The final Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing ever built is a $3.5m red supercar

This is the last ever Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing ever built, and – at least according to TopGear.com’s exacting research – the first to be named after an episode of Friends. Welcome to what auction house RM Sotheby’s is calling ‘The Last One’.

Because it’s that. The last of 1,400 SL Gullwings, and therefore the final version of the prettiest and most desirable car Mercedes-Benz has ever built.

This particular car was completed on 15 May 1957, built as a special order ‘Standwagen’ to, well, stand at the 1957 Poznan International Trade Fair. Whoever crafted it bucked The 300 SL Rules by not outfitting this Silver Arrow in silver, instead finishing it in ‘Fire Engine Red’ – genuinely, the name of the paint code – together with cream leather insides.

After its appearance at the Poznan Trade Fair, the car was shipped to the States, and over its long, “very fortunate life” it’s reportedly seen just four owners. The most recent and current of the four – a private individual – has run the car for a whopping 25 years.

And it remains pretty much how it popped out of the factory gates back in 1957. Same colour, same chassis, engine, body, gearbox and front/rear axles.

A moment to remind you of each of those things: the 300 SL’s spaceframe chassis was derived directly from the racing W194 that spawned it, weighing just 50kgs. Its design meant normal doors couldn’t be fitted, so in came the gullwings.

The engine was again a derivative of the racing 3.0-litre straight six, here producing around 215bhp, allowing a 155mph top speed – depending on the gearbox’s final drive ratio. That of course, made it the fastest production car of its time, and arguably the world’s first ‘super’ car.

And this ‘super’ car will likely command a very ‘super’ price. RM Sotheby’s reckons on anything between $2.5m and $3.5m when it heads to auction in Nevada on 22 November.

Though it’s the last Gullwing, it probably won’t be the last time you’ll see a Gullwing up for auction. Which is fine by us, because it remains the prettiest and most desirable car Mercedes-Benz has ever built.

Photography: RM Sotheby’s