The Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing Is a $1 Million Sports Car Icon

this is a 1954 mercedes-benz 300sl gull wing and it's an absolute icon i consider this to be one of the most beautiful cars ever made and a lot of people think of it as the world's first supercar it's certainly a legend one of the most admired cars of all time and easily worth over a million dollars and today i'm going to review it before i get started be sure to check out cars and bids which is my enthusiast car auction website for cool cars from the modern era now with free listings you can list your car for free and auction it on cars and bids and we've had some great sales recently including this beautiful porsche 911 black edition sold for 75 000. a gorgeous 991. this chevy ss sold for just over 46 thousand dollars with exceptionally low mileage and this wonderful nissan 350z nismo brought just over 23 000. if you're looking to sell your cool and exciting car from the modern era the 1980s and up cars and bids is the place to do it and if you're looking to buy a cool car there's daily auctions and great selection on cars and bids i've borrowed this gull wing from the mercedes-benz classic center here in southern california the mercedes-benz classic center preserves and restores and repairs classic mercedes-benz models and it is truly a sight to behold they are working on some of the greatest cars ever made it's something you've got to check out if you're a mercedes-benz enthusiast you can click the link in the description below to learn more about the mercedes-benz classic center and check it out but let's talk gullwing this car came out in 1954 and it was a showstopper from the very beginning a true flagship model and arguably the very beginning of the supercar genre now coupe models were known as the gull wing because of their doors obviously which i will cover shortly but later a roadster version also came out no gullwing doors and production continued through the early 1960s overall mercedes built about 2 700 300 sl models and more than half are roadsters but it was the coupe that has become the real icon because of these amazing gull wing doors even though these only had up to 240 horsepower from a six cylinder that doesn't seem like all that much by modern standards but you got to remember back in the 50s the chevy corvette had only about 150 horsepower and the porsche 356 had about 130 horses so this up to 240 horsepower it was in a league of its own over the years 300 sl models have shot up in value and now a nice one is easily worth a million bucks or more and while i don't normally review older cars i make an exception for this one so today i'm going to take you on a thorough tour of the 300sl gullwing and show you all of its interesting quirks and features then i'll get it out on the road and drive it and then i'll give it a doug score all right i'm going to start the quirks and features of the 300sl going by getting in one of the very coolest parts about this whole car and that means starting with the doors and specifically the door handle now like i said earlier some consider this the world's first supercar some say it's the lamborghini mura but a good argument could be made that it's this and it certainly has the world's first supercar door handle supercars always have kind of weird door handles and this is no exception you walk up and there's this little strip of silver and a little part protruding at the end now to make this work you push on the part that's protruding but you don't push in you push back and then that pops out the door handle and you can see there are little slots that's where you're supposed to put your fingers in order to open the door so you stick your fingers in there you pull that releases the door and then the magic happens you put your hand into this little slot this indentation the body and you open up the famed gowing door that is one of the coolest things that a car person can do open the going door in a 300sl very exciting experience and i'm kind of thrilled that i had the chance to do it now i'll cover the doors a little bit more throughout this video but next i want to talk about another thing that makes this car so special which is revealed when the doors go up take a look at the door sill you can see it's absolutely massive it's wide and it's very tall it goes above the bottom of the seats which is very unusual that's because this car is built around a tubular frame that means there are basically tubes running around the entirety of the car all underneath the body of the chassis everywhere and they did that to save weight the entire tubular frame only weighs about 180 pounds which is truly incredible especially at this time in the days before carbon fiber and other lightweight materials now the drawback of this was part of the tubular frame is running right here for support for rigidity and that meant that the sill had to be higher and it also necessitated the gull wing doors because this component is structural you couldn't have normal opening doors and so they made the gull wings instead it wasn't a pure style thing it was by engineering necessity now if you know anything about these cars maybe thinking well wait a second the coop had gullwing doors but there was also a roadster that had normal opening doors so the tubular frame couldn't have been that much of a problem but what happened was mercedes-benz kind of figured out better how to work with tubular frames and how to kind of move some stuff when they created the roadster which came later and that allowed them to fit normal opening doors on the roadster as you can see but there is still a pretty wide door sill and it's sort of high and that is also due to the tubular frame in the roadster now the tubular frame was a big deal and it helped make this car what it is exotic lightweight fast but it came with the big drawback these dorsals are so massive that getting in this car is really pretty tricky as you can see even a simple attempt to get your legs under [Music] it's just not incredibly easy to do but mercedes-benz thought of that and check this out the steering wheel folds before you climb in the car you flip this switch on the steering column and the steering wheel actually folds sort of down and towards you giving you a lot more room in the driver's footwell area to slide in your knees and legs and that made entry and exit way easier even with this giant door sill so effectively they solved that problem thanks to this trick