A Victoria based classic car collector and restorer found a rare alloy bodied 300SL Gullwing tucked away in a garage in Santa Monica.
"In the '50s, the factory turned out 29 special lightweight alloy body gull-wing coupes with Plexiglas windows. These are among the world's most valued collector cars, worth about $2.5 million each.
Only 28 of the alloy-bodied cars were accounted for. The whereabouts of No. 29 was one of the great mysteries in the classic car world. Koniczek had restored numbers 1 and 6. He knew where all the other alloy-bodied cars were except for No. 21.
Twenty years ago, he heard about a gull-wing that had been stored in a garage in Santa Monica, Calif., for decades. It was a rumour that he and a California enthusiast followed up on over the years.
This spring, Koniczek was able to make a deal with the owner of the car. But getting the Gullwing out of the garage was a challenge. The widower owner was in his late 80s, and his garage was full of old mainframe computers. The car couldn't even be seen in the garage.
He hired two men to clear the way to the car. When the car began to emerge from the clutter, it became apparent that the search for No. 21 was over. "I took a magnet out of my wallet and ran it over the car and it didn't stick," Koniczek recalls of the moment."
I love reading about finds like this.
Here's a link to the whole article and pictures:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/cars/Gullwing+expert+unearths+holy+grail+barn+finds/5465401/story.html
