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Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing (chassis code W198). 

Key details about this iconic sports car include: 

Production Era: Produced as a coupé between 1954 and 1957, with roadster variants following from 1957 to 1963. 

Signature Design: It is world-renowned for its distinct, upward-opening "gullwing" doors, a design necessitated by the car's rigid, lightweight, welded tubular-steel "spaceframe" chassis. 

Performance: Widely regarded as one of the world's first production supercars, it was the fastest production car of its time, capable of reaching speeds up to 155–163 mph. 

Engineering Innovation: It was the first production car to feature a fuel-injected petrol engine, a technology adapted from Mercedes-Benz's racing prototypes. 

1977 Lincoln Town Car

When General Motors downsized its entire B and C-body lineup in 1977, from the Chevrolet Impala all the way up to the Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, Lincoln did nothing. The Continental simply kept growing, and by 1977 it had quietly become the largest mass-produced automobile sold anywhere on earth. The only vehicles longer were purpose-built limousines like the Rolls-Royce Phantom VI and the Soviet ZIL-4104.

The 1979 Town Car sat on a 127.2-inch wheelbase and stretched 233 inches bumper to bumper, wider than six and a half feet, with 42 inches of rear legroom. Under the hood sat a 402 cubic inch V8 producing 315 pound-feet of torque arriving at just 1,800 rpm, backed by a three-speed SelectShift automatic. You did not drive this car so much as pilot it.

The base sedan started at $11,200. Lincoln sold 76,458 of them for 1979 alone, nearly five times the number of coupes. Ford marketed the 1979 Continental specifically as the final traditional full-size American sedan, and they were right. The following year it arrived on a completely redesigned platform, shorter, lighter, and more fuel efficient.

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Christelle - photographed by Craig Morey

● Craig Morey Studios