folding steering wheel that's pretty cool but anyway next up i'm sitting in the 300sl might as well go over some of the interior quirks and features and i'm going to start with the inside of the door the door panel basically you have a couple of interesting items on here one is this handle that you can use to close the door mounted close enough that you can grab onto it and shut the door from the inside you also have a second handle here this is the handle you use to actually unlatch the door and open it up and check this out when you move this handle on the inside it moves the outside handle as well they're one piece and they're connected so each time you move one you move the other and that's kind of interesting to see also here is a door lock this little switch here will let you lock the door so nobody can get into your going but anyway next up we climb inside the 300s i'm going to go over all of the quirks and features in this interior there are quite a few starting with the sheer volume of buttons and switches and dials on this dashboard take a look all this stuff and none of them not one is labeled so you have no idea what anything does unless you know and the people at mercedes-benz classic center told me that was kind of a point of pride for sl owners it was like an airplane if you knew then you knew that meant you had one of these and you had experience with it which is kind of a cool thing now most of the buttons and switches in this instrument panel weren't anything particularly unusual it was stuff like a backup fuel pump or your instrument panel lights to turn them on or off or your wipers or over here you have the cigarette lighter although in this car that would be the cigar lighter to keep things classy a lot of this stuff was pretty standard but there are a few rather quirky little controls in here one interesting control was the turn signals which are controlled on a stalk that's mounted here on the right side of the steering column not on the left like you see in left-hand drive cars today you move it up or down to turn the signals on or off which is kind of unusual even more unusual is how the 300sl roadster had its turn signals mounted you had this silver circle in the center of the wheel to turn on the left signal you moved this silver circle to the left and then the signals would go on to turn on the right signal you moved it to the right and the signals would go on very strange and very different from the turn signal stocks that we know today and the signal stock that was used in the 300 sl coupe next up another interesting control in here the ignition switch is in the center you can see in the very middle of the dashboard pretty much next to the gear lever that's where your ignition switch is rather than just next to the steering column like in most cars and to the left of the ignition switch this little switch here controlled the headlights nothing too unusual about that except that the high beams were controlled in the driver's foot well to turn them on you'd press this little switch like on the dead pedal and that would turn on your high beams this is actually fairly common of cars from this era having a foot mounted high beam switch but it's crazy to imagine it today but my very favorite quirky control in this interior is this little button over on the passenger side of the dashboard that controls the horn believe it or not now the driver also has a horn control in the center of the steering wheel you press that and the horn sounds but if the passenger wanted to sound the horn they had their own horn button that they could press and do that the theory was this was intended to be like a high performance race car you'd be on the track you'd take it racing and so maybe your passenger your co-pilot would be working the horn while you steered the car so there's a second horn button over on the passenger side which is pretty wild stuff also two other little items specific to this car that i want to point out before i move on one these little bracelet looking things hanging around the steering column those are medallions that you get for passing the tech inspection at the mile miglia which is one of the most famous vintage car races in the world and it's very special to enter that race and participate in it and so this car has these little medallions there as a reminder that it did so and that is really cool also on the passenger side you can see this signature here that is sterling moss's signature a very famous race car driver and when this car was being restored they kept that and saved it so you have sterling moss's signature whenever you drive around that is amazing but anyway moving on to other interesting quirks and features in this interior let's go under the dashboard now on the driver's side you have this little lever here which obviously opens up the hood and will get in there later interestingly there is a second lever under the dashboard over on the passenger side that opens up the vent now this car had no air conditioning so fresh air was nice to have so you'd pull on this little lever the vent would open and it would keep you cool as long as you were moving air would come in if you stopped it would start to get hot again but that was what that little lever is for now it's worth noting that that lever and the vents were especially important in this car because the windows don't roll down that's right 300 sl windows do not roll down when you look at the door you can easily see why there's like a curve right below the window it'd be impossible for glass to roll down within this door and so they are fixed in place but here's something you may never have known about the 300sl the windows do pop out at the back of the window you can see this silver piece here this is a latch holding the window in place and you can unlatch the window and then remove it and then your window is open it doesn't roll down like a standard window but instead you take it out or put it back in whenever you want more airflow in this interior which is pretty crazy and it's pretty crazy to imagine putting the window in and out every time you want to basically have more airflow in your interior but that's what you had to do in the 300sl or at least that's what you had to do in the 300sl coupe the roadster had a normal door and thus it had normal windows and as you can see the windows roll up or down with a normal window crank goes right into the door comes back up pretty simple stuff but not so in the coop now with that said