Car Photo of the Day: That New Car Smell

Note the temporary tags on the Benz.

This shot was taken on the second day of the 2001 Forza Amelia at the Gainesville Racetrack in Florida. My father had lost his mind (not the first or the last time!) and bought a dream car of his, a 1957 300sl just before the rally and this was the car’s first outing in his ownership. OK, well technically it is my mother’s car… at least that is the story I keep hearing since she’s the big Mercedes fan. That is his story and he’s sticking to it.

The car was purchased out of a large collection and like any car that sits too much, it wasn’t running as good as it should, BUT it is a Mercedes, so it still ran FINE. Funny how those Germans make such bullet-proof cars. 😉

But here we were, taking laps around a racetrack. Wow, what a blast that was. Well, until my dad spun it not far from where this pic was taken a while later. I posted pictures and the story to my website that night and we got a voice message from my mother on my dad’s cell phone:

“YOU ARE DRIVING MY CAR TOO FAST!!”

heh… boys will be boys.

The 300sl has become the focus of my father’s small collection (down to 3 cars now that the Jags are gone) and is now running VERY well. Much better than that first rally in 01. Maybe we should go back to that track and check our lap times?

That is Pascal Gademer’s S3 E-type parked in front of us.