Unique Mittelgruen painted Mercedes 300SL Gullwing available.
Wealthy fans of the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Garing have a chance to get their hands on the only example to have left the factory in the striking green color known as Mittelgrün, which means "medium green" in German.
The car is being offered for sale in Hemmings by dealer NV Classics for an asking price of $2,595,000.
This is a steep price even for an original gullwing, and a significant premium over the $1,815,000 it fetched at a Mecum auction just one year ago.
This car is a number-matched 1955 example with a chassis number ending in "263." The car was originally shipped to Mercedes-Benz Distributors of New York, Mercedes' U.S. import distributor at the time. This distributor was Max Hoffman, who convinced Mercedes to turn the original SL racing car into the 300SL sports car, making it available for sale in the US.
The early history of the green 300SL is unknown, but it was purchased by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation in 1973 and displayed regularly in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum Collection until 2020. late 2000s. It was fully restored, and before the last sale, touch-up work was performed by Mercedes' expert restorer, Scott Grant for Company.
This sale also includes a copy of the original build sheet.
Like all 300SLs, this car is powered by a fuel-injected 3.0-liter inline 6-cylinder engine. This engine, which in its original form produced 215 hp (a 240 hp upgraded camshaft option was offered in later years), was mated to a four-speed manual and spun the rear wheels.
A total of 1,400 300 SL Gullwings were built between 1954 and 1957, 29 of which were lightweight models with aluminum bodies (instead of steel) that helped reduce weight by 187 pounds. One of those cars was sold in 2022 for approximately $7 million.