one item you did have in terms of windows on the doors and the 300 sl coupe was these little vent windows which were also held on by a little latch you just unlatched them and then you could twist the vent window around and that also would blow air on you as long as you were moving in place which again helped air flow in the cabin and helped cool you down and by the way speaking of airflow in this interior one other crazy thing i did not know about the 300sl until today directly behind the doors on the roof you can see these little openings all the 300 sls have these they were designed to let air out to equalize pressure when you open and close the door and amazingly they are completely open you can stick your hand right through it and then you're sticking your hand basically into the interior and i never knew this was there i never really paid attention to this design detail but it's a little opening sort of in the roof of the 300sl that allows for air pressure to equalize in the car very interesting detail but anyway before i move on to other quirks and features i want to go back to the dashboard briefly one thing to cover is the mirror which you can see is mounted on the dashboard i'm not exactly sure why they did that it could have been because the window was curved so there wasn't a flat surface for them to easily mount it but either way that's where your rear view mirror is and it's important to say mirror because this car came with no other rear-view mirrors there were no door-mounted rear-view mirrors on the 1954 models now in 55 door mounted mirrors became an option and you can see that this car is actually equipped with them even though it's a 54. so the person who originally owned this must have bought one aftermarket and had it installed because you know mirrors are nice to have but when this car was sold new it only had this dashboard mounted rear view mirror now next to that mirror you can see the ashtray which of course you would expect from a vehicle of this era when you were smoking your cigar while driving around looking stylish you would use that dashboard mounted ashtray and by the way back to the roadster for a second the roadster models which came later in production they always had an exterior rear view mirror it wasn't an option it was on all of them and you can see it's mounted here on the fender but there's just one you didn't have a passenger side mirror just the driver's side but at least you had an outside mirror unlike this car when it was sold new and next up moving further on to the dashboard one thing i have always loved in the interior of 300 sl models is this 300 sl badge sitting there on the dashboard it is absolutely beautiful and it reminds you precisely which special car you are in every time you look over at it and i love that little detail although you'll notice that badge is placed where a glove box would normally be and this car doesn't have a glove box that's because the tubular frame is going directly behind this dashboard for structure so there was no place for them to actually mount a glove box in this car in fact if you look underneath the dashboard you can see part of the tubular frame sort of sticking out from the dashboard into the side of the car that's actual structural components that you're seeing the actual frame of the car there which is kind of a neat thing to be able to see and it helps illustrate why you couldn't have a glove box in this car it's worth noting though that you did have some storage pouches they're mounted in the driver foot well you can see here and over in the passenger foot well you also had a storage pouch so there was a little bit of interior storage but there was no glove box however the roadster version of this car which came later it had a glove box which obviously made things a little more practical in this interior by then again they kind of figured out how to redesign the tubular frame around some of this stuff to make it a little bit easier and more convenient and that meant adding a glove box and i should mention at this point you may have already realized it but i should mention the roadster had more creature comforts than the gull wing coupe i've already talked about the door sill was lower so it was easier to get in and out the door was normal and it had normal rolling up windows it had a side view mirror it had a glove box the roadster even had a radio as you can see here which the coupe didn't have the thinking was the roadster was more of the touring car you would drive around enjoying the sun in fact they specifically designed the roadster for use in the growing california market wealthy people with good weather that was the roadster clients the people who got the coops they were buying more of a traditional race car and so it was a little bit more focused been a little bit less kind of compromised for the sake of convenience driving that point home is the fact that there's a nice grab handle here on the side of the dashboard for the passenger makes it easier to get in and out but also you can grab it if your driver is doing crazy stuff on the race track and one other good example of the roadster being a little bit more user-friendly than the coupe is the placement of the parking brake in the coop it was to the left of the driver's seat sort of between the driver's seat and the door sill to get out of the car for the roadster they moved it into the middle kind of a more normal position which made it easier to climb in and out and so that was another upgrade but anyway let's move on to the rest of this interior some more interesting quirks and features i want to talk about these seats you can see they are finished in this wonderful plaid scheme which is so time period and it looks pretty good there were two seat options in the 300 sls there was a plaid seat like you can see cloth or you could pay extra and get leather seats now most people did get the leather seats that was considered the more luxurious feature and if you got leather seats you also got leather door sills whereas in the cars with cloth seats it's vinyl as you can see here not quite as high class although frankly i think the plaid and the vinyl looks pretty good today worth noting that all of the roadster models had leather seats again another example of how the roadster was tuned a little bit more towards comfort and luxury rather than sort of performance and strip down like the coops could be now one crazy thing about these seats they only move forward or backwards they