RE: Spotted: Mercedes-Benz SL60 AMG

[JREwing]

TVR Tommy said:

My dad has one of theses sitting in the garage. It's a great car to cruise around in and is pretty quick.

If anyone fancy's a low mileage 1995 SL60 in dark blue with all the AMG fixtures. Drop me a PM as It'll be going up for sale in March.

You should get plenty of interest in that.

[redroadster]

MY MATE HAD ONE OF THESE HE STILL REMEMBERS IT AS THE BEST CAR HE EVER OWNED ,I DROVE IT WAS A PROPER MUSCLE CAR AND BRILLIANT BUID QUALITY FUTURE CLASSIC ? .

[Davey S2]

Evo said:

I'd rather spend my 25k on a nice 996 Turbo. Not enough sports car for me.

But the SL isn't a sports car. Its a powerful GT.

Totally different to the 911 IMO

[Evo]

Davey S2 said:

Evo said:

I'd rather spend my 25k on a nice 996 Turbo. Not enough sports car for me.

But the SL isn't a sports car. Its a powerful GT.

Totally different to the 911 IMO

I never said it was a sports car lol, just said it's not enough of a sports car for me to spend my £25000 on

As a GT car i'm sure it would be awesome fun,

[SFO]

chiefski26 said:

This Sl60 sold for £15k not long ago.

that's some mark up at Avantgarde cars!

[WCZ]

Evo said:

Rarity aside I'm not sure the SL73 warrants an additional £50k over an SL60.

you can't push rarity to the side on the SL73, it's 1 of 2 cars ever made!

[George29]

WCZ said:

you can't push rarity to the side on the SL73, it's 1 of 2 cars ever made!

No it isn't. It's 1 of 85.

Still rare though.

[slippery]

I used to drive one of these regularly. It was at a time when I worked with several petrolheads and we regularly used to swap cars for the day to drive something different. The person who owned the SL60 previously owned a R129 SL500 from new and I drove that a lot too. The 500 was a fabulous car and I believe that they are currently an amazing used buy. When the time came for him to change, I remember spending time looking at ads with him and we came across an SL60 AMG. He bought an R reg one used in around 2003 for about £28k. I was very keen to get my hands on it, as I was expecting a bit of a monster. I'm afraid I was disappointed. Firstly, the engine/exhaust note was not really noticeably different. Secondly, the performance although undeniably very strong, was not really a huge leap from the 500. In fact, you would probably have to drive them literally back to back to notice. Dynamically it wasn't a huge advance either. I know this all sounds a bit negative and it really isn't meant to. I'm not saying that the SL60 is a bad car because it's not. It's just that my level of expectation was probably a little too high. The AMGs of today are certainly way more hardcore than the SL60 ever was.
As an aside, his car was originally owned by the Guiness family and the last time he drove it was when he collided with a pedestrian who died one new years eve.

[sato]

George29 said:

WCZ said:

you can't push rarity to the side on the SL73, it's 1 of 2 cars ever made!

No it isn't. It's 1 of 85.

Still rare though.

I remember reading (well looking at the pictures) of a Japanese car mag in around 2000.
It seemed every prestige dealer had a SL73 in stock. There must have been 20 of the things for sale.

[lifebegins@400]

SFO said:

chiefski26 said:

This Sl60 sold for £15k not long ago.

that's some mark up at Avantgarde cars!

I think the specialists tend to follow a plan of big premiums but with low stock turnover - others I think are similar, they seem to advertise stuff for a long time - I wouldn't buy a car from a specialist personally but if preparation and peace of mind are more important than price then fair enough - each to their own

Edited by lifebegins@400 on Wednesday 6th February 11:32

[Luca Brasi]

That's a proper Merc, lovely.

[pSyCoSiS]

griffdude said:

For true AMG lunacy(in a good way) this is the beastie-

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/m...

The 6.0 litre version was more of a beast, though!

[722Adam]

Am I right in thinking the SL73 was Brabus designed/built? Or is the car I'm thinking of a modified version of this?

