1964 Mercedes Benz 230SL Pininfarina body one off coupe

I have seen this car, very graceful, designed by Tom Tjaarda, an American working in Italy designing cars for the last 40 years. It is owned by the Hook family in La Jolla. I was wondering , I saw this car enter a used car lot in 1970-72 period but couldn't get down to the lot to see what the owner was trying to sell it for. I was wondering what the lowest price it was ever offered for? I also know that the car originally belonged to Axel Springer, a German publisher, but am not too sure if Pininfarina was doing a show car to toot their own horn (and hoping for a production contract) or whether he especially ordered it.

Any news of the car's history appreciated.

I, too, saw this car in person and found it to be wildly successful redesign. I can't see MB ever approving it in era but these cars would have sold well I believe, such beauty. Here is an article by Roy Spencer regarding the car with some details and info you may or may not know, but I have no information on sales prices. You could contact Roy directly and ask, he may have an answer. http://www.mercedesheritage.com/2009/the-pininfarina-230sl/

Yes, I've seen that article. I thnk the car looks good in black. But it's absolutely criminal that they spend all the money to make a new design and don't have one off wheels for it, as if to say "we ran out of money on the wheels." Also I wonder about the market, Mercedes on their stock version, had the advantage of a closed car (when the hardtop was on) or open car (using convertible top) but maybe it would only have been a few hundred sales a year, on the other hand, that might have been a good fit for Pininfarina's production facilities. Thanks for finding that article.

Mercedes on their stock version, had the advantage of a closed car (when the hardtop was on) or open car (using convertible top) but maybe it would only have been a few hundred sales a year

I forgot this was a fixed head car, it surely would have then faced competition from the more luxurious SE coupes, which were originally planned to be fitted with an SL style grille and star rather than the upright grille the final version had, that really would have made for a close race between the two!