do not move up or down and the steering wheel doesn't move up or down it can swivel to let you get inside but you can't move the actual positioning that meant if you wanted a higher or a lower seat you were just screwed this was the driving position you were stuck with but with that said it's funny the mercedes-benz classic center told me that when they are restoring these 300sl gulwing models they can adjust the seat height by adjusting the amount of padding that goes into the seat so they will ask the owner of the car hey do you want like a high seat if the person is short you can put more padding in or do you want the seat lower and you could put in less padding and that's kind of a trick you can use to make the seat go up or down even though it won't actually do that it's kind of funny now next up i want to talk cargo area in this car which is behind the seats not in the trunk like you'd expect it is behind the seats and you can see here these leather straps they were meant to hold in place a set of custom fitted luggage that you could get with the car and then they would go in this spot behind the seats you'd hold them down to leather straps and that was your cargo storage area now you can see that the leather straps are mounted on this like silver railing going across the rear rather than just like hooking it into the back they put the railing there i suspect because it just looks so nice almost like a railing on a boat it's a very cool look and it holds in place these leather straps in the car's cargo area which is in the interior behind the seats but if you know anything about these cars you're probably thinking well wait a minute what do you mean the only cargo area in this car was in the interior behind the seats they have a trunk and indeed from this angle you can clearly see there is a trunk lid but it doesn't contain a traditional trunk now to get back here you have this cool little key slot you swivel this little silver piece out of the way that's there to make sure water moisture doesn't collect in the key slot anyway you swivel that out of the way you stick the key in twist it and then you open up the trunk and you can see it's actually a spare tire holder back here there's no cargo storage in this trunk area that's not what this is for the cargo area was indeed behind the seats and this was for your spare tire and a few other mechanical components as you can see sort of ancillary stuff around the tire on the sides of the trunk but anyway a few more interesting things to cover in the trunk area for one thing the trunk stays open with a little prop that is mounted underneath it you set the prop up and then you can keep it open and you have easier access to your stuff in here including your spare tire if you need to do a quick roadside tire change to me probably the very craziest thing about this entire trunk area is that the fuel filler is back here this little cap unscrew it and this is where you put fuel gasoline in your 300 sl and yes that means what you think every time you wanted to fill up the 300 sl with gas you had to open up the trunk there wasn't a separate fuel door where you could easily do that which is pretty crazy now once again the roadster had some advantages in this area open up the roadster trunk and as you can see it's an actual cargo area back here pretty large actually and you could buy fitted luggage that would fit in your 300sl roadster trunk so that you could cruise around with it and you didn't have to install it behind the seats which is probably pretty cumbersome another big benefit of the roadster it had a fuel door an actual fuel door so you didn't have to open up the trunk in order to put fuel in the car it had its own separate fuel door like most vehicles do another big roadster benefit over the coupe again the roadster had these sort of refinements and conveniences that the coop didn't have but anyway a few other things to mention since i'm back here one closing up the trunk you see one of my very favorite 300sl features and that would be this beautiful badge on the back says 300sl underlined this is an iconic image of this car this badge mounted right in the center on the trunk lid looks gorgeous and it's a little bit curved in order to fit the curvature of the trunk lid which was a cool detail absolutely beautiful and an iconic badge for this car now a couple of other things worth noting since i'm around back one is the lighting there's not much of it you can see there's a brake light and a turn signal that's it there's no reverse light there's no third brake light there's no like led special lighting signature you just had minimal stuff back here although it's worth noting once again the roadster had a reversing light but the coupes didn't that was another convenience their luxury touch added to the roadsters this car was all about only what you needed and next up we move back up to the front of the car to go over two of its all-time most famous design details one is this vent on the front fender on the side this obviously would help heat escape from the engine but it became an iconic look of the 300sl and it's something mercedes-benz has tried to replicate in other supercars and sports cars as the years have gone on and it is gorgeous also a gorgeous design detail in this car is the little eyebrow over the front wheel arch you can see it starts pretty far forward and goes pretty far backward and it turns out that was put on there in order to stop rainwater from coming up from the wheels and hitting the windshield that little eyebrow they called it was enough of a covering over the wheels that it ensured water wouldn't come up and hit the windshield now the crazy thing is it wasn't necessary in the back of this car but they added an eyebrow to the rear wheels as well just for symmetry and style purposes to make the car look better so one of the all-time great distinctive 300sl design details those eyebrows over the wheel arches that was actually a functional thing at least up front and not just placed on there for style and finally we move under the hood in the 300sl now to get under here you pull that latch under the dashboard on the driver's side you pull it really hard and that unlatches the hood and then it's front hinged so you just lift it up there's no secondary release under the hood because it's front hinge so there's no real risk of it like blowing up accidentally while you're driving you just lift it up and then kind of latch it into place and you can see the engine