'12 SLS AMG + '18 E63S AMG + Other Stuff
Discussion
Hello everyone.
I'm here because my other half is sick to death of me talking about cars at the dinner table, and thus I've been instructed to take my waffle elsewhere. I also like to write, so I guess this ends up with you lot having to deal with my semi-constructed, arguably nonsensical ponderings. I do apologise in advance, I've looked through some of the posts and topics in this forum and have mostly come to the conclusion that I will treat this as scrapbook for my cars, the comings, the goings, and just generally keeping some sort of record for me to look back on in the years to come. Comments, thoughts, abuse, all welcome. This is a forum after all.
So, currently have 2 cars, with a couple on order. We'll discuss the orders in a seperate post - for now, the two in the "garage".
First we have my daily driver, the ever-reliable and absolutely unshakeable E63S. I love this thing. I've had it from new, spec'd it to order, and have done a decent amount of mileage (60k) in it over the 4 years I've had it. I've tried to replace it 3 times over the years with everything from a Vantage to a Panamera, and each time I find myself going: "Yeah, but will X do all the things the E63 does?", and the answer is usually no. The car will carry flat-packed wardrobes, my dogs, and a grumpy girlfriend in absolute silence, swiftly - and once all the above have been securely stowed away (read: locked) in the house, I'm able to drive it like I lick windows. Phenomenal. Sounds the bit too, which is frankly surprising for it being a 4L TT V8. Sure, not a drop on the stuff of old, but that's why the SLS is kicking around also.
Clean in the picture above. Less so in the one below. My ethos is to drive the car (any car in the garage) no matter what. After all, it's built to be used. But take care of it after the fact.
Anyway, this thing is like the family dog, much to the chagrin of the actual family dog(s).
Next, the SLS. Now, this car has a bit of a story to it and how I came about it. To be shared in another post about the car specifically. Definitely not purchased new. Bought at auction, and still very new to me - I've only had it about 2 months. For now, all I will say is that I intend on keeping this one for a while. It feels pretty special. I've owned things like a 720s, but this feels like slightly different gravy.. Yes, it's about 7 years between the two - but if you ask me today which I'd rather have, I'd answer SLS every single day of the week, and twice on Sundays. Something about it feels more... I don't know. Substantial. Significant, perhaps? It feels kind of like an heirloom - like a good timepiece you keep for a generation or two. You feel like you're in the presence of something with a bit of gravitas, even. Not sure what exactly it is, but the point is that the car ticks the special box and is simply absurdly entertaining to drive.
One picture I've taken myself, then a couple more from the auction listing.
The car is in a shade called Alubeam Silver - I've not quite seen this around much, and I'm told there aren't many (relative to the mass produced nature of the car) in this color courtesy of the fact that it cost a daft amount of money to option, something like £10 or 15k, but I've not found an exact number yet. What is cool is that this paint needed the car to be pulled off the line and hand painted at Sindelfingen as opposed to the rest of the paints that went through the robotised process. It looks kinda gold-ish in these pictures, but it's an absolutely fascinating color that changes it's hue based on the light. The gold tinge is due to the sun in these images, but as the light changes and becomes colder, the silver becomes brilliant and the car starts looking wet.. almost.
Some images from the auction listing.
The car is pretty much full spec, I don't think there are options it doesn't have, other than interior carbon, which imho absolutely ruins the vibe of the car. For me, the purchase was driven by finding my personal unicorn - the perfect spec car. I wasn't particularly actively looking, but one fantasises often, and I knew what my unicorn SLS would look like. Having never had the pleasure of being able to spec one from the factory, I knew it was a rare opportunity to get the car exactly as I'd want it from new, so I put on my big boy pants and waded into the bidding (despite only chancing upon it whilst looking for a '88 280GE to cart my dogs around in). It's got the carbon ceramics, the right rims, the right color inside and out, the lack of center console carbon, and very importantly that absolutely lovely Bang and Olufsen stereo.
More on the car(s) in other posts, but I guess this will do for a short introduction. Hi again, and hopefully more to come from me as I wind down in the evenings.
EDIT: First screw up, the car is an 11MY, not a 12MY, my bad. Can't edit the title so we're kinda stuck. I shall remain an imposter.
I'm here because my other half is sick to death of me talking about cars at the dinner table, and thus I've been instructed to take my waffle elsewhere. I also like to write, so I guess this ends up with you lot having to deal with my semi-constructed, arguably nonsensical ponderings. I do apologise in advance, I've looked through some of the posts and topics in this forum and have mostly come to the conclusion that I will treat this as scrapbook for my cars, the comings, the goings, and just generally keeping some sort of record for me to look back on in the years to come. Comments, thoughts, abuse, all welcome. This is a forum after all.
So, currently have 2 cars, with a couple on order. We'll discuss the orders in a seperate post - for now, the two in the "garage".
