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The Gullwing that topped Concours: 1956 Mercedes Benz 300SL Coupe

9 March, 2015

Knowing that there are only two early Mercedes Benz 300SL Gullwings in the country, the likelihood of stumbling across one in your local supermarket car park is extremely remote indeed. 

What makes this particular Gullwing so rare is that it’s number 27 of the 29 aluminium-body Gullwings ever built. This is the only one of the aluminium-body 300 SLs painted in this combination of MB 608 elfenbein (elephant ivory) with red, gabardine, tartan-plaid seats and cream leather — specification L2.

It is a matching number car with all components matching the build sheet, with the exception that it is trimmed in nappa leather rather than vinyl texleder.    

The car was delivered with, and still retains, the factory NSL-specification engine that includes high-performance camshaft, as well as a special suspension package. The restoration of this car has taken four years.

At the recent Ellerslie Intermarque Concours d’Elegance, this stunning example won the coveted Master Class competition against four other world-class restorations, scoring 564 points out of a possible 590 points. This is the third-highest score achieved at this event in its 42-year history. 

Read all about this 1956 Mercedes Benz 300SL Coupe in the upcoming New Zealand Classic Car Issue No. 292.

ROTARY CHIC

6 September, 2024

Kerry Bowman readily describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Citroën fan and a keen Citroën Car Club member. His Auckland home holds some of the chic French cars and many parts. He has also owned a number of examples of the marque as daily drivers, but he now drives a Birotor GS. They are rare, even in France, and this is a car which was not supposed to see the light of day outside France’s borders, yet somehow this one escaped the buyback to be one of the few survivors out in the world.
It’s a special car Kerry first saw while overseas in the ’70s, indulging an interest sparked early on by his father’s keenness for Citroëns back home in Tauranga. He was keen to see one ‘in the flesh’.
“I got interested in this Birotor when I bought a GS in Paris in 1972. I got in contact with Citroën Cars in Slough, and they got me an invitation to the Earls Court Motor Show where they had the first Birotor prototype on display. I said to a guy on the stand, ‘I’d like one of these,’ and he said I wouldn’t be allowed to get one. Citroën were building them for their own market to test them, and they were only left-hand drive.”

Tradie’s Choice

30 August, 2024

Clint Wheeler purchased this 1962 Holden FJ Panelvan as an unfinished project, or as he says “a complete basket case”. Collected as nothing more than a bare shell, the rotisserie-mounted and primed shell travelled the length of the country from the Rangiora garage where it had sat dormant for six years to Clint’s Ruakaka workshop. “Mike, the previous owner, was awesome. He stacked the van and parts nicely. I was pretty excited to get the van up north. We cut the locks and got her out to enjoy the northland sun,” says Clint. “The panelvan also came with boxes of assorted parts, some good, some not so good, but they all helped.”