There are many favorites. While the 540K is up there where few others can claim to be, my personal favorite (below) is slightly more mundane. It is Lloyd Dryer's black 1955 300 SL Gullwing with the Rudge knock-on wheels and bright red leather upholstery.
Lloyd was an engineer for Lockheed and was assigned to their little outpost in the hills above Santa Cruz on Empire Grade Road. He was dating my aunt and wanted to take her to the SCCA races at Camp Stoneman near Pittsburg, California. Lloyd had just purchased the car used from Munras Motors (the Mercedes dealer) in Monterey.
He couldn't understand why my aunt didn't want to go. So, he turned to me and said, "Set your alarm for 5:00 a.m., I'm taking you to the races tomorrow if your aunt won't go." Early the next morning we roared "over the mountain" toward San Jose, up old Highway 101 to San Francisco, across the Bay Bridge to Oakland, and on to finally arrive at Camp Stoneman. The place was a U.S. Army camp during WWII and deeded to the city and other local agencies in the late 1950s - early 1960s. It was then largely unused except for sporadic events such as sports car races.
All of this happened in 1964. I took a few black and white rolls of the events with my trusty Polaroid. This image was made just after we arrived. That's Lloyd closing the Gullwing's rear lid.

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