(upbeat techno music)
- Hi, my name's Craig Eckberg
and this is my 1955 300 SL Gullwing.
I've had this car 18 years
and this is car number 399 out of production numbers.
(engine starting)
(car accelerating strongly)
The interior of the car is very purpose-built
as a typical race car would be.
It's just basic gauges and whatnot.
The reason the sills are so high
and the doors open as they do,
is that this car is built on a tubular chassis.
So it's basically a bunch of tubes welded together
to make the chassis.
And if I remember right, the chassis weighs something
like a couple hundred pounds.
It's pretty light.
So in order to do so, there's tubes that run up in here
and forced the manufacturer
to raise that door sill up like that
which makes it a little more challenging
to get in and out of.
So there's a special technique
for the guys that know their cars.
It's one leg in, one hand here
and then just drag the other hand in.
For really big people that have trouble,
there's a unique feature to the car
that is a fold-down steering wheel
to give you a little egress
access to the car.
(engine revving)
And you can see the layout in the car.
These actually have excellent visibility
all the way around.
And are much preferred in my opinion
to the Roadster which came out in '57
and replaced the Gullwing.
This car was built with a metal belly pan
on the bottom of it.
That was to give the car more aerodynamics on the track.
And because of the belly pan,
they took the air from the grill
and they exited it on the little side strakes on the side.
So this car has that
and all the air is pushed out to the side.
The Roadsters don't have belly pans
so all the engine heat rolls underneath the car
and creates a little more heat.
(engine revving)
(gears shifting)
The car is essentially a steel-bodied car
with aluminum doors, bonnet, and hood.
They did make 29 all-aluminum cars.
Those cars sell for about four times the normal price
of a Gullwing.
So if a Gullwing is $1.2 million to $1.5 million,
those cars are $4 million to $6 million,
depending on the car.
(engine revving and tires screeching)
The transmission is a four-speed, straight-cut gear box
so it creates a tractor-like sound, if you will.
It's rather pleasant to the ears, in my opinion.
And it's a 3000cc inline-six.
Basically, I did whatever work I needed to do
to get it ready for the track.
So it's got all the Mercedes racing springs,
sway bars, Koni shocks,
a few little things of that nature on the car,
nothing really out of the ordinary.
And then started vintage racing with my buddies
and I think I've done 75,000 miles in this car.
So we've had a great time with it.
It's been to Colorado Grand, Copperstate,
California Mille, all kinds of different events.
They're wonderful.
They have a habit
of scaring people that you have to drive it like a race car.
But when you do, it performs exactly as it's supposed to.
So there's a lot of trail steering in the car
and you need to drive it that way.
So you can't come off of the gas on a corner
and expect it to behave itself.
But if you come into the corners right,
add the right amount of power to it,
the car will point, add a little more gas,
it will set down
and send you down the road.
(engine revving and shifting)