24 Aug 01
The film star Ava Gardner who, by her own admission, was a terrible driver and often 'over-refreshed', famously crashed her Gullwing Mercedes in Spain. She lost it on a curve, mounted an embankment and rolled it twice before it came to rest on its roof. She was pulled from the wreck by farm workers, who had to take her out through the smashed windscreen - the doors wouldn't open because the SL was inverted. Many owners subsequently carried hammers just in case they did the same thing. Ava paid tribute to the car's 'solid steel framework' in her autobiography. She was in good company when it came to having 'moments' in a Gullwing. Even Stirling Moss was wary of its handling and its propensity for unsettling lift-off oversteer thanks to the unruly camber changes of its high pivot swing axles. He crashed one into an Italian army truck laden with explosives while on a training mission for the 1955 Mille Miglia.
