Someone Almost Got Scammed Chasing Down the Elusive Cuban Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing

Ed Bolian of VINwiki, on a recent episode of Car Stories, told an interesting tale about the elusive Cuban Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing.

In the world of collector class, some of the most hunted vehicles include El Chapo's McLaren F1, Uday Hussein's Ferrari F40, Nazi Mercedes fleet, among others. However, the granddaddy of the lot is the Cuban Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing.

To remind you, stories of a rotting Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing have been floating in the automotive car space for the last 27 years. It was a neglected gem rotting somewhere on an island in Cuba. For American classic car prospectors, It's the classic example of 'too close, yet too far.'

In 1958, there was a motorsports event in Cuba called the Grand Premio de Cuba. Two Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing examples participated; one was ivory-colored (the car in question). After the event, the vehicle remained in Cuba and was locked in after Fidel Castro came into power in 1959.

According to the story, it was driven until 1985 when the engine seized, and it was later parked under a banana tree in a lot with another classic Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster.

Jeremy Clarkson was the first to expose the story to a broader audience in 1996 in his Motorworld Series. In 2008, Michael Ware featured the elusive classic on Automobiles Lost and Found.

Soon after, a world traveler and classic car lover went on a treasure hunt for Gullwing and documented his finding on his blog 'This European Life.'

"Honestly, the ultimate car on that list is the Cuban 300 SL Gullwing because everybody knows where it is generally, but it is a car that you just can't get out," Bolian said about the elusive Gullwing 300 SL.

Later on, there were rumors that the Cuban Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing had somehow been smuggled out of the country around 2015 – but in salvageable pieces for restoration.

Therefore, when a Cuban professor contacted Bolian claiming to have the elusive car – it was a puzzle Bolian was willing to follow to the end. According to the professor, he got the car from an individual trying to sell it for $100,000.

Based on the details of the narrative, an ex-pat restauranteur in Costa Rica was responsible for bringing the car out of Cuba. But since the chassis was in the worst possible shape and unusable, it was shipped in boxes with no title or custom papers.

The professor revealed to Bolian that the sought-after car was in the custody of a body shop owner and had been partially restored.

"If it's the most pieces that exist of the car or the most legitimate pieces that could exist of the car or even pieces that were possibly from the car, you could then take it to one of these world-renown restoration centers," Bolian said.

When Bolian finally checked out the real-time pictures of what he thought was the elusive Cuban Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, it was nothing of what he expected. For starters, it was coated in bass boat blue, VIN-ed, and titled as a 1984 Mercedes 190e. More interestingly, it was built on top of a chassis from a Mercedes-Benz B 200 compact minivan.

Here's the kicker. While Bolian wanted to believe the car presented had some pieces from the original Cuban vehicle, the unit didn't have any paper trail, import documents, or proof the car was indeed the sought-after classic. The only supporting evidence they had was 'the story.'

It was a fake and not worth $100,000 – Bolian pulled out of the deal.

Have you ever chased down a dream or an elusive car? Please share your experience with us in the comment section below. We'd love to hear your story.