The Cuba Gullwing chronology


How the 300SL would have looked new. Wikipedia photo.
   IN SIX YEARS, no topic here has drawn more attention than the story of Cuba's rotting Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing Coupe. Visitors from around the world seem endlessly appalled and fascinated by the sad fate of such a rare and beautiful car. 
    The same analytics program that tells me the home nations of these visitors tells me where on this blog they land – and it's apparent that many are missing the full story (or as full as anyone has been able to make it). The world's largest Internet indexer – you know who I'm talking about – insists on routing the curious to a five-year post and refuses to make note of subsequent entries.
   Why? Who knows?
   To provide a more complete picture, here's a list of CARISTAS entries on the Gullwing, which, to be clear, was first brought to the world's attention by British auto historian Michael E. Ware in Automobiles Lost & Found (Haynes Publishing, 2008). 

Dec. 11, 2009: Discovered in Cuba: A rare Mercedes bird
Michael E. Ware shares details of the his visit to a district near Havana to see the silver Gullwing rusting amidst scrap outside a private garage. Location scout Tony Robertson tells of his own unsuccessful search for this same Gullwing. Links (one now defunct, unfortunately) offer views of two Gullwings in competition events in Cuba in 1957. 
As seen in the scrapyard. Michael E. Ware photo.

Dec. 13, 2009: Gullwing bits and pieces
More photos of the Gullwing and numerous 300SL parts in the same yard, as provided by Michael E. Ware. 

April 7, 2010: Tracking the Gullwing
A potential clue to the car's history is found in a novel by Rachel Kushner. 

June 14, 2010: Elvis in a Gullwing in Havana
A link to Pieralfonso Longo's photo from years earlier of a Cuban official in another 300SL Gullwing in Havana. Follow the link; you will not be disappointed.

Dec. 9, 2012: Gullwing and a prayer
World traveller Miguel Llorente, aided by clues from CARISTAS entries, sets out to locate the Gullwing.

Dec. 16, 2012: The young man and the 300SL
Miguel Llorente locates the Gullwing at a different site. The frame is twisted, the body riddled by corrosion. Still, says Miguel, finding the Gullwing has been "one of the most rewarding experiences of my life."

Feb. 5, 2013: The Gullwing: Watch it and weep
Miguel Llorente's YouTube video of the crumbling car.

Nov. 10, 2014: 25,000 photos, and the world's only known derelict Mercedes Gullwing
The Gullwing resurfaces, this time in the 2015 Degler Calendar by Piotr Degler Jablonski. In an interview, the young photographer describes his month-long mission to find the car. 
Captured for a calendar. Piotr Degler Jablonski photo.
A Craigslist ad for the 300SL is an obvious fake  – but is there a phony Gullwing somewhere wearing the Cuban car's VIN?



Comments

Jinawi said…
Opportunities are only area of the reason this is certainly one of the hottest cars to ever struck the tarmac. The fact the fact that 1957 Mercedes 300 SL was the speediest production car at the time, means driving on your ad group meetings in New york wouldn’t become a bore. Equally vehicles happen to be Mercedes 300s. The Gullwing was a great SL plus the four door used many letters depending on engine type.
February 9, 2018 at 2:27 AM
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Discovered in Cuba, a rare Mercedes bird

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(December 2012 note: See update link, below.)     GUESS I'LL have to set aside my search for the younger Batista’s 1956 Corvette. An even tastier trophy has emerged – a Mercedes-Benz 300SL, better known as the Gullwing.    Even on the Island of Surprises, I’d be astounded to come across one of these rare beauties. But in a brief section on Cuba in Automobiles Lost & Found (Haynes Publishing, 2008), I see a photo of a battered 300SL observed by author Michael E. Ware outside a private garage near Havana.    The Gullwing, unmistakable lift-up doors in place, is dented and rusting and missing its engine, yet still would be prized by collectors the world over . . . if only they could extract it from Cuba. Restored, the Silver Metallic example with Lipstick Red interior might be worth more than $700,000 U.S.    Reached in England, Mr. Ware tells me he was holidaying in Cuba when an acquaintance brought him to an unnamed community to see the car.    “I never asked whe
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