1969 Mercedes-Benz 280 SL Pagoda
“ This is a rare UK Supplied RHD example has been used very sparingly over the last few decades and has been maintained regardless of the cost. ”
This one is truly a fine example of the marque and the model.

Background
The Mercedes-Benz SL-Class is a grand tourer sports car and has been manufactured by Mercedes since 1954.

An American importer by the name of Max Hoffman suggested to Mercedes that there might well be a market for a more civilised version of a Grand Prix car. Something tailored to deep-pocketed performance enthusiasts in the cash swamped post-war American market.

He turned out to be very right indeed, and the US remains the primary market for the SL to this day.

We can reveal that the SL stands for ‘Super-Leicht’ – or ‘Super Light’, a fact ratified only relatively recently by some Mercedes historians locked away in a dusty Bremen basement.

While there’s some irony in the application of that name to later variants weighing in at nearly 2 tonnes, it sits well enough with the slim and relatively elfin Paul Bracq-designed ‘pagoda’ roof SLs produced from 1963 through to 1971. The 'pagoda' nickname emanated, of course, from the concave roofline of its hardtop.

Always more of a sporting grand tourer than a fully-fledged sports car, the SL was supplied with a standard folding fabric roof, while the optional hardtop gave almost saloon-like levels of civility. With the hardtop option box ticked, the convertible SL was a truly all-purpose, all-season car.

These W113 designated cars boasted a new safety body – incorporating a stronger passenger compartment, with energy absorbing crumple zones at either end – based on a truncated 220 floor pan and equipped with a swing axle rear end and double wishbone front suspension.

Engines came in a variety of sizes, initially 2.3-litre (148bhp) then 2.5-litre (150bhp) and finally 2.8-litre (170bhp). All were 120mph cars but the delivery of power was more about smoothly swift progression than shouty, in-your-face acceleration.

Perhaps more than any other car, the SL ‘pagoda’ conjures up powerfully evocative images of life’s lucky winners cruising down Californian or Côte d'Azur boulevards in a heady blur of ‘60’s style, glamour and panache.

Overview
As you might imagine, the highly-prized, ever-popular and much-sought-after Mercedes-Benz SL is a fairly familiar sight here at our Oxfordshire HQ.

They are revered as classics for a reason.

Whatever the iteration - gull-wing, pagoda, ‘R’ variants ranging from 107 to 231 - the base DNA remains the same: exceptional quality married to brilliant engineering in an enduringly attractive and luxurious package.

This one is a fine example of the marque and the model.

It comes to us via a vendor who has owned the car since 2013, the year in which the car was stripped back for a glass-out, bare metal restoration, had all and any remedial work carried out to the bodywork and was repainted.

Among much other work undertaken at that time, the car received new front wings, new sill covers (on both sides), and had all the brightwork re-chromed.

The car’s odometer is showing an indicated 80,500 miles today. In 1996 the figure was 71,074 miles.

So, as you will by now have discerned, this splendid vehicle has been used very sparingly over the last few decades.

Estimate: £65,000 - £75,000

View The Current Bid Price HERE