this is a three liter six cylinder engine and it had some interesting advancements for one this is fuel injected rather than carbureted like basically every other car from its time this was very advanced it was sort of the forefront of technology and fuel injection was a pretty big deal also this engine is tilted like 45 degrees in order to make it fit in here and in order to get it mounted as low as possible to keep the weight as low as possible and the center of gravity as low as possible which help for handling and performance on the race track now as for power these made 215 horsepower in stock form or you could get an optional like power upgrade to boost it to 240 horsepower and the coupes all of the roadsters came standard with the 240 horsepower upgrade now that doesn't sound like a lot by modern standards but again the base model corvette from this time period had 150 horsepower porsche 356 had 130 this was a monster by comparison and it did zero to 60 and like the low nine second range again not incredibly fast but compared to other sports cars it was huge so huge in fact that this was the fastest production car on the planet when it was built it could do around 160 miles an hour which was a serious figure and this had the title of the world's fastest production car for a few years the bugatti veyron of its time but anyway next a few general sl things i want to cover for one i mentioned earlier that the coupe was like the performancy racy version and the roadster was more for like touring and relaxed driving and that was true in a lot of ways i already mentioned all the convenience and luxury features the roadster added but it was also about weight the roadster is about 275 pounds heavier than the coupe even though the roadster didn't have a roof largely due to added stuff and changing around the subframe the coupe was the lightweight racier version of this car with fewer compromises now as for pricing when this car was new the coop it started around 6 800 back in 1954 which translates to about 70 000 today a pretty good bargain when the roadster came out a few years later it had a starting price of around 11 000 it was a lot more expensive that's about 110 to 115 000 today but still not that crazy when you think about buying the fastest car in the world and obviously values have skyrocketed since then as everybody gravitates towards this iconic car now one other interesting thing i want to cover is that the coupe came first and then later the coop went out of production and the roadster came there's this common misconception that you could sort of choose between one or the other but that wasn't really true they built the coupes throughout the mid to late 1950s and then the factory actually completely switched over to make roadsters and they stopped building the coops they were never really being built or available at the same time the coupe came first and the roadster came later with its added luxuries now in the end mercedes built more roadsters than they did coops interestingly but it is the coupe that has become the icon due to its legendary gull wing doors and speaking of the legend of this car i want to finish by talking about styling design i truly find this car to be one of the most beautiful cars ever built at any time by anyone ever it is absolutely gorgeous and the lines look amazing and incredible even 50 60 70 years later mercedes-benz has tried to replicate the look of this car with some of its newer supercars and sports cars the slr followed by the sls which also had gullwing doors followed by now the amg gt but none have quite equaled the true brilliance and iconic status of the original 300 sl design this car was incredibly gorgeous and it still looks incredibly gorgeous today it turns everyone's heads deservedly so i think one of the most beautiful cars ever conceptualized and so those are the quirks and features of the mercedes-benz 300sl gullwing now it's time to get it out on the road and see how it drives all right driving the 300 sl this is quite an amazing experience the awe that you feel getting behind the wheel of this car is such a special and iconic and legendary car and i'm so excited to be able to do this first thing i notice when i'm sitting here it's a little tight in this interior especially for legs and knees if you're tall you'll have a little bit of a problem but i can do it six foot three six foot four long legs kind of feels like about the maximum um kind of depending on how your body is distributed i would say the next thing i noticed and i'm really surprised to report this the shifter action and the clutch is like fine the clutch is pretty heavy but it's very linear very easy to figure out where you are and the shifter i've driven a lot of old cars with disastrous shifters they're vague you don't know what you're doing you don't know where anything is this one isn't like that it feels fairly similar to a modern car four-speed manual and they're just in like an h pattern basically nothing too unusual or weird about that now driving this car i love i love to hear the sound of it i love the sound of the six-cylinder engine it's amazing and i just love how wonderfully mechanical and special this car really feels you can tell you're looking out over these front fenders that are so iconic and so beautiful you're looking at this incredible dashboard you see 300 sl printed there on the deck i mean it's incredible this is it's just an amazing experience just the feeling you get driving this car and i have to say it's easier to pilot it's easier to drive than i was thinking it would be one interesting thing i've always kind of wondered about these cars a lot of vintage exotic and special sports cars are incredibly compromised i've driven countach it's a complete disaster ferraris from the 60s and 70s i've driven there's a lot of compromises made but you see a lot of these at vintage car events now one reason is they made not an incredibly small number there's 2700 around but i think also it's part because they're pretty drivable if you want kind of an iconic vintage car this is one that you can actually use and of course the cool thing about mercedes-benz is they still support these cars with parts and with servicing at these mercedes-benz classic departments unlike some companies like audi you can't you can get parts and you can keep these cars on the road pretty easily god it's just amazing to be able to sit in this car this is such a special incredibly special experience you really just