Unrestored 300SL beats restored with US$ 495,000

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Believe us, this is not a crusade against restored cars. Still this is a milestone in the collector car hobby. We have predicted this development some 15 years ago in the leading Dutch carmagazine Carros  and predicted the same for this particular case four weeks ago. This weekend showed in an unparalelled way what the future of exceptionally original cars is.  

Two quite similar Mercedes Benz 300SL cars were auctioned by the same auction house at the same venue (Gooding & Co, Scottsdale). One very nice restored two owner 1956 black with red leather interior sold at US$ 1,402,500 . The other a fully unrestored , also black with red leather interior sold at US$ 1,897,500 . What we can learn from this is what we already know, a car is original only once. Keep that in mind when you own or buy a very original, unmolested car. Adding new paint, chrome, rubber and leather is only a matter of money. Restoring a full wreck or a car which has gone from hand to hand over and over again is of course a good thing. Just keep this in the back of your mind: don't respray your slightly faded Van Gogh. There are many ways of preserving an exemplar of (automotive) art in a way the originality is not destroyed.

(Photos Gooding & Company)

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