[Mert84]

None of us would buy the SL73 for 75.000.- There would be so many other cars for 75.000.- or similar amount worth buying before the SL73 for all of us. Only sultan of Brunei would buy it, not surprising that it was made for him. The same is true even for the SL60. The ones to get are 8-10k SL500s.

I have driven my father`s `97 SL320 quite a lot and I can tell you that it may not even be a GT depending on how you define a GT. If Porsche 928 (especially later ones GT and GTS) is a GT then this is not. The best word to describe is cruiser. So if you want something comfy, open top, safe and with really good build quality then it may be for you. The build quality is really the old Mercedes quality, it is probably much better than R230. I remember looking inside an R230 once and it felt cheaper than R129 but I don`t know in more detail.

The main problem is weight even the 320 weights 1780-1800kg, 600 is above 2 tons as I remember. That coupled with low torsional stiffness (remember this debuted in 1989 and has got no fixed roof!) of 8650Nm/degree (can reference this: Mercedes-Benz 280 SL-600 SL, Gunter Engelen) you get a car which is definitely not agile or sharp. You do hear flexing noises, especially from the rear attachment points of hard-top and get the scuttle shake. Steering response is pretty bad too, it doesn`t even self centre at low speed 90 degree corners like turning into a perpendicular street. Strangely it self centres much better when reversing! Be prepared for these if you want one.

[ecs0set]

Bargain AMG has to be here: http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/m...

The AMG Supercharged 5.5 V8 in an attrative coupe for less than 7 grand? If it wasn't for the fear of much borkage I would have one in a snap.

[George29]

ecs0set said:

Bargain AMG has to be here: http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/m...

The AMG Supercharged 5.5 V8 in an attrative coupe for less than 7 grand? If it wasn't for the fear of much borkage I would have one in a snap.

That isn't supercharged.

[slippery]

George29 said:

ecs0set said:

Bargain AMG has to be here: http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/m...

The AMG Supercharged 5.5 V8 in an attrative coupe for less than 7 grand? If it wasn't for the fear of much borkage I would have one in a snap.

That isn't supercharged.

Quite right. The difference between that and the later SC version is like night and day.

[ecs0set]

slippery said:

George29 said:

ecs0set said:

Bargain AMG has to be here: http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/m...

The AMG Supercharged 5.5 V8 in an attrative coupe for less than 7 grand? If it wasn't for the fear of much borkage I would have one in a snap.

That isn't supercharged.

Quite right. The difference between that and the later SC version is like night and day.

Ahh, OK. CL600 seems an acceptable alternative though.

[myhandle]

Brilliant thread. I love the idea of the SL73, as it is the nearest thing to a Brabus-style tuner special, straight from the factory. The Brunei specials are very interesting, but the bespoke Ferraris / Astons / Bentleys are pretty much concept cars that drive except for perhaps the 456 Estate.I get the impression the SL73 is much more of a developed car. It is probably worth the money when viewed long term in the context of other classic Mercedes. It's surely more special than , say , a 280SE 3.5 Cabrio , and in the long term values will surely reflect this. As for the SL60, Performance Car ran a comparison of a red original pre facelift orange indicator car against an F355 Spider when they were new, and both were highly regarded though clearly very different. I see a pre facelift dark blue one with the AMG bodykit (dated) and a facelift clear indicator car in silver driving about regularly. The silver one looks good except that it has black bumper guards glued to all four corners which somewhat dilute the effect.

[Wills2]

sato said:

George29 said:

WCZ said:

you can't push rarity to the side on the SL73, it's 1 of 2 cars ever made!

No it isn't. It's 1 of 85.

Still rare though.

I remember reading (well looking at the pictures) of a Japanese car mag in around 2000.
It seemed every prestige dealer had a SL73 in stock. There must have been 20 of the things for sale.

The advert says it's one of 2 cars produced in a higher state of tune to the stock sl72 producing 565bhp vs 515.

The article quotes 576bhp so I'm not sure who is right!

The sl60 is a beauty I loved my lowly r129 sl320 but the bork is strong with these cars if things haven't been fixed and looked after.