you know born fun or we find lots of vehicles or like you know Falcons and
Chevelle's and we're like to find you know rare cars but we don't you don't
have a choice we finally find and we're about to see a car that we can't tell
you who owns it and we can't tell you where it is if we have a guy in the car
who is known about this car since he was a young guy since he was a kid 1616 Bill
Warner who was the founder and chairman of the Amelia Island Concours to show us
a car that is one of the most desirable on the planet it's a good day here we
are in front of a door and I've not seen what's inside there but this man has
seen it I think when he was 16 16 years old this is Bill Warner a chairman and
founder of Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance in Florida and I don't know
where we are we had to blindfold ourselves to get
here but bill once you take it over well this car belongs to a longtime friend of
mine and and like I said I saw when I was 16 years old it is a true garage
barn-find it's a fabulous car that is all original I mean all originally was
done in primer many many years ago with the anticipation of repainting it's
never been repainted all the chrome trims off and is in the car shall we
tell him what it is or unveil it let's unveil it I mean it's the 43rd Nash is
that what it is yeah
there yeah the forty-third mercedes-benz 300sl Gullwing built and you can tell
the early cars because of the bolt on eyebrows over the wheels seriously is
that yeah the later ones that had they had a
molded in these have a little gaskets behind them look at him hold on and
there are a lot of little subtle differences we've had some friends for
Mercedes look at the car and the grilles different from the later cars it was
more hand fabricated so this is a very very early you could almost call it a
prototype they were still in the learning curve when this car was being
said tell me tell me you ever seen this the first time yeah it was on the second
floor of a building in a undisclosed City and they had several cars there
they had a 41 Cadillac fastback but this one struck me is particularly unique
because it you know even even back then when I was 16 years old this was a super
car wasn't in primer we use this like that just like that yeah so this car is
what year it's a 54 54 and it was last on the road when do you think oh I don't
know I did look probably in 56 57 the gentleman who owned it drove it for
about two years I think you told me paid somewhere around $4,000 for it new which
was a princely sum back in those days because a new one was about six thousand
seven thousand dollars now look at all the rubber around here oh yeah and so
this was kept in it in a non cool and you have just like in a warehouse and
this is original dirt I mean this is you you don't see something like this very
often I'm still on the original I think they're on globe air tires no kidding
oh look at that yeah competition yeah releasing directional tires they had an
arrow pointing for the direction of the rotation I didn't know they had him back
I didn't either no outside rear view mirrors you know
none of that stuff that went along let's just stupendous I mean the car has not
been touched these vent I mean I guess these cockpits were pretty toasty yeah
that was a vent you know there's a lot of some styling cues
came off this car that later showed up in some American cars remember like the
58 Chevy Impala had the fake vents back there he got it from mercedes-benz the
twin ridges down the hood on this car were copied by Chevrolet for the 56
Corvette now did they have a function or was that purely styling this is I think
it's both functionally give strength to the hood okay but with Chevrolet it was
strictly styling they were trying to you know identify with the success and
certainly the mercedes-benz 300sl was the successful and iconic car of its
time now look at this decal look at this Sports Car Club of America look there a
date on it no but look at that don't take all the good dirt off this is
original dirt man look at that see how it was wonderful because somebody owned
this who likes sports cars not not a collector or investor yep if somebody
loves Reddy's cars and here it is all original right down to the hose clamps
hoses everything now obviously the car needs a full restoration I mean it would
be nice that this could be reconstituted without a full restoration unfortunately
this one over to require a full restoration so I'm assuming since the
wheels and the hubcaps are like a off-white that this body was also offer
but you've never seen it I'm there I've only seen it in primer I'm sure the
paint code will tell you what it is there's the plate over there was a paint
coat and I was trying to see if we get the number on this car is I'm pretty
sure four or five zero zero four three I'm sure it's 43 would you think about
all the goings that have been gone to restoration after restoration and this
is never been touched never been touched unbeliev
