For Sale 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing

German Rally Machine

According to this W198 Coupe’s factory supplied data card, this Gullwing was delivered new as it presents today in desirable DB 40 Black paint with a rarely seen 1080 dark red leather interior. As a special order example, this German delivery Gullwing was equipped with fully chrome plated wheels affixed to Continental tires and, though not specified in the options list on the standard data card provided by Mercedes-Benz, the car today retains its ‘NSL’ stamped original engine block with associated original factory block tag featuring what appear to be genuine factory engine upgrades towards use in sporting events.

These upgraded engine components are seen in all the ways one would associate with the factory ‘NSL’ sport performance package, notably  with regards to the ‘NSL’ stamping found in the appropriate location on the engine block, a proper R3 injection pump and also a rarely seen larger distributor for better spark towards performance ends. Whether this performance option addition of ‘NSL’ components was as a last-minute addition prior to delivery or applied to the car by Mercedes-Benz at a date shortly after delivery remains unknown, however, given the notable racing acumen of the Gullwing’s first owner, such an upgrade should not be surprising however it was first implemented.

This 300SL Gullwing departed Mercedes-Benz at Stuttgart on March, 14^th 1956 to its first owner, Rolf Goetze of Goetze Werke AG of Dusseldorf, Germany. Mr. Goetze, owner of a large Dusseldorf based manufacturing company known for making piston rings and other engine components, was a competition racer in period having driven mostly Porsche’s competitively at numerous tracks around Germany as well as abroad at famous tracks such as Spa and Monza. As notably shown in a black and white photograph contained in the car’s history file, Rolf Goetze is seen driving his black Gullwing sporting plate #1 at Rally Trifels in Germany, 1956.

Late in 1956, Goetze sold his unique, rally-ready 300SL Coupe to Huntington Hartford of Long Island, NY. Hartford would go on to own the car until 1959, at which point the car was sold to Dr. Robert Robertson of Rumson, NJ. On April 11^th, 1970, chassis 6500053 would be sold to the car’s longest tenured owner, Michael Quigley of Auburn, NY. The Gullwing was purchased by Mr. Quigley for a sum of $5,000 with 40,500 miles showing on the odometer. As noted in the 300SL’s ample history file, at the time of purchase by Quigley, the car still had original tires on the rear wheels, original dark red leather upholstery, fog lights in the front, black paint, a 3:25/1 rear end and a ‘racing camshaft’ as part of the ‘NSL’ engine package notably equipped on the car to this day.

Mr. Quigley would become the car’s last private owner, spending 53 years of his life as caretaker of a 300SL that, today, is an undeniably special and very original W198 coupe. Though portions of the car have certainly received paintwork, it appears to be the case that almost all the paint on the car is in fact nitrocellulose lacquer, which is correct for the type of paint used at the factory with respect to W198 Coupes when they were new. Setting aside the potential that original paint perhaps does in fact remain in certain areas, at the very least, if the car did receive a full repaint at some point, such a repaint occurred prior to 1970 when Mr. Quigley purchased the car, and almost certainly at latest was done in the early 1960’s, which was the time period when lacquer paint of the type used on factory sprayed Gullwings gave way to more stable paint type compositions such as those used on 300SL Roadsters.