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The Mercedes Freude national event offered a unique chance to tour one of the finest automobile collections on the eastern seaboard. The Jepson Collection is located at the Gregorie Neck Plantation near Savannah, Georgia, and has been under development for the past 14 years.

The Mercedes Freude national event offered a unique chance to tour one of the finest automobile collections on the eastern seaboard. The Jepson Collection is located at the Gregorie Neck Plantation near Savannah, Georgia, and has been under development for the past 14 years. 
The collection begins with a few American classics like a Ford Model T and Model A, but also American automotive royalty with a Pierce-Arrow and a number of other premium coachbuilt American cars of the 1930s. The heart of the Jepson Collection, though, is the carefully curated selection of one-of-a-kind vehicles with perfect provenance. This is what sets the Jepson Collection apart from others. One example is the collection's 1938 Mercedes- Benz 540K Cabriolet B. 
This particular car was originally ordered from Daimler-Benz as a bare chassis – frame, power train and running gear only – by Max Gumpel, a noted Swedish Olympic athlete with minor claims to Scandinavian nobility, in 1937. Instead of having Mercedes-Benz’s Sindelfingen plant create the coachwork – body panels and interior – as was the case for more than nine out of every ten 540Ks, Gumpel commissioned the work to be done by Swedish coachbuilder Norrmalm. 
Only three cars built by that firm are known to exist, and only one – this one – is a Mercedes-Benz. (For more about this extraordinary Mercedes-Benz, see The Star, March-April, 2020). Finished as a Cabriolet B with rear quarter windows, it has more space in the rear seat and larger luggage space. In addition, the body is four inches wider than the Sindelfingen models, creating a wider cockpit with a two/one split front seat, allowing three people to sit comfortably abreast. 
Gumpel had a reputation for being a bon vivant – period photographs show Gumpel with Greta Garbo in the front seat – so the ability to comfortably take a large group out on the town might have been useful. Among the unique features of the 540K are a standing figure of Diana the Huntress mounted on the radiator cap in place of the traditional Mercedes-Benz star. Other features include distinctive Marchal headlamps, running lamps and spotlights instead of the Zeiss lighting that is typical of most 500s and 540s. This car had previously taken Best in Show honors at the 2019 Hilton Head Concours d'Elegance. At the conclusion of the tour, the club presented Mr. Jepson with a commemorative sculpture of his prized Bugatti as a thank-you for hosting the tour.