One of the cars they mentioned as “beautiful” was the Mercedes 300SL gull wing. Which I don’t think was a particularly attractive car ... unless you opened the doors. And who drives around with the doors open?
And it wasn’t a very good car, either. Gull wing doors are problematic to park. The SL’s door sill was almost as wide as the seats. The inboard rear brakes overheated and the car was marginal on stability.
But it’s famous because it would do 160 mph and it’s got funky doors.
In fact, the thing had a 12-qt oil tank, and you were supposed to adjust the oil level to suit the speed and range you intended driving.
“Honey, I have to go to the grocery. Would you take five quarts of oil out of the car for me?”
Ok, you two have got me wanting to take a trip down ‘Memory Lane’
“One of the cars they mentioned as “beautiful” was the Mercedes 300SL gull wing. “
There is a raw brutishness to it. I much prefer the 300 SL. One day while we had our 300 SEL 6.3 in the shop @ European Motors (Portland, insane Oregon) there was a 300 SL on their showroom floor - I fell in LOVE with it but could not afford the $13,500 price tag...Did you ever see the movie Pillow Talk? Tony Randall is trying to give Doris Day a red 300 SL and a Cop wants them to move it...great scene!
I actually knew a family that had TWO gull wings...they were their ‘day-to day’ drivers...I’m NOT kidding...
““Honey, I have to go to the grocery. Would you take five quarts of oil out of the car for me?””
My friend Tom’s grandmother died and left him with +/- $250,000 — this was in 1978. Tom was 18.
Tom turbo-charged his 240 Z (remember when Buick put a turbocharger on one of their cars???? My Uncle in CA bought 8 of them for fleet cars @ his business...)
Tom’s engine blew-up. (so did all of my uncles cars). Tom rebuilt the engine correctly and that car was FAST! A Doctor in SF had a ‘77 930 that he had modified the rear end to cover BIG (345) Pirelli tires (all 100% metal - no fiberglass) and Tom bought that car from the DR’s. widow.
I thought the 240 was quick!
He became known as ‘Two Turbo Tommie’...then he ordered from Vaschek Pollock, JR a ‘79 930 paint to speck and used his ‘77 to race at PIR.
OK — about the oil: One day I was with Tom in his ‘79 and I noticed he had an oil gauge which indicated 1 qt. low. Tom said: ‘It’s no big deal. It holds 15 quarts because it’s air cooled.’
My neighbors to the south had a Mini-Moke (this was at the beach in northern Oregon). Cool car in BRG. I never knew their son well, he was 5+ years older than me...the father taught his son about mechanics by rebuilding BOTH of his Ferraris engines...
While we are on the subject of Ferraris:
I personally knew and liked Ron Tonkin — he sold lot’s of cars. He had a 250 GTO Daytona convertible in fly yellow — what a stunner!. New it was $24,000. It was stolen one day...three days later it was found, the drivers door had a dent in it. The thief asked the arresting officer: ‘Who owns this car?’ Obviously the police remained mute and after a short silence the thief said: ‘Well whoever it is tell him it will do 150 no sweat!’
These wonderful automobiles just were not expensive in the late 60’s to the end of the 70’s.
One neighbor of mine had two Giahs. Really cool cars. He let me sit in one of them once...
The favorite cars that my father had were 2) Peugeot 504 wagons (slugs but the suspension was fantastic), a Rover 3500 S and our ‘70 280 SL - I drove that car thousand of miles...I’d like to have one someday, or I’ve been thinking of a Citroen 2CV Charleston — it would be better here in rural SW Montana.
Thank you both for your comments. It all went to crap after my mother contracted her second cancer - a brain tumor.
I miss Sir Chode immensely and on the 27th Mrs. BBB333 has her last biannual PET scan for her two cancers. March 30, 2026 is five years following her last surgery.
You can take all of the cars in the world and they mean nothing when someone is ill.
Peace to you all, FRiends.
BBB333