“Nigo” puts his fashion stamp on a hot-rod Gullwing
BAPE founder digs clothes AND cars
Upscale urban hip-hop clothes designer and BAPE founder Tomoaki “Nigo” Nagao has taken advantage of AMG’s Performance Studio’s “one off” program and commissioned quite an unusual Gullwing.
BAPE
Selling uniquely patterned shirts, hoodies, footware and urban accessories, the 27 store BAPE empire includes marquee outlets in Taiwan, New York and London. Cleverly limiting quantities of his bold offerings, Nigo has created an aura of exclusivity causing clients to clamor for the privilege of purchasing his ultra-cool products. The odd name is a loose acronym for “a bathing ape” or bape, a sarcastic reference to the Japanese custom of daily hot baths. Founded in 1993, BAPE has grown such in popularity over the years that today it has achieved the sincerest form of fashion flattery: a black market counterfeiting its products.
BAPE founder Nigo's Gullwing may leave you speechless. The same paint treatment on a correct Gullwing just might create an interesting update from Hiro Yamagata's series of 220s.
Nigo the car nut
While it’s improbable that you are currently wearing any of his fashions, it is heartening that Mr. Nagao is spending his fortune properly. On cars, that is. After “personalizing” a few of today’s supercars including a pink camouflaged aka “camo” Bugatti Veyron, he commissioned AMG to do an upgraded Gullwing for him earlier this year.
Extraordinary paint scheme echos(apes!) many of BAPE's urban fashions. While the car began life as a correct 1954 Gullwing, it has now become an Autobahn stormer with complete AMG underpinnings and a 6.0 liter V-8.
Quite likely based on the same layout as the car sold by RM at their London Battersea Auction, Nigo’s car began life as a correct 1954 Gullwing. Once at AMG’s Performance Studios, the car was comprehensively re-constructed with current AMG suspension, engine (6.0 liter V-8) interior and chassis strengthening.
This is where dreams come true: AMG's Performance Studio. Note the pearlescent pink CLS in the background. The Gullwing in the foreground looks suspiciously like one of the upgraded cars recently sold in London. Note the aero side view mirrors.
In keeping with his penchant for “camo” designs, Nigo’s Gullwing received a US Army paint treatment to complement(?) a red interior. The result is certainly an impressive technical exercise and, based on our eye witness reports on RM’s silver version, the workmanship should be beyond belief.
If you look closely, you will see the BAPE ape head logo within the paint design. This was a $1m+ project.
Roy Spencer, editor MercedesHeritage.com
Please post your comments on this article below.
12 Responses to “BAPE founder commissions wild Gullwing from AMG”
Disgusting. The car is hideous. Further remarks would be so inflammatory they’d get me kicked off this forum, but this is a really regrettable thing to do to a classic car. Why didn’t he screw up an Ostermeier replica? At least he wouldn’t be ruining an original Gullwing.
Not only wouldn’t I have anything to do with it, I’ll avoid (like the plague) EVER knowingly spending any money to support these idiots or their efforts. Morons.
The precise preservation of great cars of each decade, while worthy, does not mean they must ALL receive that fate. By Ferrari V12 measure, 1400 Gullings is not a small quantity of cars! If Pininfarina or Bape put there hand to a few, more’s the fun. Likewise, many respectful car enthusiasts have original cars and street rods, past and present, side by side in the same collections. After evolving through many aspects of our wonderful hobby I find the creativity expressed in a one-off Maybach Excelero Coupe, or this Bape modified Gull Wing to be a hoot! It could even be that pooling
the best design and engineering elements of each decade into one vehicle may be the ultimate “participation” in the automotive experience.
Why would anyone screw up a perfect Gullwing? There aren’t enough of them to destroy. The car was built in the 50’s with 50’s technology – why on Earth would someone spend $1,000,000+ to AMG a perfect classic? If this Ape guy really wants an ugly car, I am certain Chrysler will be more than happy to send him a million dollars worth of PT Cruisers for him to paint to his heart’s content!
I agree with John Olson. Creative diversions within the collectible car world are refreshing. On the other hand, fitting one of the 39 Ferrari 250GTOs with the engine and drivetrain from a new 599 would be depressing.
I’m with Jim R. Rip apart a replica, not the real deal for crying out loud. And as for the paint, my hope is that it’s so camoed that I’ll never be able to see it.
John, you’re wrong. We’re not talking about any old Mercedes here; this is a 300SL Gullwing that they screwed around with. By your logic, it would be fine to put a 300Sc engine into a SSKL- and I’d be equally critical of it, if not even more so.
