The Palos Verdes Breakfast Club has been hosting its twice monthly Saturday morning breakfast meetings since 1942. In April they modified the agenda of one of their Saturday morning meetings at the Palos Verdes Golf Club to include their fourth annual Concours d’Elegance featuring some the members vintage and classic cars, sports cars, and motorcycles.

The annual exhibit allows members to show their favorite vehicles as well as share stories about their adventures in restoring their machines and the many memories involving these of these timeless vehicles.

John Saia, “The Shelby Guy”, says that he was taken with Carroll Shelby’s creations since he was a young child. Saia previously owned a 1966 Shelby G.T. 350, but as circumstances would have it, he had to sell this piece of U.S. motoring history in 1979. Happily, in 2002, he was able to find an identical match to his original Shelby G.T. and quickly purchased it. Saia points out the car was in great condition. He purchased vehicle from the car’s second owner. During the time he owned the car, he did a complete from the ground up restoration including the finishing touch of completely repainting the car in Wimbledon White with Guardmans Blue LeMans stripes.

Saia admits that the G.T. can still turn heads as he takes it out for a spin every weekend. He also dedicates time to caring for the interior and exterior of this American icon. He states that he performs his own work on the vehicle. As far as finding parts, he states that Mustang and Shelby replacement parts have become a cottage industry and most parts are not that difficult to find.

Wayne Lynch, co-organizer for the event, had his 1965 Mustang on display. He indicates that he purchased the car as a birthday gift for his daughter to drive to school. As his daughter grew older, Lynch kept the vehicle and placed his daughter’s name on the customized license plate. Lynch admits that he and his wife were quite taken with the original Mustang design and have remained fans ever since.

Lynch also points to 1957 Triumph TR3. Although the car is no longer owned by Lynch, he states that he owned the car for over fifty years. He recalls he and his bride left Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in July of 1965. Twenty-four hours later they were in Oklahoma City (OKC). After a brief rest, they completed their trip to California after driving another twenty-four hours after leaving OKC. Lynch points under the hood and shares some of it unique features such as an engine mounted shut off valve for the cabin heater and the fuel pump that requires manual pumping to prime it.

Among the rarest cars on display were the two Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing sports cars. Considered by some the ultimate sports car and in fact, in 1999 it was voted by a jury of trade journalists to be the “Sports Car of the Century”.

The story of how the car became a production car starts with an Austrian-born U.S. luxury car importer, Maximillian Hoffman. According to sources, in September 1953 Hoffman told the Dailmer-Benz Board of Management, “What we need over here is a great Mercedes-Benz sports car.” He convinced them to base the car’s design on the Mercedes W194 race car which featured the iconic gullwing doors.

The 300 SL went into production in 1954 and when the last model rolled out of the German factory in 1957, Mercedes only produced about 1,400 cars during the entire production run. The original purchase price was approximately $7,000 (Keep in mind that the average price of a new car in the U.S. in 1955 was about $3,000). The website Classic.com indicates that average price of a 300 SL Gullwing in today’s market is $1.5 million.

The 300 SL was the first production car with a four-stroke engine to feature an output and efficiency-enhancing direct fuel injection engine. This enhancement provided the 300 SL with enough power to nearly reach speeds of 165 mph.

The car design was completely based on the W194. Because of that the 300 SL featured a lightweight yet extremely rigid spaceframe design. The design called for the spaceframe to fully support the car’s engine, transmission, and axles leaving no room for traditional design doors. The Mercedes engineers overcame the problem by equipping the car with the iconic gullwing doors.

***Blue Gullwing owned by Craig Ekberg***

At the time of its release, Mercedes only referred to the model as “SL” without directly indicating what it meant. Magazines and company officials referred to the car’s frame design as “Sport Leicht” and “Super Leicht”. After finding a reference in the company archives, beginning in 2017 Mercedes officially referred to the “SL” designation on their website as “Super Leicht”.

As the meeting drew to a close and the overcast skies gave way to scattered sunlight, many drivers left their meeting with the idea of extending their morning by taking the long way home and enjoying a Saturday drive along the coastline.

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Steve Tabor Bio

This South Bay native’s photographic journey began after receiving his first 35 mm film camera upon earning his Bachelor of Arts degree. Steve began with photographing coastal landscapes and marine life. As a classroom teacher he used photography to share the world and his experiences with his students. Steve has expanded his photographic talents to include portraits and group photography, special event photography as well as live performance and athletics. Steve serves as a volunteer ranger for the Catalina Island Conservancy and uses this opportunity to document the flora and fauna of the island’s interior as well as photograph special events and activities.

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