Mercedes Benz Gullwing

Its quirks baffle, and its capabilities surprise.

No matter if you're restoring a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL "Gullwing" from a rusted-out barn find shell, or just repairing accident damage, you want to use the best, most accurate body parts for it. Mercedes-Benz has now stepped in and made factory quality body parts available for the 1950s classic supercar.

Some sources regard the mid-1950s Mercedes-Benz 300SL "Gullwing" the first supercar. When it was introduced in 1954, it was certainly unlike anything else, and the 212-horsepower direct injection straight six made it the fastest production car of its day. With a rich motorsport history and the still amazing gullwing doors, the 300SL holds a special place among classic Mercedes-Benz coupes.

The phrase "instant classic" gets thrown around a lot these days, and applied to all sorts of mediocre stuff, from mass produced retro muscle cars to Italian exotics that are astonishing only by virtue of price. Truth be told, you can probably count the numbers of cars that have ever been deserving of such a label on one hand (and perhaps have a finger or two left over). Certainly the Mercedes-Benz Jeff Sabatini

2010 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG - Click above for high-res image gallery

Thanks to the box-office success story that was Back To The Future, the De Lorean may be the most recognizable instance of the gull-wing door, but the most historically significant and the first model to truly popularize this unique portal was the Mercedes-Benz 300SL. Since then, the German automaker has continued experimenting with the gull-wing design, with the Jeremy Korzeniewski