There is a famous saying among car collectors: A car is only original once.

This weekend Gooding & Company sold two identical 300SL Gullwings at Scottsdale. There was only one important difference: One  300SL Gullwing was completely unrestored, untouched- the other 300 Gullwing looked like new- it was beautifully restored. Any guesses which car sold for more? 

The unrestored Gullwing.

It fetched $5oo’ooo more than the restored car. This a new world record for a ‘normal’ Gullwing without provenance (see Clark Gable Gullwing here). The restored 300SL got $1.4m while the unrestored car fetched $1.9m. How can this be? It certainly does not make economic sense.

That is the wonderful part of collecting cars- it often makes no economic sense. Originality- no matter how inconvenient- is a rare and coveted asset that collectors around the world want today. How likely is it that another Iconic Gullwing comes up for sale – completely unrestored. In the rare black original outside color (only 100 cars out of the 1400 made were delivered in this colour).

Very unlikely.

The new buyer of the unrestored Gullwing can be nearly sure that his car is largely in original condition. He can chose to restore it to perfection. Or he chose to do a light cosmetic restoration leaving much of the originality intact. Of course a car carrying its original paint from the mid 1950s is charming. There is a patina on the car that cannot be replicated. No matter how much money a restoration costs- the car will never be original again. A car is really only original once.

So what about the other Gullwing? Well it was restored at a likely cost of well over $1oo’ooo. It looked like new. Perhaps one reason- it didn’t sell for more is that it was not restored by the world’s foremost experts in 300SL Gullwing- of which they are only really two in the world: Paul Russell in the US and HK Engineering in Germany (Kienle in Germany are also considered world class).

Another reason the restored car didn’t sell as high- well guess what- the nice color combination of Black / Red was not the original color of the car. So this post is a tale of two Gullwings. One was completely original. It looked like a bomb had gone off inside (ripped seats, torn carpets- dusty engine) and outside (car was full of dents, scratches and knocks). But it was original. The other car looked liked new. But was not as original.

Originality won. But at a price of $5oo’ooo.

(For more info the unrestored /original car please click here. For information on the restored 300SL Gullwing please see here. All  images  copyright  and  courtesy  of  Gooding  &  Company. Photos by Brian Hennik)

by Edmond Saran