Slant-Six Fuelie Mercedes 300SL, Parked for 48 Years in a Junkyard, Sold for Almost $10M

Out of the ashes of complete defeat rose the greatest sportscar of the 20th century, the Mercedes 300 SL, a model that would eventually become the most expensive automobile ever sold in the world (as of now, anyway).

Fastest Car In The World

The magic of the Widow Maker – the affectionate nickname is self-explanatory, I believe – resided not only in its superb performance (it was the fastest production car in the world in its heyday) but also in its scarcity and engineering prowess. Abiding by the German tradition of naming cars according to their piston displacement, the new coupe was given the ‘300’ commercial moniker, with the SL standing for Super Licht (Super Light in German).

The numeral 300 indicated three liters, arranged equally in a six-in-a-row architecture. The engine was a race-derived powerhouse featuring a marvel of internal combustion engineering – mechanical fuel injection. With 240 hp and 217 lb-ft, the motor was potent enough to push the car to 163 mph (263 kph).

Remember, this was the mid-fifties, and Ferrari was still making a name for itself on the racetrack, the Corvette was struggling to break the sales ice, Porsche was little more than a glorified Beetle, and Lamborghini didn’t even bother to exist in the car world.

Between 1954 and 1957, 1,400 copies were sold, but 29 of them were extremely special because of their ultra-lightweight body, made from aluminum instead of regular steel. German engineers played with horsepower and aerodynamics alike, making their car a sleek, low-slung missile. 

It sat so low above the ground that the occupants were engulfed in the tubular spaceframe from all sides, bar the roof. Hence, the odd choice of doors is solely dictated by the impossibility of designing a normal-opening door that would create an opening wide enough for an adult to pass through.

First Fuel-Injected Production Car 

Aluminum shell, powerful motor, air-splicing profile – the recipe for top speed was nearly complete, had it not been for one minor detail: the car was so low, the engine didn’t fit in the bay. Ever the ingenious minds, the Germans simply canted the block on its right side – a steep fifty degrees, mind you, and called it a day.

A four-speed manual transmission and a 3.42 rear axle were paired with the lightweight engine (other gearings were offered throughout the production years, up to 4.11, for quicker acceleration).

The price for a new one was $6,900 at the factory gate, but that was the base model, with a steel body and the less competitive straight six, rated only at 210 hp and 203 lb-ft. By comparison, a 1956 Corvette retailed at $3,120. The special aluminum 300SLs were in the range of $8,000 before other options were added.

Expensive? Maybe – but not nearly as expensive as they are today. I’ve said that the highest price paid for a car at an auction is currently the 2022 auction, where a 1955 300SL Uhlenhaut Coupe changed hands for $143 million. By comparison, the next three most expensive cars ever sum up to $152 million, so pretty much any 300SL is a prized jewel at any auction. 

The Mother of All Junkyard Digs

But a ten-million-dollar junkyard rescue isn’t everyone’s cup of tea – not by any standards. And yet, one German from Los Angeles actually bought a used ’56 Gullwing 300SL and kept it in his private treasure trove of parts donors for decades. Many decades until his heirs sold off the property last year. Rudi Klein was an oddball of a car collector who bought rare and expensive pieces only to let them bake in the California sun, collecting dust and aging like cheese.

We brought you the story back in October when the auction was held, and the biggest seller was a 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300SL ‘Aloy’ Gullwing. The name needs no further translation – it’s one of the examples with a rust-proof body, number 26 out of the 29-strong batch of aluminum Window Makers from 1956.

Its story is surreal and sometimes dystopian. Jay Leno has had it in his garage for a few days, shortly after the new owner paid 9,355,000 dollars in exchange for restoring one of the most complete and original Alloy Gullwings ever.

Curiously, Rudi Klein, who had amassed a spectacular array of rarities over the years, including a few Lamborghini Miuras, several classic Ferraris, a lot of Porsches, and Mercedes, didn’t buy these cars to flip them for high profit. Quite the contrary, he parted them – or even more mindboggling, he let them sit for no purpose whatsoever. He occasionally sold one or two but bought other ones so the junkyard wouldn’t be empty.

Sale Price After Twenty Years: Four Times More Than A New 1976 Corvette

This example shown in the video below is missing a few parts (bumpers and other non-essential accessories) and has a cracked rear because Rudi Klein backed a forklift into it back in 1981. At that point, he had been the proud owner of it for five years after buying it from its original owner at a car race. The 1976 Daytona 500, to be exact, where Rudi and Luigi met, shook hands, and the German spilled $3,000 to the Italian as an immediate downpayment of ten percent of the sale price.

You read that correctly; the twenty-year-old used car with some 73,387 kilometers on the clock (roughly 45,600 miles) cost the eccentric collector thirty grand half a century ago. Just for reference, the most expensive American-made automobile was the fabled Eldorado convertible, with a Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price of $11,049. Rudi could have easily bought three for the cost of the old Merc, but where was the fun in that?

After paying the $30,000 to the car’s owner, who, by the way, was none other than Luigi Chinetti, former 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, and the official Ferrari dealer in America (the brand’s most important market), Klein parked it for the rest of his life. Literally – his sons recall that this is the only car of his spectacular collection that he never drove or even showed to the select few to whom he’d choose to brag. 

The car is completely untouched, with 50 years’ worth of junkyard dust on it (although it stayed inside all this time), but all that will become history as the owner restores it to its original condition. How long that will take, and how much it will cost (and what will happen to it afterward), is another adventure we look forward to.