There are MB conversions I’ve seen and driven that I think are great. For example, Karl Middelhauve’s turbo and blower conversions on 108 and 109 cars, his 6.3 engine conversions in 111 coupes and convertibles, and Bob Hatch’s 3.5 conversion in a 113 chassis. Those are not only enjoyable updates of the original drivetrain but in some cases they are valuable as criticisms of the designed power and transmission. But in all of those cases the body and styling were left alone- as they ought to have been.
AMG have enough money and expertise that they should have just copied the Gullwing and put a modern drivetrain in it. Sacrificing an original car is a triumph of boredom and idle money over good taste and reverence for what was accomplished in 1954 when the Gullwing was designed. It is an act of really impressive stupidity by people who ought to know better.
I want to make clear that I don’t own a 300SL, nor do I aspire to one. I had several chances to buy one- either a Gullwing or a roadster- when they were far more affordable, and I didn’t particularly want one. What I AM concerned with is the lack of appreciation and respect for a car that is one of the great designs of the entire 20th century, automotive or otherwise. It is astonishingly foolish to ruin one of the rather small pool of these cars just because someone has the money to ask that it be done and someone else is foolish enough to take the money and do it. Both parties have disgraced themselves. I can’t wait to see what SCM says about these cars if they ever show up in the pages of that journal.
A car like the 300SL should be appreciated for what it is and what it represents in automotive design history. As you wouldn’t put a 599 engine into a 250GTO, or a Chevrolet V8 into a D-type Jaguar (or a modern Jaguar engine into a D-type or C-type) no one should “update” a Gullwing. We are all the poorer for this monumental exercise in foolishness.
I can generally agree with all that has been said, which, of course is a statement that needs to be qualified. Firstly the 300SL like a few other revered Mercedes models probably doesn’t deserve the attention its bodywork draws. Scratch its lovely surface and a parts bin special with questionable dynamics is revealed. Apparently the roadster was at least a little better sorted.
Despite the reality versus value aspect of the vehicle, it is a rare icon of speed that can never be purely reproduced. I feel that historical vehicles deserve recognition for what they are rather than what they could be with modern engineering’s ‘attention’.
As I originally said though: I am split and there is a demon inside me too that would love to drive a classic that could blow the doors off a modern sportscar.
I had never heard of BAPE until now, but clearly this guy has a problem. This isn’t creativity, this is a cry for attention. He knows nothing of the 300SL, or he simply has no respect for truly significant automotive milestone designs. Maybe he thinks because he can sell shoes, he can design automobiles. This project is about as successful as his attempt to be an author…Barnes & Noble has his book at number 90,142 on their best seller list.
Yes, I have owned a gullwing, and sure hope this one isn’t mine.
Paint? Horrid.
Wheels? Beautiful on the right SL, this ain’t the right SL.
Window decal? Criminal.
More money than brains. Fortunately all the above is just window dressing and could be made right again. The car itself looks to be a righteous restoration.
The end result is super ugly and a disgrace to the original. Another example that wealth and class can be mutually exclusive!
What’s all the fuss about?
A few stuffy, blinkered anoraks don’t like someone else’s idea of fun, that’s all.
We don’t know what condition the car was in before the re-hash (yes, I agree its a ridiculous hash, but that’s not the point) but you can be pretty sure its in excellent condition now.
Sometime in the future, another wealthy individual with different taste could buy the car and have it brought back to something more in keeping with its origins. Who loses out here?
Who are these people who want to dictate their values to the rest of the world? Values, I should add, about automotive history…. NOT exactly the most pressing issue in this mad world we share.
Hello
ok this aint a simple answer;
Every driver from a real Gullwing knows some of the odds and “limitations” from the car and AMG had costumers since the first days back in 1968 who wantet there 300SL improved.
Most Gullwing drivers seeked for disc brakes and a modern rear axle, also most wished to improve the heat insulation and the creature comforts.
So in the late 60´s when Daimler themself stoped doing work on the 300SL other then maintenance you only had some Companys left over who where willing to work on the 300SL or even doing updates and “improvements”.
In the 70´s as a Gullwing Driver in South-Germany you only could go to Daimler Factory Repair branch and ask the leading Master Technicians for MFI Cars (Kienle oder Schierle) if they where willing to do more then spec book at the Factory (or later Hallschlag) Repair centre or if the would do it “outside” if the branch “brass” didn´t liked what they where asked for.
