discovered in Cuba in 1996, the next 20 years were spent restoring this gullwing that was first bought and raced by the Cuban Minister of Public Works in the 1958 Cuban Grand Prix.

When the new government was established, Arroyo, who had also been the Cuban ambassador to the United States just a year earlier, moved off the island and settled in Washington D.C., selling the Benz to a Cuban race team in the process.

it passed through a couple owners who neglected it terribly, leaving it out in the rain and sun, and hurricanes, until thieves and rust had a bit of progress into making it far less than feasible to restore.

Then an Italian businessman discovered it, and spent 20 total years forcing the sale from an who owner didn’t even want to entertain the thought of selling.

Four years passed between first contact and refusal to sell, and then reconsidering, and agreeing to let the Italian buy a 50% stake in the car as a first step toward letting him own the whole shebang.

Another six years of negotiation followed, and when the handover was finally completed in 2006, it took six months to remove the various pieces of the car from their various resting places, and 10 years to ship them to Italy from Cuba

The overall restoration, including a full nut-and-bolt mechanical rebuild, took two years.

https://petrolicious.com/articles/it-raced-and-then-almost-rotted-away-in-cuba-until-a-22-year-long-process-brought-this-gullwing-back-to-life?mc_cid=c5202783a7&mc_eid=420b584ab9