaire several times over, shelling out $3 million for a car — any car — but especially one you might not drive at all, is asking a lot.

To put that amount of money into perspective, you could buy a brand-new Mercedes-AMG GT2 and still have $2 million left over. Prefer a modern classic? How about a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster? That’s a bargain at $600,000. Toss in a Toronto home, you’re still up a million bucks.

How can one old Mercedes possibly command that kind of price tag?

Pedigree. Rarity. And, let’s be honest, pure beauty.

The original Mercedes 300 SL was conceived as the infamous “Gullwing” coupe and was a production variant of the Mercedes-Benz W194 endurance racer, developed by Daimler-Benz in 1951.

Mercedes didn’t reveal what “SL” stood for when it launched the car. It was industry insiders who first picked up that SL stood for "Sport Leicht" and/or "Super Leicht" (“leicht” of course meaning “light”). In 2017, Mercedes solidified "Super Leicht," and that’s fitting, as the original SL was a performance success largely thanks to a steel tubular-frame chassis and several aluminum body components, including the hood, doors, dashboard, and trunk lid, all of which reduced weight. So while Mercedes’ 3.0 litre SOHC straight-six engine produced less power than rivals from Ferrari and Jaguar, its aerodynamics and reduced weight made it more than competitive.

Mercedes' U.S. importer, Max Hoffman, is rumoured to have suggested cashing in on Mercedes’ racing pedigree by selling GT cars to affluent Americans, and thus the 300 SL was born in 1954.

However, by mid-1956, sales of the 300 SL Gullwing were in sharp decline, and the thinking was to introduce a roadster version tailored for the California market. In 1957, both Gullwing and Roadster variants of the 300 SL were available, however, while Mercedes sold 618 units of the 300 SL Roadster, it only sold 70 Gullwings. Mercedes discontinued the Gullwing in 1958.

Some more numbers.

From 1954 to 1963, Mercedes sold 3,258 300 SLs. Of those, 1,458 were Roadsters.

In 1959, Mercedes produced 211 cars. Of those, only 101 were painted Light Blue. And this is one of them.

How many of those Light Blue cars were also optioned with colour-matched wheels, red leather interior, and a dark blue Roadster top? Unclear. Mercedes didn’t keep records on colour combinations. But needless to say, good luck finding another one like it.

The numbers-matching 3.0-litre inline-six engine with Bosch mechanical direct fuel injection (producing 240 horsepower at the crank and 215 at the wheels) coupled with a four-speed manual transmission is present. However, this car was also optioned with the desirable Dunlop disc brakes and a 3.64-ratio rear axle.

Originally delivered on August 9, 1959, to Phil Smart Mercedes-Benz of Seattle, Wash., this 300 SL stayed with the original owner’s family for 54 years. Apparently, at some point before 1998, it was “restored” with a much more humdrum silver exterior paint and a black leather interior.

In 2011, it was purchased by Rudi Koniczek, a Canadian restoration specialist known for his work on 300 SLs — once called the world’s most sought-after 300 SL restoration specialist. His former company Rudi and Co. is now known as Coachwerks, a world-renowned European-specialty restoration shop.

The restoration documentation is apparently exhaustive, detailing every bit of Koniczek’s work through photos. But the end result speaks for itself: an epically beautiful machine restored to how it was delivered to that dealership in Seattle in 1959.

There are so many small details to drink in. And the more you look, the more you love. The hidden fuel cap. The chrome strips over the iconic side gills. The way the wheels tuck under the rear fenders. Inside, there's the subtle stitching in the doors. The lettering on the gear selector. The venting on the rear of the bucket seats. There’s a tool kit in the trunk that just looks far too pristine to ever use.

This isn’t really a car. You’re not buying a car for $3,000,000. This is art. You’re buying art.

I know that’s unforgivably cliché and trite to say about a car like this. I’m not sure whether I want to throw up in my mouth or punch myself in the face for committing the crime of having typed the words.

But damnit, it’s true. Normally with expensive collector cars, I end the article by saying, “Please, go drive it!” But I wouldn’t drive this car anywhere. I think this is one of those cars you park in your living room and just stare at.

If you want a wicked expensive Mercedes to drive every day, save yourself the $2 million. This isn’t that. This is something else.

This is art. And real art can never be truly justified.