When you say Gullwing, it only means one thing. Mercedes.

There are certain cars I’ve always admired but never thought I wanted to own. One was the Mercedes Gullwing. It looked like a heavy car to me. That, combined with them being extremely expensive, meant I’d never driven one. But the more I got involved with Mercedes-Benz, the more intrigued I became with the car.

I used to work in a Mercedes dealership and we took one in trade. We gave the guy 5000 dollars and sold it ten days later for 7500. We thought, nobody will ever make a profit on one of these.

Recently I got more and more intrigued with Gullwings, reading all the books. I heard there was a Gullwing that might be for sale. But it was in the desert in a container. The engine was out of it and the transmission was out. I opened the door and it felt really light. Then I sat in it. It was a classic, beautiful dashboard – analogue gauges, laid out logically.  

It was put away in about 1980. But even 30 years on, all the switches went ker-click, ker-click. Everything had a nice metallic sound and solid feel.

The guy selling it said it needed a lot of work and I told him I had a ’shop so that was OK. It’s the best way to buy a car. I’ve never bought a car that didn’t need totally redoing.

When the second owner got it, it was a nice old sports car,  expensive but not stupid money. He took it down to a place called Junior’s House of Colour. Junior was the hot rod painter and still is. He put a beautiful candy-apple red paint job on it. Then the car was taken to a man named Tony Nancy, who was a legendary hot rod upholstery guy. It looks beautiful. Even after all that time in the container, it just needed some hide food to bring it back to life.

So I decided to buy it, and when we brought it back to the ’shop we got it up on the lift and it was amazingly sound. We did the brakes and master cylinder, flushed the gas tank and went through the motor, including getting it up on the dyno.   

I’d heard scare stories about electrolysis between the aluminium and steel parts of the car. Luckily, rust is not an issue here in California, especially in the desert, and this one was in very solid condition. The nicest surprise was not its condition but how it drove once we got it fixed up. So, after all these years of thinking it was heavy, I realise it is one of the greatest cars I have ever driven. I was astounded how light on its feet it is. It only weighs 2800lb and 240bhp is more than enough to move it down the road.   

It’s a car that gathers speed quickly. That might seem a strange way of phrasing it but I think it’s a good description. In the day nothing accelerated faster. I took it out on the freeway and the speedo said 100mph. I presumed it was wrong but a guy out with me on his bike said we were at 105 and rock solid at that speed. Now it’s like my favourite car to drive.

For now I am not going to restore it. I like it as it is. It’s a perfect classic daily driver. I remember reading an English magazine where the writer reported seeing a Countach parked with the interior littered with crumpled potato chip wrappers and discarded soda cans. I thought, that’s kind of cool. Having the ratty paint job, you can take it into a fast food joint and park it. Maybe one day I will restore it. But you could spend 0,000 making it brand new and it will still drive like it does now.

I’d only just got the original Gullwing when Mercedes asked if they could show the new Gullwing, the SLS AMG, to some guests at my garage. This car is Mercedes-Benz’s way of saying we value and respect our heritage. There is no other reason to build it but for pride and to show that lightning can strike twice.

In some ways the new car is superior to the original. In the ’50s they couldn’t put a five-speed in because it would have pushed the price through the roof, and they would have liked to have had disc brakes. The new one has ceramic brakes and seven-speed double-clutch transmission; they started at a higher level.
It’s made by AMG, who are hot rodders with engineering degrees.  

Like the original it handles beautifully and has great performance. But to me the quirkiness of the gullwing doors is the key selling point. Just like the original. When you say Gullwing, it only means one thing. Mercedes.