Life Changing Mercedes!

A little about this entry...
Little did we know when we bought this Horizon Blue 1970 280SL “Pagoda” in 2011, that it would laterally change our lives.
The car was sold new at Mercedes-Benz Beverley Hills and had a very nice life in California but 41 years later it was sitting in a dirt floor garage in Raleigh, NC. It was in bad shape and had not been started in over ten years. It needed everything, but the good thing about it was that the body had no rust!
My wife, Pam and I joined the Pagoda Club and the Triangle section of the MBCA to learn more about how to restore this car. We met a lot of great members in the club and were soon on our way to restoring the Pagoda. After 5 long years and a lot of help from fellow MBCA members, we finished the restoration!
During this time, I became President of the Triangle Section for 4 years and Pam became Secretary. We got the Section involved with the Pinehurst Concours for 2 years. The following year, the Triangle Section, with the help of the MBCA, started the Mercedes Concours on the village green. The next year we invited the Porsche Club and others to join us to help create an “Special National” event in Pinehurst. The following year, we made a presentation to the Village Council of Pinehurst to start the Sandhills Motoring Festival every Memorial Day weekend. We just completed our 6th year and are still going strong with 160 classic, special interest and exotic automobiles in the 2023 concours.
Because of our involvement in the concours, we went to the Concours of Pebble Beach for a week with fellow MBCA members and had a fantastic time meeting other MBCA members there. We have also attended the Hilton Head Concours, where we showed a fellow member’s 1938 170 V Roadster that won the Chairman’s Award! That was also the same year that we were responsible for bringing 55 Mercedes-Benz to the Hilton Head Concours for a special presentation of the evolution of the Mercedes-Benz. Yes indeed, this car definitely changed our lives!