And a other company was AMG where everything was debatable and Melcher tuned 300SE engines up into the 270Horse Region for Race costumers.
Melcher also improved the 300SL Engines by classic finetuning (for example shaving of some 25% Wight in the moving parts section) and managed to push the original 300SL engines up to usable 240HP.
Melcher also used the then new technologies and new material to improve the 300SL from the 50´s to a better standard and Melcher developed some Tricks to fix the early MFI Problems (Nowerdays sold as Kienle upgrades).
So many 300SL Drivers who usually had there 300SL for repairs at the Stuttgart branch moved some 50km north to Burgstall as Melcher did the work in a “better” way and a different attetude.
The Problem with AMG in Burgstall was that the Company looked “rustikal” like many other backyard mechanic shops so the first costumers where mostly not the rich and wealthy but the technical freaks and 300SL fans who liked to shop bang for buck and disliked to pay the useless folklore from the sales department.
In the 70´s most Daimler Dealers worked on the 300SL Costumers to get them into the new 350SL wich in ROW Version had nearly the same performance envelope as the 300SL but as a modern car it had more creature comforts and a more forgiving handling. A way to move the 300SL owners into a new car was allways to rise the maintenance and repair costs from the car so when a 300SL owner had a massive engine problem the costs to fix them where elvatet to a point where no normal thinking person would invest that amount of money into a 20 year old used car.
In the Staates at that point most Owner would swap into a Small Block V8 or get in a other way creative but in germany people do think a bit different and with TÜV you can´t bring a “hobby” car legal onto the road. Wich makes sense in germany as people are allowed to flat out topspeed at the regular highways untill they run out of fuel or the engine blows up (Whatever happens first, this is why most companys today limit the topspeed to 250km/h to avoid engine failures).
For People in the staates i always strech that a fast car flys over the road in an avergae sped most single engine planes will not achive jet now Pilot ist thinking about doing mechanicalshortcuts to the engine or fusselage or replacing the engine by just an other engine as it is much cheaper. The German TÜV is something like the flight approval for german highways. And driving would be much safer if the mechanics would be handled similar to areonatical gear.
So in the 70´s AMG had several costumers with 300SL doing the complete bandwide from regular service over repair, rebuild, tuning and more then Daimler ever imagned could happend.
Fact is in the 70´s Daimler was not unhappy that many 300SL Drivers “slowed down” fearing that those 300SL equiped with modern tires could generate bad puplicity by spectacular accidents. Many 300SL went in the 70´s into user hands who on one side liked to fullfill there childhood dream but on the other side where used to modern car handling and had problems addoppting to the handling from the 50´s wich was quite dangerous in a car that could need a full stop at 240 km/h with 4 unserviced old worn down brake drums. (Wohever did this with a gullwing even with fresh serviced brakes knows the difference to a newer 4disc car).
In the 50´s the highway was empty sou you cold use both lanes to “outride” hard braking but in the 70´s most highways where crowded so you had to stay in the lane and modern GT´s or the 911S could brake to fill stop in half the distance from the 300SL with drumbrakes and a 911 did this several times without any fading or warping drums.
So in the 70´s there was a Generation owning there Dreamcar and realized using them could be a nightmare if you wheren´t up to the task. And when the approached Daimler with there Problems they where told those old cars where that way and there isn´t much to change about beside avoiding to run the Gullwing on the modern Radial tires.
So at AMG some cars got as a improvment a new “Driveline” in the original frame.
In the late 60´s Melcher tried to swap one from the M100 Drysump raceengines mock ups and the W109 driveline into a 300SL but the frame needed major reconstruction so the first step was a “easy” Upgrade using a modified W109 rear axle and W109 front axle spindles so the cars hat the ventilatet discs and long rearaxle from the 6,3. The new parts where modified to fit onto the stock chassis yet AMG developed new A-Arms for the front axle wich where forged alloy.
AMG also swaped to a 5Speed however the Getrag was not working sound needing a good driver while the ZF units needed to much shift muscle and AMG also implantet the 4Speed Automatic.
The tranys would have used some additional engeneering for a bullet proof conversion and refinement but AMG decided not to invest furter time&money into parts from the 60´s while going to engeneer parts for the coming 80´s cars.
The crack point where the engines wich could manage some 215-220HP as a daily driver engine while a Race engine made some 245HP they where not daily driver engines. So AMG Was on the limit from the orignal Layout and needed to find a way to 300HP with eiter massive improvment from the original engine ( Say 4Valve head and upgraded Injection ) or swaping in something doing the same with less effort.
