A Mercedes 300 SL Roadster from the Gene Ponder assortment is up on the market at an public sale organised by Sotheby’s public sale home on 22-24 September.
Picture: Sotheby
In 1956 gross sales of the Mercedes 300 SL Coupe started to say no and Mercedes determined to provide a roadster model of the 300 SL. The Mercedes 300 SL Roadster was introduced on the Geneva Motor Present in March 1957. The roadster was not fairly as uncommon because the coupe, with barely extra examples produced: 1,858 in comparison with 1,400 for the coupe. However the Mercedes 300 SL Roadster is a sought-after collector’s automotive and its worth is approaching 2 million USD.
The mannequin provided at Sotheby’s public sale is a part of the Gene Ponder assortment, which incorporates 120 automobiles, bikes and boats within the East Texas city of Marshall. His assortment additionally consists of, amongst different automobiles, a 1956 Porsche 350 A 1600 Speedster, a 1967 Ferrari 330 GTC and a 1960 Maserati 3500 GT Spyder plus mascots, traditional signage, juke packing containers and gasoline pumps.
The Mercedes 300 SL Roadster provided at public sale was delivered on 25 March 1960 to the Orbis Buying and selling Firm, the Mercedes importer in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Though it was delivered to Ethiopia, the automotive has USA specification with Dunlop tyres, Becker Mexico radio, 3.89 ratio axle, instrument cluster with speedometer in miles, sealed beam headlamps and white material roof plus hardtop which was accessible as an choice from September 1958. The automotive was painted white and had crimson leather-based upholstery.
The historical past of the automotive in Ethiopia is just not identified however it’s assumed that it was shortly exported to the USA. In 1988 it was bought by classic automotive racer Roy Walzer who took it for a whole restoration to famous specialist Paul Russell and Firm in Essex, Massachusetts. However right here it was noticed by certainly one of Russell’s purchasers, Ervin “Bud” Lyon, who satisfied Roy to promote it to him.
The automotive was saved at Russell’s storage from 1988 to 2009 and in 1995 it was restored in response to Lyon’s personal specification. The automotive was painted darkish crimson and Cognac leather-based upholstery changed the previous crimson leather-based upholstery.
Later, the automotive was offered to 300 SL collector Invoice Kling of California and in August 2018, it turned a part of the gathering of Gene Ponder who had owned a number of Mercedes 300 SL Coupe fashions through the years.
Ponder participated with this roadster in a number of Gullwing Group conferences in addition to the Copperstate 1000 race. Ponder stated he likes each fashions however the Roadster is “rather a lot cooler in Texas. You’ll be able to’t beat the Germans for engineering. I did the 300 SL Rally final yr on this automotive with out one flaw”.
The automotive was serviced to the automotive’s specs and at least $14,000 was spent to maintain it in good rally-ready situation.
The automotive is delivered with the identical Cognac leather-based baggage, spare wheel, unique device package
the estimated promoting worth is between 1,7 and 1,9 million USD being justified by the distinctive situation of the automotive.
