The bomb was dropped on May 31, 2023: At nine o'clock in the morning, a large-scale raid by the Stuttgart Department of Public Prosecution commenced simultaneously at four locations to secure evidence. The targets: the Kienle Automobiltechnik GmbH company in Ditzingen near Stuttgart and the private homes of company owner Klaus Kienle and his sons Marc and Alexander. Since then, aficionados of the legendary Mercedes-Benz type W 198 - the 300 SL with gullwing doors and the roadster - are in turmoil. The question is simple: which example is an original and thus worth well over a million dollars - and which one is a fake, ergo forfeiting any historical rights to even exist?
Behind the coordinated surprise visits by the 25 officers from the State Criminal Police Office of Germany's southwesternmost state Baden-Wuerttemberg is the suspicion that Kienle, without a doubt the most important restorer of high-value Mercedes-Benz classic cars worldwide, has been producing and selling professional duplicates of classic cars that had not been on the market for a long time. An example of this was a 300 SL Roadster with the rare fantasy yellow paint job that Kienle is presumed to have rebuilt completely.
Since breaking, the story has revealed numerous new findings. The second most important fact to come to light is that the car in question has been proven not to be a copy but is indeed a genuine factory-built 300 SL; thus supporting Kienle's steadfast assertions that the vehicle is not a replica. The most important new insight is that Kienle's resulting role in this case could actually have considerably more unpleasant consequences for him. While this may sound highly contradictory, the facts of the story are in the details.
Lost in second ownership
The object in question is chassis number 198042-10-002786, a 300 SL in fantasy yellow - the lone star of the Mercedes-Benz booth at the 1961 Geneva Motor Show. After the exhibition, the eccentric, legendary bon vivant Hans Ulrich Lenzlinger from Zurich, Switzerland, purchased the roadster. From 1969 to 2022 it belonged to farmer Heinrich Zollinger (1929-2023) in the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen, in between re-painted in red, and well under the radar of the 300-SL community. This is the reason the car was generally considered to have been lost - providing an opportunity for counterfeiters to use the chassis number to legitimize a doublet with no identity whatsoever.
In the autumn of 2022, Ralph Grieser - owner of the classic car business Depot3 in Mülheim-Kärlich, in the German state Rhineland-Palatinate - bought Zollinger's 300 SL. When Grieser applied to register the car, he was shocked to learn the following: The Department of Transport informed him that another 300 SL with that chassis number ending ...2786 already existed - another roadster in fantasy yellow that had been offered for sale by the Kienle company in 2019.
As Grieser was convinced of the authenticity of his number 2786 in view of the conclusive history as well as the almost untouched original condition (apart from the red paint job), he began to research the vehicle. At this point he also turned to the Parlamentskreis Automobiles Kulturgut (Parliamentary Group for Automotive Culture) of the German Bundestag, which has itself been investigating in illegal replicas of significant and highly valuable historic automobiles and the damaging effects of the trade for several years.
The head of the parliamentary group, Bundestag (Federal Parliament) delegate Carsten Müller, takes the view that counterfeit, highly-priced classic cars pose an existential threat to the social acceptance of classic vehicles in general. For this reason, after detailed deliberations, he decided to involve the German Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Criminal Police Office) in the investigation concerning the two roadsters with identical numbers. This office, in turn, informed the State Criminal Police Office of Baden-Wuerttemberg in March 2023, which passed the details on to the Stuttgart Department of Public Prosecution accordingly.
Finally, on May 31, 2023, the aforementioned raid commenced at Kienle's premises, with the operation apparently lasting several days. By June 6, officials had seized several Mercedes-Benz W 198 (300 SL) vehicles, "including two Gullwing coupés with identical chassis numbers, as well as one unnumbered chassis, one motor with a forged engine number and last but not least, a large quantity of business documents," as the German classic car magazine Oldtimer Markt reported in its July 2023 issue. The investigating authorities suspected that Kienle had been manufacturing and selling professional classic car replicas that had not been traded for a long time.
As mentioned previously, 76 year-old Klaus Kienle has since strongly denied having copied the fantasy yellow car with the 2786 epithet. His company had only brokered the car in 2019 "on behalf of the previous owner on a commission basis" or "within the market portal of our business", as Kienle's own press release of June 1, 2023, clarifies, which also matches personal statements made by Kienle. Deviating from this line, he claims in another narrative version that the heirs of an old customer with terminal cancer had sold the car themselves via Kienle's company website, and that his business had nothing to do with the roadster beyond that sale. He was unaware of where the vehicle had then gone subsequently and since he had no obligation to check the chassis number, he could not know whether it was genuine or fake.
These statements by the world-renowned 300 SL expert do not sound particularly credible. Especially since he might well have been better acquainted with the car: In a 2019 issue of his own in-house magazine Kienle News, it was featured extensively and in detail - even gracing the cover of the 2020 Kienle wall calendar. A vehicle merely sold on behalf of a customer, enjoying the exposure in two major features in Kienle publications doesn't sound very convincing.
Stolen and repainted
Thanks to in-depth research over the following months, the mystery surrounding the bright yellow dream car has now been cleared up. It is now evident that the car is by no means a replica - as mentioned at the beginning, Kienle did not actually forge this 300 SL. Nevertheless, it is genuine but at the same time illegal: As is now known, the car, which, by the way, was painted white with a red leather interior when it left the factory, was reported stolen in Frankfurt/Main in May 1983. Its original chassis number did not end with 2786, but with 2765.
In 1992, the car reappeared for the first time, painted in fantasy yellow and bearing the identity of the 300 SL from the Geneva Salon, final number 2786. Owner: Martin Tobian, Germany. This is shown in a register entry of the "Gull Wing Group International", the world's largest 300 SL club based in the USA. Remarkably, not only the engine number 2807 corresponds to that of the original, which at the time was in a barn in Switzerland. The differential, the transmission as well as the steering and the front axle identification numbers, as "reported by Tobian", in the register also matched the original. The source on which these details are based should be clear: According to experts, only the official factory data card can be considered valid.
Ralph Grieser, the buyer of the genuine Swiss car, is now aware that the former white and now bright yellow 300 SL does not in fact have these numbers. Thanks to in-depth research, he has succeeded in identifying the roadster, which was stolen 40 years ago and subsequently renumbered, and which (according to Tobian) belonged to several well-known German collectors in between: It is currently in the collection of a Sultan in Malaysia. After some negotiations, Grieser even succeeded in obtaining an audience there, accompanied by Frank Steinacker, a classic car consultant and expert who had previously established the undoubted originality of Grieser's red roadster.
Steinacker's expert opinion, which he drew up on the basis of his investigations in Southeast Asia, can hardly be surpassed in terms of clarity. According to the report, the last digits of the chassis number were changed using steel punch numbers with a different typeface, and also the engine number had been clearly manipulated, in both cases, in such a bumbling manner that even amateurs are able to identify the manipulation. Some of the other numbers listed in the US Club Register have been removed, but obviously not consistently enough: The original coachwork number 275 can still be identified on the glove box lid. It confirms beyond doubt that the fantasy yellow 300 SL in Malaysia is indeed the former white painted vehicle that was stolen in Frankfurt in 1983.
Even more remarkable is how the Sultan acquired the car with the fake chassis number 198042-10-002786. He didn't buy it through, but specifically from Kienle, and according to Kienle's invoice number 201960030 (dated October 31, 2019) for 1.3 million Euros (or 1.43 million Dollars). Further details of the piquant document included the predicate "matching numbers" as well as Kienle's note "The delivery remains our property until full payment".
The highlight of the mystery surrounding the fancy yellow roadster so far, however, is the previous owner from whom Kienle acquired the vehicle, according to information from his circle of friends. According to the report, the previous owner from North Rhine-Westphalia bought the car in 2017 for 1,075,000 Euros in order to offer it for sale again through Kienle as early as 2019. According to the report after Kienle had pointed out to the commissioner that the car was a fake, he bought it from himself for 600,000 Euros. The purchase is said to be dated June 2020 - around eight months later than Kienle resold the car to the Sultan.
The previous owner, who probably lost almost half a million Euros on the yellow 300 SL, is known to our editorial team by name. In a direct conversation, he is not prepared to comment on the ongoing proceedings. However, he is willing to confirm that he sold the car to Kienle as a fake for 600,000 Euros. This is the background behind how the matter could have considerably more unpleasant repercussions for Kienle, even though he did not forge the car himself.
«BMW automobile Tradition»
5502 Hunzenschwil, Switzerland
- Car dealership
- Automotive Expert & Appraiser
- Restoration & Projects
- Spare Parts
- Tires
- Classic Car Dealership
- and more ...
BMW, BMW-Alpina
Further double numbers
This could be the end of this story for now. However, several other Mercedes-Benz 300 SLs have since surfaced that raise similar questions. Two of them, according to reports, were seized from Kienle customers in the fall of 2023. One, a black roadster, was on display at Kienle's large exhibition stand at the 2015 Retro Classics fair in Stuttgart - while another, albeit a white roadster with the same chassis number known to the editors, was offered at the same event by a fellow dealer. The other recently confiscated 300 SL is a Gullwing from 1955 whose matching-numbered, but historically documented and thus undoubtedly genuine counterpart is in the car museum at Caister Castle on the English west coast.
The next case concerns another 300 SL Roadster in black, which the public prosecutor's office also seized from its unsuspecting owner in Bavaria. He had purchased the car from Kienle and later learned that there were issues surrounding its identity. Investigations revealed that Kienle had previously had to take the car back from the former buyer - a Belgian collector and proven 300 SL connoisseur - following proceedings before the Stuttgart Regional Court, as a forensic report had revealed that the chassis number had been manipulated.
A later inspection of the vehicle showed that it had been manipulated once again between its repossession by Kienle and its resale to Bavaria, presumably by using a different chassis. Today, the car's chassis number ...0367 is stamped in a different place, this time correctly. As an aside, shortly before this research had been completed, Klaus Kienle had contacted the current owner, urgently advising him not to answer any questions from journalists. But even without such questions, it is now known where the original 300 SL number ...0367 is located: in the United States. It is a dove blue roadster with beige interior that had been auctioned in 2018 by Gooding & Company in Scottsdale, Arizona, for 1'083'500 Dollars.
It would be too much to list all the cases of Mercedes-Benz 300 SLs with forged chassis numbers that are currently known to our editorial team, in some cases in detail, as a result of careful research. However, those mentioned here should be warning enough for numerous 300 SL owners around the globe, who are starting to panic in view of the explosive nature of the topic. For a long time now, the well-connected community has been speculating with gallows humor about how many more than the 3258 units once built - 1858 Gullwings (Type W 198; 1954-1957) and 1400 Roadsters (Type W 198 II; 1957-1963) - might exist in the meantime.
Some motivation to counterfeit is likely to arise from their values alone and the comparatively low cost of complete replicas: The open version currently ranks at around 1.3, the winged coupe at 1.8 million Euros.
It is hardly surprising that the name of the Kienle company comes up again and again in this whole complex of topics, along with a few other names. Klaus Kienle, who founded the famous company some 40 years ago and is thus himself considered an old-timer of the trade, has always been exceedingly forthcoming about the large amounts of official 300-SL data he owns. Recently, on September 15, 2022, he told the German podcast "Motorikonen" with clarion pride that, thanks to old connections, he possesses almost all the material on the 300 SL from the Daimler-Benz factory archive. Kienle has himself said: "Well, we have for example, almost all 300 SL documents that there were... from all the 3000 cars built we have almost all the documents..."
Since the raid on May 31, 2023, the man who occasionally claims to be the greatest 300 SL specialist in the world has been less visible in public. This may be due to the fact that his sometimes contradictory statements have dissipated somewhat and thus lost some of their plausibility. For example, he originally said that in the case of the yellow roadster he had been denounced by an unpleasant employee, whereupon he had fired him without notice. He later backtracked and described what he had said earlier as a mistake. In retrospect, the question arises as to what extent a well-founded summary dismissal can be an error.
Significantly, Klaus Kienle announced several times that he would issue a comprehensive press release explaining all the circumstances on June 12, 2023. The journalists are still waiting for this today. Meanwhile, the patriarch, who, according to his own statements, commands a staff of 80, continues to find individual media outlets willing to provide him a forum free of criticism.
A remarkable example of this is the interview that can be read in the "Benzingespräch" (fuel talk) column of German classic car magazine Auto Classic, of June 2023. In it, Kienle once again portrays himself as an innocent choirboy as well as a victim of grudge and character assassination. Not a truly convincing defense strategy in view of the facts at hand, it appears downright grotesque when he also sets himself up as the moral authority of his industry. Kienle says in the Auto Classic interview: "We have always stood for the fascination of the original, and we frown on copies."
Just a trivial offense?
Overall, the resistance to any sense of injustice seems to be almost typical of this specific trade. Some of Kienle's dealer colleagues, who also focus on 300 SLs, at any rate articulate the view that it is not so much the illegal replicas that are causing considerable damage to the business, but rather the corresponding reactions on the part of the judiciary and the press.
The Swiss specialist Eric le Moine, who once compiled a 300-SL Gullwing register and is currently working on a corresponding work about all existing Roadsters is very clear on the matter. He doesn't consider the forged cars to be a huge scandal, but the fuss that journalists are making about them. According to le Moine, this is very unfair in view of the fact that certain creative craftsmen have been delighting the enthusiastic classic car world with even more of such beautiful vehicles for decades...
There is some considerable anticipation regarding how the original manufacturer Daimler will react to the miraculous multiplications of the 300 SL. On the occasion of the spectacular destruction of a Gullwing replica in 2012, Daimler expressed as follows: "The body style of the legendary Gullwing is protected in favor of Daimler AG. Anyone who manufactures, offers or sells replicas of the vehicle infringes the company's rights. This applies even if no word or figurative marks of the company are used for the replicas. As a work of applied art, the body of the 300 SL will continue to enjoy copyright protection for several decades." With regard to the coupé version, the direction of impact is thus clear: The Mercedes makers reserve the right to destroy plagiarized 300 SL Gullwings. This, however, provokes the intriguing question: What happens to the apparently more common counterfeit Roadster examples?
No less prevalent is the question of what will happen to the once honorable company Kienle Automobiltechnik GmbH in the Stuttgart suburbs. Attentive observers registered at the beginning of August 2023 that the company was offering "probably the world's largest spare parts warehouse for classic Mercedes-Benz automobiles" on the advertisement platform kleinanzeigen.de (formerly Ebay Classifieds Germany). Five million Euros were mentioned as the asking price. It is not known whether the spectacular offer of "over 40,000 original Mercedes-Benz parts" was intended to save the company - or whether the opposite, namely its liquidation, was on the cards. In any case, the strange advertisement disappeared again after a few hours.
Unfortunately, a true slapstick pearl has also been erased from the social media. It originated on Kienle's Instagram account in April 2023 and showed the scenery of a promotional photo shooting for a red Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster with a black hardtop, as well as an equally red Gullwing. Fortunately, we were able to secure this delicacy in time before it was deleted. Its exceedingly meaningful caption reads "Double the 300 SL - Double the Fun".