So around 1974 the first costumer wo wantet a modernized Gullwing got a new M117 450 engine tuned up to 280HP with the 3speed automatic. While the engine and the power steering forced to reconstruct the frame AMG used some additional tweaks to stiffen up the frame even furter. To add Highspeed stability and cooling AMG “developed” a Spoilerkit and the revamped AMGullwing used the newest low profile tires on alloy rims.
That 300SL was then performancewise up to date and could wring with the Porsche 911 and most italian Superperformance cars yet the pricesticker for the complete conversion would shop a new Porsche or italian Supercar.
So up into the mid 80´s when the 300SL turned from a expensive to maintain underperforming used car into a collectorers hype some 300SL got a AMG upgrade.
In the 80´s AMG changed as well when Melcher left the company for doing other things Aufrecht lost the brain to handle old machinery and so most 300SL Costumers where asked/forced from Aufrecht to upgrade there cars to the new powerplant and Aufrecht as one from the best Salesperson in Automotive history found enough costumers who went the AMG way all down into a AMG “Restoration” wich just focused to sale as much exclusive & expensive Service as possible to make the income for the AMG DTM Involvement.
While Melcher was a “simple” Mechanic and keept the 300SL true in Spirit, Aufrecht just made the 300SL just into a other “nice looking girl to attract maximum income” (Hooker ?) wich is where AMG crossed the fine lined border between upgrade to fashion.
Many AMG customers had to much money and not any taste or good sense but Aufrecht just milked them out doing whatever was easy money to AMG.
So up to day AMG is approched by costumers who have big money and think anything goes as long you put enough cash on the table and AMG did estimatet some 25-30 300SL Upgrades and some from the early upgrades where brought back to the Original Status in the 90´s. And most from the last upgrades where based on a “lost” car witch got an AMG Factory number and have some old bits boltet on a reconstructet frame with a reconstructet body. Some cars are rumored to be provided by buyers from far east who bought them in “good fate” wich means if they where stolen somewehre else but the buyer bought its from a reputable source they can keep it.
The problem with those lost numbers is if they show up in the western world the previos owner can reclaim it. And most sheiks have some nice cars parked in Switzerland (Mostly Geneva) and like to use them on the streets and racetracks from europe.
So the point is that every significant car has costumers who liked to have them upgraded, improved or modernized and some from those people have just a other sense of humor about the word “originality” and wherever there is big money to fech someone will help to achive there goals.
And on some cars the manufactorer finds the trend usefull to revamp old fashion in new products ( VW Bettle, Ford Mustang, Camaro, Charger, SLR, SLS ) but then they are mass produced again and loose some of the fascination.
So some post mortemize old cars into new Frankenstein´s.
But there are people who like to have a monster especially if it gives puplicity (there is no bad puplicity) and creates am image.
I guess the “creator” from the car wantet a image transfer and i guess he even managed to get the car as company costs trough the tax and after some years the cars is written of from the company and it will loose the camouflage and will be transferd to a collectors item. Maybe that car will be an Icon from the now young generation who never will fetch anything from the true spirit from the 300SL as that was at a time when there grandparents wheren´t born.
No one will understand the hype about the 300SL when most modern day hot hatches outperform the original car for a fractional cost. And most people will not understand the engagement from the brave men who raced with these cars and managed average speeds wich are hard to beat untill today.
The differnence is the drivers skill back then and modern drivers skill is just nailed down to how hard he can press the accelerator and how much electronic avoid the same guy flying off the street and if that happens how much airbags will keep him on this side of the moon.
Can we say that every owner from a 300SL must be one from those tough guys who loved to explore there limits and push the personal envelope al the time ?
No i think most modern users want the 300SL be something like a daily driver with good climate and fearles handling. Most modern Sl owners dislike the primadona engine who needs longer the a Porsche 911 and a engine who bites into your wallet if you are not willing to use it regulary say at least every 2-3 Months. And if it bites you the usuall rebuild runs into the costs from a very fast hothatch so most 300SL are stored at companys who regulary drive and service them while the owners hasn´t time to it themself. The AMG SL are modern cars inside you can store them a year in the garage then get in and step onto full throttle while you get out from your garage.
And if you blow up that engine you can swap it out over the weekend for just an other AMG Engine (As AMG is now owned by Daimler they massproduce some 80000 engines/year so the engines are cheap to fix/rebuild or replace)
Grüsse
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