Volume XI · AutoIndex Editions
Mercedes-Benz SL · Pagoda to R129
The Collector's Companion · 1963–2001
48 pages · PDF download
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Four decades of the roadster Mercedes built to outlast its owners — the W113 Pagoda, the long-lived R107 and its SLC coupé, and the R129 that has only now begun its recovery. Nine dossiers covering every configuration a UK buyer will meet, from the one-year 250 SL to the 85-car SL 73 AMG, with the R230 as the line under the era.
The dossiers
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230 SL (1963–1967) — the first Pagoda; 19,831 built; the concave hardtop, the rally win that proved it, and why the purest of the three is not the dearest
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250 SL (1966–1968) — the one-year car; 5,196 built; discs all round and a bigger tank; the rarest Pagoda and how the market prices scarcity against the 280
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280 SL (1967–1971) — the definitive Pagoda; 23,885 built; the torque the earlier cars lacked, and the manual-gearbox premium that defines the top of the market
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R107 V8 years: 350, 450, 280 and 380 SL (1971–1985) — the SL for the American decade; the six-cylinder European cars, and which early R107s reward a buyer
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R107 final cars: 500, 300 and 420 SL (1980–1989) — the most refined of the generation; the facelift cars the market rewards, and the 560 SL alternative
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C107 SLC (1971–1981) — the R107 stretched into a four-seat coupé; 62,888 built; the louvred rear window, and the 450 SLC 5.0 homologation special
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R129: 300, 320 and 500 SL (1989–2001) — Bruno Sacco's SL; the pop-up roll-over bar and powered hood; the most advanced roadster of its day, now at the bottom of its curve
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R129 V12 and AMG: SL 600, SL 60 and SL 73 — 11,089 SL 600s and 85 SL 73s; the configurations leading the generation's recovery
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R230: the end of the era — the folding hard-top successor, and why it draws the line under everything before it
The era
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The car built to last: Stuttgart's engineering doctrine and why an SL is still a daily-usable classic sixty years on
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Engineers, stylists and the safety doctrine: Béla Barényi's crumple zones, Paul Bracq's Pagoda and Bruno Sacco's R129
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Proof by ordeal: the 230 SL's Spa–Sofia–Liège win, the SLC's rally years and the crash hall that shaped every generation
Buying & ownership
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Pagoda inspection: the sills, floors and inner wings that decide the price, and how to tell a restoration from a repaint
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R107 and SLC: the rust map, the timing chains on the V8s, and why history beats mileage
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R129: hydraulic hood and roll-over bar systems, wiring-loom degradation on early cars, and the V12's running costs
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Colour, specification and originality: hardtops, gearboxes, UK right-hand-drive supply and what each is worth
About AutoIndex Editions
AutoIndex Editions are long-form collector references written from the perspective of the market — production data, ownership economics, configuration premiums and the investment case — rather than as general appreciations. Each guide is a one-time purchase: a PDF you own, formatted for screen and print.
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