Mercedes 300 SL

...now taken my classic 1989 Mercedes 300 SL convertable out of the garage to drive around in the sun. She is dark blue ( a unique colour, I had the body restored two years agao and chose a dark metalic, pearl blue colour for her ), completely pristeen and with the roof down, simply gorgeous to look at. I have owned her for 10 years now and I have spent a lot of money having the body restored and various mechanical items rebuilt, like the auto gearbox, ...
...new, so whats it really like to drive a classic SL Merc?

Well, firstly, you have to remember that they are old cars and built very differently to cars today. My 300 SL, the baby of the range, still weighs in at over 1.5 tonnes and you feel the weight everytime you go around corners or have to stop very quickly. She has power steering, as you would expect, but rather than being full of feel and weight, like all modern cars, it feels ... more

The summer has come again and now its time to bring out my beautiful old lady and let her enjoy the sun and feel the wind in her hair.........well something like that.

Yes summer is here and I have now taken my classic 1989 Mercedes 300 SL convertable out of the garage to drive around in the sun. She is dark blue ( a unique colour, I had the body restored two years agao and chose a dark metalic, pearl blue colour for her ), completely pristeen and with the roof down, simply gorgeous to look at. I have owned her for 10 years now and I have spent a lot of money having the body restored and various mechanical items rebuilt, like the auto gearbox, engine and rear axle, etc and now she runs as new, so whats it really like to drive a classic SL Merc?

Well, firstly, you have to remember that they are old cars and built very differently to cars today. My 300 SL, the baby of the range, still weighs in at over 1.5 tonnes and you feel the weight everytime you go around corners or have to stop very quickly. She has power steering, as you would expect, but rather than being full of feel and weight, like all modern cars, it feels somewhat disconnected from the car, its extremely light, you dont really feel where the wheels are and because it uses a steering box rather than a modern steering rack, there is a lot of play in the steering wheel when driving straight., however, like all things you soon get used to it and once you do, there is no better car for wafting along in.

Now it is a sports car but, not a fast one. I had the engine uprated when it was rebuilt and now it puts out around 220 bhp against the standard, 188, the torque is also up 40 - 50 ft lbs over standard and even coupled to a 4 speed auto box, it does take off pretty sharpish, I guess 0 - 60 is about 8 seconds, no supercar then, but more than fast enough for modern driving and indeed she does surprise more than a few so called fast cars, however, this is not what these cars are about.

It' s a funny car to drive simply because you dont ever feel the need to drive it fast. There reason for this is that as you are very low to the ground and you sit in the car rather than on the seat and the windscreen is very low, you get a very high sensation of speed even when your only driving at 50 mph and thats the thing about this car, you only ever want to drive it at this speed.

Its different on the motorways of course, with a 4 speed auto, she will comfortably hit 120 plus mph ( dont worry I drive a lot in France and Germany so you wont see me doing that speed over here ) and stay there all day, she is also very stable, cross winds making no difference at all to straight line stability.

She is also very quite at speed dispite the soft top, infact the biggest area of noise comes when you havent closed the electric windows all the way to the top ( they do stick sometimes leaving a few tenths of an inch gap ), and I have driven across France ( 10 hours non stop apart from fuel refills ) and Germany, ( over 12 hours ) and always got out at he other end feeling relaxed and refreshed.

I am a big guy, 6 ft plus and very large frame ( no fat though ) but apart from the standard over large steering wheel, there's plenty of room in it given that you cant recline the seats very far due to the rear seats and seat belt mounting points. The trunk is very big and you can easily get a weeks worth of holiday clothes and stuff in it.

Obviously, with the hood down there's very little security although mine is alarmed, immobilised and has a tracker fitted, the trunk however is secure and its impossble to open without the key, ( I know this because my girlfriend closed the boot lid with the keys still in it once and even a specialist lock smith couldn't get in it ). I got in though, in the end but I am obviously not going to say how.

The ride is a little firm, as you would expect for a heavy convertable and there is a little body and scuttle ( the top of the dash board ) shake when you hit a big pothole or bump in the road but not enough to cause any problems.

