Jay Leno tells the story of his Mercedes Gullwing

This beat-up old Mercedes 300SL Gullwing is part of Jay Leno’s own collection. After recovering it from the desert, Jay and his team are giving it a little TLC in an effort to bring it back to life.

Get Autoblog in your Google feed


With all the new and varied machinery stopping by Jay Leno’s Garage on a regular basis, it would be all too easy to forget that the former talk show host has one of the largest and most enviable private collections of automobiles in the world. Leno has hundreds of vehicles at his disposal, but the real value of it all is at least as much about quality as it is quantity.

Take this gem, for example. Sure, it’s a little worse for wear, but it’s got a nice patina to it – and it’s a work in progress. One look is all it takes to know exactly what it is: a classic Mercedes-Benz 300SL, complete with Gullwing doors. “The McLaren F1 of its day,” Jay calls it, and with good reason. Watch the video above to hear the story of the Gullwing he rescued from the desert and is slowly bringing back to life.

Related Video: