Ready for its Close-up
This flawless 1953 Mercedes-Benz 220 underwent a 20-year restoration by a gifted technician who worked on the hydraulics for the shark in ‘Jaws’
Article Gary Anderson
Images RM Sotheby’s
We often muse about the stories an unusual classic car might tell, if it could only talk. But such cars, multi-talented as they may be, don’t have the gift of speech. The result is that we’re often left to make up a coherent narrative based on the physical evidence we can actually see, supplemented by whatever thin set of often contradictory information that still exists about the machine in question. Likewise, when we talk about our own vehicles – and when we listen to stories about other classic cars – it is helpful to keep in mind that some information is factual, some information is merely logical assumption, and some information may in fact simply be the end result of the enhanced repetition of old stories.
A case in point is this immaculate, carefully restored Mercedes-Benz 220 sedan, built in 1953 (the next year the the body-on-frame 220s were replaced with unibody models), which sold in 2016 and then again in 2017 at the January auctions in Scottsdale, Arizona.
What we know about all 220s
Daimler-Benz product planner Fritz Nallinger brought Mercedes-Benz back into the global automotive market in 1949 with the W136-chassis 1,767cc 170S sedan, built using tools and dies hidden away during the war. Its X-configured oval-tube frame was stronger and more stable than the competitors’ ladder frames. However, the 170S was powered by a relatively weak 4-cylinder side-valve engine with low compression that could operate on the inferior gasoline then available in postwar Germany. Still, it did help put Germany back on wheels.
Then at the 1951 Frankfurt Motor Show, Nallinger introduced the upgraded 220 sedan on the improved W187 chassis with a more powerful 2.2-liter inline 6-cylinder engine. Though very similar in basic design to the W136-chassis 170S, the 220 was easily distinguishable by the headlights faired into restyled front fenders. This model remained in production until 1954 when it was replaced by the 220a; a model with the same engine, but on the modern W120 Ponton chassis.
What we know about this 220
We can see that this example is exactly as it might have appeared in 1953. The engine, body and chassis numbers match surviving documentation on the car. Interestingly, the vehicle has all available factory and dealer options; fog lights, chrome external horns, a multiband Becker radio, the white sidewalls common on cars sold in America, and – that rarest of options – a Webasto folding fabric roof. A complete original tool kit is stored in the trunk.
More astounding still, this must be the most perfectly refurbished 220 in the world today; every component has clearly received the unstinting attention that a renowned restoration shop might have lavished on an uncommon alloy-bodied 300SL Gullwing.
What we think we know
The only explanation of how this 220 came to be is from a letter written in 2013 by the widow of a man named Harry K. Sharpe. Mr. Sharpe had owned the car since 1962.
His widow recounts that the first owner of this car was the director of the California Department of Transportation. But would a car equipped with a European radio and a kilometer-unit speedometer have been ordered by a person this knowledgeable about cars? Instead, perhaps this European-spec sedan was given to the California DOT for testing when Max Hoffman first established his Mercedes-Benz dealership in Beverly Hills; the head of the agency might not have ordered the car but might very well have driven it on occasion, and perhaps bought it from the agency later.
According to Mrs. Sharpe, her husband bought the automobile in Los Angeles in 1962 as a nine-year-old used car and drove it during his years in Hollywood. At that time he was a mechanical technician engineering special effects for the movie industry. He would later have the distinction of being on the technical team that designed the animatronic sharks in the blockbuster movie “Jaws,” and was credited – according to his wife – for his design of the creature’s pneumatic operating mechanisms.
Yet another question arises here. The odometer registers 63,843 kilometers (39,670 miles). If the car was driven regularly in Los Angeles by a freelance movie technician for 25 years, it seems likely he would have driven it considerably more than 40,000 miles. Perhaps the odometer has turned over once and the actual mileage is a more likely 163,843 kilometers (101,807 miles), though it hardly matters since the 220 sedan’s engine was thoroughly rebuilt within the last 10 years.
Restoration
When Sharpe retired to Arcata, California, his widow remembers he applied the same skill and attention to detail that had served him so well in the film industry to the painstaking, part-by-part restoration of the car that would obsess him for the next 20 years. Sharpe deviated from the original specification only in painting the fenders in a contrasting silver to the original blue of the body. The results speak for themselves; clearly he was in love with the restoration process rather than thinking about return on investment.
The rest of the story
Sharpe had just completed the restoration when he died in 2013; his widow turned the car over to an agent who offered the car at the Bonham’s auction in Scottsdale in January 2016. Jeff Seigel of Segal Motorcar Co. in Ontario bought it on behalf of a client who enjoyed owning vintage cars. A year later, the buyer traded the car back to Segal Motorcars in partial trade for a Ferrari. This time, Seigel consigned it to RM Sotheby’s for sale at its Phoenix auction in January 2017.
RM sold the car for $82,400 with commission, setting a high watermark value for 220 sedans that is not likely to be exceeded unless this example should come up for sale again. However, it is Seigel’s understanding that the car has gone into a private collection in the United States where it will be treasured, maintained, and occasionally displayed to the public so others can appreciate the superb quality that Mercedes-Benz delivered to the postwar automotive market, from the very first cars the firm sold in the United States.
SPECIFICATIONS
1953 Mercedes-Benz 220 Sedan (W187)
TYPE: Four-door, five-passenger sedan
ENGINE: M180 2,195cc, single overhead cam inline 6-cylinder with single dual-downdraft Solex carburetor
TRANSMISSION: 4-speed floor-shift transmission
HORSEPOWER: 80 (SAE) TORQUE: 104.9 lb-ft
SUSPENSION: Independent front and swing-axle rear suspension with coil springs, and four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes
WHEELBASE: 112 in CURB WEIGHT: 2,970 lb
FUEL EFFICIENCY: 16-17 mpg
PERFORMANCE: ZERO-60 21 sec TOP SPEED: 87.5 mph
Beauty is greater than the sum of its parts, and what parts they are: Graceful trafficator (turn signal); gleaming Sindelfingen Coachworks badge; elegant hubcap; jaunty sidelight.
Front to back and top to bottom, every individual mechanical component of this 1953 Mercedes-Benz 220 sedan seems to glow with a finely honed perfection, achieved over a staggering 20-year period.
The 220 sedan seen here came complete with all available factory and dealer options installed, including a rare Webasto folding fabric roof, and (middle) a handsome multiband Becker radio.