now I don't know anything about horsepower Robbie's yeah I forget it was
somewhere yeah some are a little over 200 I think 220 something like that you
have a rag stuffed in the throttle body so my stunt Queen has a good idea yeah
yeah bill check out the distributor cap yeah everything's melted
isn't that amazing yeah all the little rubber boots and just you look at all
this rubber trim around the hood around the windows but if you're around the
other side open open the door all the chrome trim everything's inside the
interior is all original Hey and you can see that they've taken the trim off and
just stored it inside but all the original terior all the bumpers trimmed
and the mileage on the air is thirty five thousand three hundred and eight
miles yeah very cool if this flips down here can you hold this work yeah yeah
it's still plating this poper yeah this these entering these cars took a little
bit gymnastics and and women and dresses did not like going Mercedes no they had
to cross this bridge here with the leg spread for the driver to get in it was
difficult yeah sorry minute but when you flip this
wheel down because a driver could slide it more easily
so what Bill was saying is that that star is actually handmade
yeah the earlier the earlier car is the star was done differently than the later
cars in fact when our guests for Mercedes looked at it they they had
questioned it but when they did some research they found that very early cars
were done or fabricated a little differently so this does look like his
hand made I can see almost see it's gonna hand beaten around there cool you
just don't find him like this no or if if they do I'm not aware of them I don't
know if this door opens so this one actually goes right up Wow so the bumper
I don't know if that's bent or if that's the way it's supposed to be know that
they curved around like that there is a little pinch in the top of it though
see there's this kind of an old English looking white color so that's why I
assume the car was that color Oh as a tool set all there's no tools in it
there's a tool bag I don't know if that's probably a jack rod or something
horn when she wipers blinker I'm afraid that something might jump out of me here
so these cars had didn't have like the Roadster headlights the head the round
headlights yeah this is the u.s. US car nice 300s cells logo here I guess there
was no glovebox it doesn't look like it it's cool bar down here what would you
say would cost to restore this car I'd hate the guess but somewhere north
of a half a million dollars in two years yeah to do it right right I wish we
could read that serial number yeah I mean I'm gonna call Michael Coons on the
serial number Michael Clint runs the mercedes-benz
classic Center and Irvine California mr. Coons I hope I didn't wake you up I got
a quick question for you on the Mercedes serial numbers like the one here four
five zero zero zero four three four five is it 54 or 55
it's a 54 that's what I thought yeah they don't do like 54000 of 43 but the
four indicates it's a 54 it's backwards what did they do that okay I'll let him
know all right bye-bye in Germany for
whatever reason the first two numbers for the year were reversed a 56 would
begin 65 a 54 would be a 45 and I said to my expert why he says I don't know
it's a German thing there you go according to the Haggerty
price guide in concourse condition which means concourse are the best in the
world they're clean there's no dirt in the tire treads all
the painted and chrome surfaces are mirror like there's no dust 1.3 million
dollars if we go down to excellent one one stepped down 1.1 million dollars if
we go to the third level good is 1 million dollars which they say is the
average price for a going between all all different levels of condition and in
fair condition number four is nine hundred and forty thousand dollars now
this they increase that by if it has Rudge na cloth wheels which are the
accessory wheels add fifty thousand dollars for those wheels well this does
not have the Raj knockoff wheels Edie this is something twenty thousand
dollars forfeited luggage there was luggage it was fitted into the trunk of
this car well it doesn't have fitted luggage oh I don't know it may be in
there but I doubt it we can't get the trunk open it says add $2,500 for the
Becker radio and there is no radio in this car so this car fair condition I
think fair has to run this probably doesn't run so I guess this is worth
something in the area of $900,000 the way it sits is what I'm guessing it
would hit you would have to have some estate ease bench specialists come here
to do an actual appraisal on it but one of the most valuable cars we've ever
found on this series for sure I guess I guess we'll put this back in a tomb and
close the door and maybe I'll come back in 20 years we can look at it again I
hope we're both able to yeah thank you Bill
I'm gonna leave you in there right yeah we're back in 20 years