In 2009, I saw TV presenter James May wax eloquent about the Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing on British motoring show Top Gear. He said that it was a super car long before there were super cars. Sort of like the 2G iPhone before everything else. (Okay that’s just stretching the truth too far.) Anyway I was fascinated by that clip, and that is why I was drawn to this piece of news on the AutoBlog.

Standard 300SL Gullwing prices can exceed a million dollars, but this particular example was expected to sell for anywhere between $2,500,000 and $3,000,000. These alloy 300SL Gullwings come up for sale infrequently, though, which is perhaps why the final bid of $4.2 million was so high. With auction fees, the final selling price of the 300SL was an incredible $4.62 million, a new record for this car.