The One Thing I have in Common With Jerry Seinfeld

"TheJWT" (thejwt)
07/14/2016 at 18:20 • Filed to: None

It was the first or second weekend after CCC moved into their new digs at Pier 76; I had gotten there early to open and I was enjoying my ritual Saturday morning doughnuts and savoring what would likely be the only time I’d get to ogle a 300SL up close...

When Comedians in Cars is filming in NYC, the Car Club serves as a sort of staging area for the cars, as many come from outside the city. This particular 300 was being picked up on a trailer in the morning and going back to its loving owners in Massachusetts. As I was milling around contemplating if I should find the key and sit in it to have something to brag about, the trailer and someone from the show arrived. I did not envy the poor guy with the trailer who (I thought) would have to drive a $17 million car up a rickety ramp into an enclosed (read: narrow) trailer.

Apparently he thought the same, so we decided to roll it back out the garage door, and then forward onto the trailer. This would mean that one person would have to get in and steer, and I was more than happy to volunteer. (Rolling, driving... what’s the difference, really?) So in a slightly unexpected way, my dream of sitting in a 300SL had come true.

Except...

...It turns out, despite having aluminum doors, hood, and trunk, the 300SL is still too heavy for 2 people to push up a ramp.

So I would have to drive it up. With the engine. And transmission. Like, actually drive a fucking 300SL. As a 21 year old kid from Cleveland.

And because I wasn’t stressed whatsoever, the car wouldn’t start. So we hooked up the trusty $40 battery starter to the car worth more than some countries, which involved removing the absolutely gorgeous fitted luggage, and prayed that the cheap plastic of the starter wouldn’t kill the value of the car.

Success! Only stalled it once...

So how did it drive, for the 20 or so feet I drove it?

I won’t pretend I did anything other than creep along in 1st, but I can say that the 300SL feels extremely modern. The way I describe it is having the build quality of a Singer Porsche, but being 60+ years old. It’s an indescribably beautiful car, inside and out, and as a technical achievement it has to be one of the most significant cars ever built.

So that’s my (probably anticlimactic) story of driving the same 300SL that Jerry Seinfeld and Lorne Michaels had driven the previous day. Definitely a story I won’t soon forget, and one of the many high points of my previous job.

DISCUSSION (14)

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > TheJWT
07/14/2016 at 18:26

I’m insanely jealous. Really it’s just the car. I don’t care who’s driven it.

TheJWT > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
07/14/2016 at 18:29

Definitely agree. I’m a big Jerry Seinfeld fan but the fact it was on his show is kind of a footnote to the rest of the story.

CaptDale - is secretly British > TheJWT
07/14/2016 at 18:33

It’s a dream to own one of those with a 350 in it.

Kinja'd!!!

TheJWT > CaptDale - is secretly British
07/14/2016 at 18:39

Normally I’m a huge fan of sacrilegious engine swaps, but the straight-6 in the 300 feels special the moment you start it up.

Van Man, rocks the Man Van > TheJWT
07/14/2016 at 18:51

Kinja'd!!!

I saw this fantastic 300SL at Cars & Coffee a while back, and I noticed it had some sort of carbon fiber engine cover. I later found out that cover concealed an LS engine (not sure which type).

Yes, I've seen an LS swapped Mercedes 300SL. So very sacrilegious.