Rare junkyard Mercedes-Benz set to sell for $9 million

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A classic Mercedes-Benz left in a junkyard for decades and stripped for spare parts – after it was driven into with a forklift – is expected to fetch as much as $US6 million ($AU8.97 million) at Sotheby's auctions in the United States.

The 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300SL 'Alloy Gullwing' is one of only 29 lightweight aluminium-bodied examples of the famous sports car built.

Codenamed 'W198', the 300SL coupe – named 'Gullwing' for its upward-opening roof-hinged doors – was produced between 1954 and 1957, while a cabriolet was offered until 1963.

Far from pristine, the Mercedes-Benz up for auction is the only aluminium-bodied Gullwing to come from the factory with Schwarz black paintwork – since repainted silver – and a red leather interior, making it a genuine one-off combination.

With 73,387 kilometres on its metric odometer, the vehicle includes matching numbers for its engine, gearbox and components as well as its original 'Leichtmetallausfuhrung' – meaning Light Metal Version – factory aluminium-alloy body.

Despite laying idle in the Los Angeles junkyard since 1977, Sotheby's expects the rare Mercedes-Benz to sell for between $US4.5-6 million ($AU6.7-$9 million) when it goes under the hammer as part of The Junkyard: The Rudi Klein Collection.

While the 300SL became a legendary supercar – essentially a road-going version of Mercedes-Benz W154 Le Mans-winning race car – the Klein Collection car has a chequered past of its own.

Documents show the car was purchased by Ferrari legend Luigi Chinetti – an Italian race driver who won Le Mans three times including the 1949 race where he drove for almost the entire 24 hours.

Chinetti also established Ferrari’s North American Racing Team (NART) team after importing the first Ferrari road cars to the US in collaboration with company founder, Enzo Ferrari.

With the 300SL shown at the 1954 International Motor Sports Show in New York – targeting US-based customers – it's believed Chinetti bought the rival Mercedes-Benz to examine its space-age technology as he set up Ferrari dealers in North America.

Chinetti met Rudi Klein at the 1976 Daytona 500 stock car race where he agreed to sell Klein the Mercedes-Benz for $US30,000 ($AU44,850).

After arriving in Klein's LA junkyard in March 1977, the car was left undriven, although over the years Klein sold the bumpers and gear-shift knob, as well as the tool kit, jack and original spare wheel from the vehicle.

It had the most action in 1981 when Klein says he backed into the iconic Mercedes-Benz while he was driving a forklift, leaving a dent in the rear still visible today.

The damage will do little to deter collectors, with the scarcity of the aluminium-bodied versions – including many lost to racing over the decades – keen for an original piece of truly iconic motoring history. 

The sleek body was Friedrich Geiger’s work. He later hired Bruno Sacco, the now-legendary Mercedes-Benz designer who died last month. He said seeing the 300SL as a teenage motor show-goer inspired him to work for the German car maker.

The 300SL's aerodynamic shape was draped over a revolutionary tube-frame chassis with four-wheel independent suspension, but beyond its head-turning looks was world-beating performance.

The rarer aluminium-bodied 300SLs – which were between 95kg and 160kg lighter than the 1295kg steel versions – are worth significantly more than steel-bodied versions of the famous two-seat sports car, and come with a number of mechanical upgrades beneath the svelte skin.

The 'Alloy' 300SLs included an uprated engine making 240hp (197kW), 20hp (15kW) more than the standard 'M198' 3.0-litre single-overhead cam in-line six-cylinder petrol engine.

The 'NSL' engine, which stands for 'Nockenwelle Sport Leicht' – meaning 'camshaft sport light', also shared the standard 300SL's Bosch direct fuel injection and fed power through a four-speed manual transmission with synchromesh gears to the rear wheels.

Lightweight versions also featured a 4.11:1 differential ratio to enable faster acceleration, but the Klein car was optioned with a 3:42:1 set-up – plus lighter alloy wheels and 'Plexiglas' side and rear windows.

The combination enabled a top speed of 140mph (225km/h) and a standing 0-60mph (0-97km/h) acceleration time of 7.7 seconds.

An aluminium-bodied 300SL sold for $US6.85 million ($AU10.24 million) at the same 2022 Sotheby's auction where a steel SL 300 sold for $1.71 million ($AU2.55 million) – although neither had forklift damage.

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