The handling is also very good but I did have all the rubber suspension bushes replaced with a speciual rubber/plastic hybrid which tightens up the suspension operation and removes a lot of the " detacted from the road " feeling I used to get. I also had new shocks and springs fitted and this sharpened up the body roll resistance and turn in to highly acceptable levels. It still wallows a bit and is light years behind a modern car but then again, you cruise around in it so flat out handling is not a priority.

Its also reasonably econimical, I am not one of these people who sits down once and month with a calculator and works out their cars mpg, but I reckon it is doing somewhere around 25 - 30 mpg, not bad at all for a 3 litre engine and auto box, of course when you hit the motorway, it does drop a bit, but probably not to far below 20 mpg and you would be surprised just how many 1.6 and 2.0 litre cars do that and less mpg at 80 mph.

Servicing could be very expensive if you had to farm it out, but I am fortunate in that along with fighting wars in Africa in the 1980's I also used to race cars and we used to rebuild our cars after every race, so I do all the maintenance myself. You can get all service items very cheaply from Halfords or similar so its inexpensive, although I do use synthetic engine oil which is more expensive than normal, but she is worth it. The brake pads seem to last 20,000 miles or so as do the tyres. She now has 150,000 miles on the clock but as all major mechanical items have been completely rebuilt, she drives like new.

Where the work comes in, is with the body. I had all the rust cut out of her 2 years ago ( and they do rust, especially in the boot floor and wheel arch areas and underneath in general ) and even though it was a very extensive restoration, the odd spot of rust does still appear so you have to jump on it as soon as you see one. Despite being a convertable it is completely water tight and in the winter, I put a hard top on it so its always fully protected.

So to the point of the car, driving with the hood down. The first time I drive with the hood down, in my case at this time of the year, I always find it the most gorgeous and beautiful experience. You feel the wind in your hair, the freash air against your face and the sun. If its hot you dont have to put the AC on and you never get hot or sweaty. The only problem you suffer is sun burn and if you have a convertable and get stuck in a traffic jam out in the sun, do yourself a big favour and put the hood up, if you dont, you will get scorched.

With regard to the wind, its fine driving with the side windows down at speeds up to 60 mph, but any faster and the wind attacks your hair with a vengence and you have to wind them up, also my girlfriend is a women who will easily spend an hour or so doing her hair, making sure its perfect, only for it to be blown all over the place within a few short miles, so you can get a lot of grief owning one of these ( not necessarily from the car either ) but it is worth it.

So what do you have to pay to own one?.............the price you pay comes down to whether the car has been restored ( a good restoration that is ) or if its original.

For a fully restored car, you can expect to pay anywhere between £12,000 and £20,000, and for an original, clearn and untouched car, as little as £6,000 - £7,000. Mine is the smaller engined model but they also did bigger engined ones with anything from a 3.8 litre to a 5.0 litre engine fitted and again the prices are very similar but slightly higher depending on engine size. At the end of the day, it all comes down to condition but dont buy one with lost of rust in it, you will regret it later.

With original cars, dont be put off by high milage. These cars were very much over engineered and can do extremely high millage. A german friend of mine has a 1985 500 SL, that has nearly 200,000 miles on the clock and it drives as new.

The insurance can also be expensive depending on your age and situation, however, for me ( 47 years old ) the cost is a not unreasonable £300.00 per year so i am not complaining, in fact, thats the point with his car, there is nothing to complain about, its almost the perfect car and it gives you levels of attention you would not believe.

People smile at you, even Arabic looking men and gangsters in blacked out Mercs let you out from side roads, women look at you with that deep longing in their eyes ( I am sure its me and not the car thats causing this ) and men in their BMW's look at you enviously ( or maybe thats my girlfriend their looking at who is stunningly and exceptionally beautiful ) and we often come back to the car and find notes on the windscreen offering to buy it / Lots of people also come up and ask me about it when I park it somewhere so, if your shy, then its probaly not a good car for you to own or drive.

Having owned it for 10 years would I sell it,?.........no way, I use it only in summer now and like all good things, they get better as they mature so no I am going to keep it .

Should you buy one?.............If you want something different and something that will please you and make you feel good every time you go out in it, then you need to drive one and feel it for yourself. These are classic cars but they are more than capable of being driven every day as long as they get a little TLC so go for it, buy one, ( a good clean and rust free one that is ) and you wont regret it.

 

...less