Wooden Mercedes-Benz 300 SL That Actually Drives

At first glance, it looks like a classic Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing. Long, elegant, and unmistakably 1950s. But look closer, and the metallic gleam of the original is gone. In its place, polished teak glows under the light, its grain tracing the car’s famous curves.
 

The cold, aerodynamic bodywork of Stuttgart’s most iconic sports car has been reborn in warm, sculpted wood. And the most surprising part? It really runs because there is an engine under the sculpted hood.
 
This fully drivable wooden Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, nicknamed La Belle Castelle, is the work of French craftsman Rémi Le Forestier and his small team of artisans. The car’s creator clarifies the name he chose for it: “The nice Casteltheodorician. It is the name of the residents of Château-Thierry, my city. It is where we have built this car.”
 
Over the course of two years and about 8,000 hours of labor, they transformed solid blocks of teak into a full-scale, functioning replica of the Mercedes-Benz legend that first saw the light of day back in 1954.
 
An icon reimagined
The 300 SL is often called one of the most beautiful cars ever made. With its gullwing doors, tubular frame, and 3-liter six-cylinder engine, it embodied the height of postwar automotive design.
 
The story begian with the Mercedes-Benz W194, a lightweight racing car built for endurance competitions. It had a tubular space frame that was extremely strong but left no room for conventional doors. To solve that, engineers designed upward-opening “gullwing” doors, purely for structural reasons, not style.
 
Building one out of wood may sound absurd. Yet Le Forestier’s creation preserves every line, curve, and proportion of the original, giving it an artistic sense.
 
The car’s structure is based on a 1989 Mercedes E 300 chassis. A tubular steel frame provides strength, while every visible surface, from the doors and hood to the roof and fenders, has been hand-shaped from solid teak.
 

Even the gullwing doors open just as the originals did. Underneath, the 3.0-liter Mercedes-Benz engine remains intact and fully operational, capable of propelling the wooden machine up to 50 mph (80 kph).
 
It has nothing in common, in terms of performance, with the W194 that underpinned the original Gullwing, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Bern Grand Prix, and the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico in 1952. But “Belle Castelle” is more about beauty and less about performance.
 
Inside, brown leather seats, a right-hand steering wheel, and handcrafted wooden details continue the theme of craftsmanship meeting mechanics.
 
The car measures 196.8 inches (500 centimeters) in length, 70.9 inches (180 centimeters) wide, and 57.0 inches (145 centimeters) in height. These proportions mirror those of the original Mercedes-Benz 300 SL.
 
Despite being built from solid teak rather than steel, the replica preserves the graceful stance and aerodynamic balance of the 1950s icon. Each curve has been sculpted to scale, ensuring that La Belle Castelle retains the unmistakable presence of the Gullwing while offering a warmer, organic visual texture.
 
Though it can move under its own power, La Belle Castelle is not road-legal. It is, first and foremost, a piece of art.
 

From workshop to wonder
The idea began not with an engineer’s ambition but with a family moment. Remi Le Forestier originally planned to reproduce James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 in wood. But after his young daughter visited the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart and fell in love with the 300 SL Gullwing, he decided to take on what he now calls his greatest challenge.
 
Working from photos and 3D scans, Le Forestier and four collaborators set out to reproduce the SL’s aerodynamic form by hand. Teak was chosen for its strength and resistance to moisture, vital qualities for an artwork meant to move. Each panel was sculpted, sanded, and assembled with screws onto the car’s steel skeleton.
 
The finished vehicle, unveiled in June 2025 during the Fêtes Jean de La Fontaine in Château-Thierry, stunned the public. The wooden gullwing appeared in parades, exhibitions, and later at the “Racebox” showroom in Saint-Maximin, Oise, where it attracted both art enthusiasts and automotive collectors.
 
Observers have compared it to the famous wooden-bodied Hispano-Suiza H6B “Tulipwood” of 1924 or the wooden Citroën 2CV built by French craftsman Michel Robillard, both rare examples of cars where wood and mechanics intertwine.
 
But Le Forestier’s Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing is unique in being the only fully wooden, functional gullwing in existence.
 
Beyond the workshop
This isn’t Remi Le Forestier’s first high-profile creation. The French carpenter has built a replica of Bokassa’s throne and once delivered a desk to Donald Trump for the White House. Yet La Belle Castelle stands apart. It’s not just furniture or sculpture. It is motion, engineering, and soul combined.
 
He describes it as a “bridge between eras,” bringing together traditional craftsmanship and modern technology, the machine age and the human touch.
 
The car is scheduled to go under the hammer at the Maison Rouillac auction in November 2025, with an opening estimate of around €15,000 ($17,450). It’s a modest figure for a project that demanded nearly two years of constant work.