{"id":490775,"date":"2009-07-01T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2009-07-01T19:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=46607"},"modified":"2025-01-06T00:45:58","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T00:45:58","slug":"gullwing-que-bella-macchina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/gullwing-que-bella-macchina\/","title":{"rendered":"Automotive Art – Nicolas Hunziker’s “Gullwing! Qu\u00e9 bella macchina!”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gullwing Artwork<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Nicolas Hunziker honors the Gullwing Mercedes-Benz 300SL in which John Fitch won the \u201955 Mille Miglia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two months before the end of WWII, an American P-51 Mustang was shot down over Germany. The pilot was Captain John Fitch and he spent the rest of the war as a POW. Ten years later, that same John Fitch teamed up with a German co-driver to drive a German car for a German team in an Italian race. The co-driver was Kurt Gesell, the car was the Gullwing 300SL, the entrant was none other than the Mercedes-Benz factory team and the race was the famed Mille Miglia of 1955. This just serves to illustrate that John Fitch was more than just a racecar driver. He was a visionary. He understood that past conflicts were just that: In the past. There was no need to rekindle nationalism and emotions of WWII. He understood that motor racing would become a worldwide affair, and so it was that the unlikely team of Fitch and Gesell scored a GT class victory in their beautiful black Gullwing 300SL.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n