Abandoned Mercedes 300SL found in Cuba

A photographer in Cuba has found an abandoned, partially destroyed and wrecked Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing. If this news doesn't bring you to tears, you're dead to us.

Snapper Piotr Degler was entranced by the Caribbean republic's automotive landscape - frozen, at least in part, since the 1950s - and soon got wind of a ‘legendary' 300SL rumoured by locals to lay somewhere on the island.

So with his Inspector Gadget hat firmly on, Degler went hunting high and low for a month, travelling two thousand miles in the process. He asked everyone. He looked everywhere. And, only a few days before he was due to depart, he spotted the 300SL's still-priceless silver remains hiding under a banana tree.

Piotr told Classic Driver: "When I found it, I spent the whole day taking pictures. Finding the car was an indescribable experience." Also, we suspect, a heartbreaking one: the 300SL surely ranks as the prettiest Mercedes-Benz in history.

So, with the US and Cuba now on friendlier relations, we'd suggest taking a trip down Havana way to take in the motoring landscape in all its Fifties charm. Who knows what you might find?

Check out Degler's 2015 calendar here

Top Gear meets the cars of Cuba