feel it's incredible i mean this is so cool this is one of the coolest cars of all time one of my all-time dream cars i really think it's one of the coolest and most beautiful and most special cars ever made now the turn signals don't cancel you gotta remember to do that themselves you have a little red light that blinks and warns you that they're still on it doesn't tell you which one you just have to know that it's pretty common in cars from this era i'm amazed at how relatively easy this car is to drive it's just not all that difficult frankly and getting up there starts to move and it feels reasonably quick no seatbelts in this car so you do have a little bit of added terror when you're driving around you're not really sure if you're going to get an accident and survive although frankly if i crash this car i'd probably rather not survive this is the 19th 300sl ever built so it's a pretty special and unique and exciting car i really am amazed by how well this car is put together and how nice it feels how like well put together it feels so many of these vintage cars you just feel like they're a complete disaster honestly but and the the charm of the car is in the way that it looks and in this car honestly it actually drives and feels like a pretty good car like a pretty well-built and well-executed car and it's still you know even by modern standards it's reasonably comfortable there's no stupid rattles the ergonomically it makes sense except for all the unlabeled switches the shifter and clutch everything works well it's quite interesting actually driving this car it gives you and i mean this is mercedes-benz kind of at their finest this is what they do they build these really um you know peerless cars that are just fantastic and especially at that era they had that amazing reputation now one interesting thing you know driving this car on the road obviously for this channel i've reviewed a lot of cars some of which are our value as valuables this one or even more zondas and koenigsens and all that the thing that makes this car really special is just the iconic status you know when you review a new bugatti obviously that's a very special car whatever but it's a new car it doesn't have this sort of legend behind it that this car has and some cars you know their legends grow as they as they age and this is one of those cars with that said you still do feel the responsibility of this obviously this car is tremendously valuable and so you're always a little bit nervous at any given moment most other people on the road don't realize they think they're just next to some old car and they don't quite realize that they're next to one of the most expensive things that they'll expensive cars they'll ever encounter and so you are always a little bit nervous driving it steering feels nice and heavy and i like a car with good heavy steering the car doesn't float as much as i was expecting it to it does feel like a sports car actually even by modern standards you really have sort of that kind of focused enjoyable sports car experience now one interesting thing is the people at the classic center they were all telling me the roadster is the technically better car it has a better rear axle setup for better for a little bit better like driving easier more more manageable driving basically and it just is sort of a better overall car e63 behind us he's very excited everybody is people who know this car i mean how often do you see a 300sl on the road but you know the roadster had some other creature comforts like i mentioned earlier and so there were a lot of actual improvements to the roadster but you want the coupe this is this is this is one of the few cars in the world where the coop is more valuable because these doors are just such a special thing that's my real takeaway from this especially having driven lamborghinis and ferraris from a little bit later era 70s they're not like this this car seems to be better put together even 20 years before cars like the countach and the ferrari boxer camera phones out the windows that's something you got to deal with driving a 300sl overall incredible experience this car is absolutely amazing really really beautiful obviously but it drives well too it's not incredibly fast by modern standards but the iconic status of this car is what you're what you're looking for and it really is one of the great icons of all time and it's amazing to drive and so that's the 1954 mercedes-benz 300sl gull wing one of the most amazing and special and iconic and legendary cars ever built for me this is in the top five most beautiful cars of all time and it is truly an occasion when you see one of these anyway now it's time to give the 300sl a doug score starting with the weekend categories and styling the goal wing is an absolute icon of beauty and it gets a 10 out of 10. acceleration 0 to 60 is above 8 seconds and it gets a 1 out of 10. handling is surprisingly good secure and stable quicker than i expected and it gets a 5 out of 10. fun factor is also better than i thought driving this car is mostly pleasure and not that much work like some older vehicles still it's not exceptionally fast or insane and it gets a six out of ten cool factor however is the ultimate this is one of the coolest cars ever made and it gets a 10 out of 10 for a total weekend score of 32 out of 50. next up are the daily categories and features the gold wing doesn't have much and it gets a one out of ten comfort is actually okay it's a bit tight inside but the ride is reasonably compliant and the seats are decent and it gets a 5 out of 10. quality is good these are relatively reliable for vintage exotic cars the materials are gorgeous and it gets a 7 out of 10. practicality is only okay there's room for two and luggage but not much room since the trunk is taken up by a tire still it ekes out a two out of ten finally value and these are big money over a million bucks for a fairly normal one which is a ton of money but you're also buying one of the all-time automotive icons and it's not like it's losing value it gets a 7 out of 10 for a total daily score of 22 out of 50. added up and the dug score is 54 out of 100 which places it here against some other relevant cars i don't often test older cars there's not much to compare it to but the goal wing is just a point behind the ferrari 250 gt luso which came out a decade later the gold wing is a truly special car and i consider myself incredibly lucky that i had the opportunity to review it [Music] you

