Garage Candy

Photo by Gary Land

Even as a young boy in pre-revolution Cuba, Arthur Gutierrez admired how the Mercedes-Benz SL300’s winglike doors and throaty race-bred engine stood out among the American cruisers rumbling down Havana’s boulevards.

He left Cuba in 1961, “the day that diplomatic relations broke,” he says, but the vision of that elegant Mercedes, known as the Gullwing, stuck with him. Twenty years later, he bought a 1955 model from Alex Dearborn, the owner of Dearborn Auto, which is now based in Kittery Point, Maine. “This particular car was actually sitting in the living room of Alex’s residence,” Gutierrez says.

Time hasn’t affected the SL300’s performance much. “It handles incredibly well for a car of its age,” Gutierrez says. “If you are on 128, doing 60, you can step on the throttle, and there is plenty more power on tap. That’s what I love about driving this car.”

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