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When I was little, my grandmother had a 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280SE 4.5 sedan. She bought it new, drove it about 100,000 miles, then parked it in a small barn behind her house. I'm not sure why. Dad remembers transmission trouble, but my grandmother always said she wanted something new but couldn't bear to part with the Mercedes. Funny how that works.
Almost two decades after parking the car, gram hauled it out and sent it to a restoration shop. They refreshed it and repainted if for roughly what you'd spend on a used C-Class. The result was a nearly new old car. I've driven it. It's a neat experience, one with pomp and circumstance coupled with the hewn-from-solid-confidence feeling that comes only in an old Mercedes. But part of me wishes it was sitting in that barn, because the possibility — a sleeping giant, a dust-covered relic — was exciting.
I was reminded of that car, and of that promise, at the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Irvine, California. It is where sleeping giants are awakened and dust-covered relics restored.
The Classics Center is Mercedes' restoration and classic-car service in America, and it occupies about 28,000 square feet near the intersection of Interstates 5 and 405. It's a magical place where history meets talent and what must be the world's deepest parts catalog.
The Center features a showroom (shown above), where many of the cars are for sale and all of them appear brand new. When I was there not too long ago, a silver 300 SL "Gullwing" was for sale and another was being reassembled in the back shop.
On its own, this is not unique. It happens in restoration shops the world over. But there is only one place in America where Mercedes-Benz will rebuild your car to the exact specifications and condition it was when it left the factory.
Let's step inside.
Photos: Sam Smith/Wired.com