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 588,203

Rating: 4.9503379 out of 5

Keywords: 300sl, 300sl gullwing, 300sl review, 300sl gullwing review, mercedes 300sl, mercedes 300sl gullwing, mercedes 300sl gullwing review, mercedes 300sl review, mercedes gullwing, mercedes gullwing review, gullwing, gullwing review, doug demuro, demuro, doug de muro

Id: Rj814rcfsmk

Length: 35min 19sec (2119 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 12 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Pseudonym_741]

Dashboard-mounted ash tray or dashtray. Eat your frunk out, Tesla.

[u/pryan886]

I’m excited for the early Mosler Consulier model in the Cars & Bids ad. If I recall, there was some controversy with this being the “fastest production car” at the time and Mosler offering a cash bounty for anyone that could beat it. I hope Doug gets a chance to review later Moslers, like a modern MT900, which can be built street legal and are absolutely insane.

[u/andrewmackoul]

my favorite line in the video:

"if I crash this car I'd probably rather not survive..."

[u/Saturno_V]

/u/Doug-DeMuro how terrifying was driving this car? I imagine it would be quite nerve wrecking.

[u/pryan886]

u/Doug-DeMuro: I don’t review old cars.
MB Classic Center: How about a 300SL Gullwing?
u/Doug-DeMuro: Well, now that you mention it…

[u/safety3rd]

Took guts to remove that window.

[u/C4RS200]

Wow, the Consulier GTP! Now that's a quirky car!

Obviously the 300 SL is an icon, such a great design and every time I see I have to stop and stare in awe

[u/ChimkenNumggets]

Doug your enthusiasm is infectious and always puts me in a great mood. I get excited watching you live out your automotive dreams in the older and more unique cars, even when the videos don't perform as well.

[u/yullnevakno]

Finally something quirky and amazing. As much as I enjoy Doug's videos, it's the oddities and interesting cars that drew me to his channel. Obviously transitioning to modern, new, "regular" cars makes financial sense but having stuff like this is definitely a breath of fresh air.