Petersons Ford book 3rd edition 1973 Holding it in my hands now it was red with Cragars and gold nerf bars with gold stone guards on the rear fenders...He bought the car brand new
Sorry for this, but I'm not loving it. If you told me it was rescued from the scrappers I'd buy into it, but to take a mint expensive (even then) car and paint it that way doesn't work for me.
the uncle rebuilt an engine from one of his buddies 300SL.....the fun of it was the car went through a divorce without that original engine.....the buddie had said keep the engine after the body was sold off......one day in the mid 60's someone showed up to pay for that rebuild and more....to get the pink slip....only in Cali....gotta luv it.....
Funny you say NY My father had told me that there was a doctor across the street from where he lived that had one in the 50's and he was relocating to California and rather than ship the car he sold it....my father could not believe it...not saying its that one but made me think of it
He put an 80 year old P-51 fighter pilot in it. Bob Inspection line at Bonneville-Bob Sirna with the umbrella But more than that, Sirna hired John Fitch to drive the car. For those of you who don’t know who John Fitch is, here is a short CV: born in 1917 in Indianapolis; his stepfather worked for Stutz; he flew a P-51 Mustang for the US Army in WWII when he actually shot down a Messerschmitt Me 262; he too was shot down over Germany and became a prisoner of war. Following the war he hooked up with Briggs Cunningham and raced the 1951 Le Mans 24 Hrs. In 1955 he won the production class in the Mille Miglia driving a factory Mercedes-Benz 300 SL. That year he was teamed with Pierre Levegh at Le Mans on the factory Mercedes team. Levegh drove the first (and last) stint in the race, running into an Austin Healey and launching himself into the crowd, killing himself and 80 spectators. In 1960 Fitch drove a Corvette for Cunningham at Le Mans and won the GT class placing 8th overall.
The Sirna car is here in MI. Will be seen at a concours event or 3 this year, heard it's 1st stop was Amelia Island. It's also in the St John's concours too but not sure about Pebble Beach. When that paint was done on the topic car it was, well, a car. Upper crust maybe but still a car. Were I to have a say in it's future it stays just like it is. You can see a silver/red/white/black one all restored any time, you see this once.
Earl was a "Statement" kind of guy he owned A Bar or two in Hollywood and his cars were often out front or cruising the Blvd. with the rest of the Kids, he came to many of the early Throttlers Picnics and was always fun to talk to. One time I asked him about the "Motor" in his 40 coupe and he lectured me for 10 minutes on Motors were electric and his 40 had an engine, he showed it to me after the lecture, I think Cong Jackson and maybe others built his flatheads. He'd rant about Chevy SBC engines in a Ford and Rave about how flatheads , built right would beat them easily. A real Hot Rod Character he was. JW
Yes, Bob is coming to Bonneville this year with the engine in a MB coupe or sedan to try for that record. The engine is dirived from a MB taxicab engine and makes over 500 HP on gas with no blower. We had a nice conversation on the phone through a mutual friend Joe Fontana.
Jay Leno has a 300SL that was painted by Junior Conway and upholstered by Tony Nancy back in the day, but then it went into storage for decades before Jay found it. Today it's kind of rough around the edges, but he's fixed it all up mechanically and he apparently plans to keep it that way. You can find a video about it on his website, it's a pretty cool car.
Von Dutch was painting that car in Barris' shop when Dean Jeffries was working on his Porsche. Dean saw the roof vents and decided he wanted some on the Carrera. So he had Bill Hines make some...
Wasn't the story on Bruce's SL that it was only repainted the first candy color after it was rebuilt after a fire? Sent from my SM-G930V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
It might be true, but after reading and memorizing the little books (and more,) I trust what was written very little . Seems like a lot of those people were story tellers. probably thought, who will know or care. i.e. It was written the dream truck was mounted on a '41 chev coupe frame. when it was pictures rolled over because of the wreck, didn't look like a '41 chev coupe frame to me.. When I first saw the Kopper Kart, it had story about the engine, a big deal. Years later found it had a six cylinder injun. Also Tex and Bud, were paid to write, not to get it right.. ALL THE BULL THEY SPREAD, WOULD HAVE COVERED THE EARTH.. On and on the stories go.. Only fussy fact checkers care. put me in that part of the room
When I was 14, now a couple of weeks away from 70 I worked on Saturdays at Stamford Studebaker and Mercedes cleaning and helping mechanics. My uncle Frank was a car salesman there and got me the job. $5.00 for 4 hours Saturday morning. Anyway I got a chance to be in Clark Cable's 300 SL that was touring all the dealers for a short stay in their showrooms. At the time I thought the coolest cars there were the V8 Larks. They were pretty peppy!
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