First we have my daily driver, the ever-reliable and absolutely unshakeable E63S. I love this thing. I've had it from new, spec'd it to order, and have done a decent amount of mileage (60k) in it over the 4 years I've had it. I've tried to replace it 3 times over the years with everything from a Vantage to a Panamera, and each time I find myself going: "Yeah, but will X do all the things the E63 does?", and the answer is usually no. The car will carry flat-packed wardrobes, my dogs, and a grumpy girlfriend in absolute silence, swiftly - and once all the above have been securely stowed away (read: locked) in the house, I'm able to drive it like I lick windows. Phenomenal. Sounds the bit too, which is frankly surprising for it being a 4L TT V8. Sure, not a drop on the stuff of old, but that's why the SLS is kicking around also.
Clean in the picture above. Less so in the one below. My ethos is to drive the car (any car in the garage) no matter what. After all, it's built to be used. But take care of it after the fact.
Anyway, this thing is like the family dog, much to the chagrin of the actual family dog(s).
Next, the SLS. Now, this car has a bit of a story to it and how I came about it. To be shared in another post about the car specifically. Definitely not purchased new. Bought at auction, and still very new to me - I've only had it about 2 months. For now, all I will say is that I intend on keeping this one for a while. It feels pretty special. I've owned things like a 720s, but this feels like slightly different gravy.. Yes, it's about 7 years between the two - but if you ask me today which I'd rather have, I'd answer SLS every single day of the week, and twice on Sundays. Something about it feels more... I don't know. Substantial. Significant, perhaps? It feels kind of like an heirloom - like a good timepiece you keep for a generation or two. You feel like you're in the presence of something with a bit of gravitas, even. Not sure what exactly it is, but the point is that the car ticks the special box and is simply absurdly entertaining to drive.
One picture I've taken myself, then a couple more from the auction listing.
The car is in a shade called Alubeam Silver - I've not quite seen this around much, and I'm told there aren't many (relative to the mass produced nature of the car) in this color courtesy of the fact that it cost a daft amount of money to option, something like £10 or 15k, but I've not found an exact number yet. What is cool is that this paint needed the car to be pulled off the line and hand painted at Sindelfingen as opposed to the rest of the paints that went through the robotised process. It looks kinda gold-ish in these pictures, but it's an absolutely fascinating color that changes it's hue based on the light. The gold tinge is due to the sun in these images, but as the light changes and becomes colder, the silver becomes brilliant and the car starts looking wet.. almost.
Some images from the auction listing.
The car is pretty much full spec, I don't think there are options it doesn't have, other than interior carbon, which imho absolutely ruins the vibe of the car. For me, the purchase was driven by finding my personal unicorn - the perfect spec car. I wasn't particularly actively looking, but one fantasises often, and I knew what my unicorn SLS would look like. Having never had the pleasure of being able to spec one from the factory, I knew it was a rare opportunity to get the car exactly as I'd want it from new, so I put on my big boy pants and waded into the bidding (despite only chancing upon it whilst looking for a '88 280GE to cart my dogs around in). It's got the carbon ceramics, the right rims, the right color inside and out, the lack of center console carbon, and very importantly that absolutely lovely Bang and Olufsen stereo.
More on the car(s) in other posts, but I guess this will do for a short introduction. Hi again, and hopefully more to come from me as I wind down in the evenings.
EDIT: First screw up, the car is an 11MY, not a 12MY, my bad. Can't edit the title so we're kinda stuck. I shall remain an imposter.
Ah thank you all for the warm reception!
Yes, the SLS is absolutely a bit of an interesting one - I agree fully that it's flawed, but I am partial to those sorts of things after owning the hugely capable, albeit slightly emotionally devoid 720S. With that being said, I was able to somewhat rectify the gearbox on the SLS with an interesting little hidden software update. More on that in another post.
For today, the story of buying the SLS.
I'd found a beautiful gold '88 280GE LWB on collecting cars (https://collectingcars.com/for-sale/1988-mercedes-benz-w460-280ge-lwb-2) - I figured that I'd chance it. The other half needed something to mooch about in, and this would fit the bill perfectly. She doesn't like most of the modern stuff, it doesn't interest her (for context - she has a '67 Impala Supersport in her native Swedenland). I ran the bidding up to around £18,750 and bowed out at £19,000. Immediate regret. It's probably worth something like the low 20s. Truly a lovely thing, and I'm sad I was a bit timid that day. It was PROPERLY exhilarating though, my first ever time bidding on a car at auction, albeit online.
Bitten by the 280GE bug, I started to browse Car and Classic looking for another. Naturally, nothing could be found, and those that were sat at £26k or more - I gave up and expanded the search to all older Mercedes on the website. I figured I'd start there and maybe narrow it down as we go, but having a classic Merc sit next to the E63S would have been kinda cool.
And then I saw it. A listing for the unicorn. I couldn't really believe my eyes when I saw an Alubeam car, exactly as I'd have it. Each picture I clicked through checked off another box. Right color, all the spec, etc etc etc. No price however. And then the penny dropped. It's another auction. f
k, not this again..
Off to check the values of SLS sitting around on the market. Not bad, not great. Around £170-ish for a nice car, well taken care of. Couldn't really find much with the right options and color, or even close. No Alubeam cars, so the search stopped there, pretty much. I didn't need an SLS, but if I were to buy one, it had to be one I wanted badly. I compromised when I bought my 720S, I could have spec'd my own car and taken delivery a few months down the line, or I could have bought the delivery mileage car they conveniently had sitting around and get it next week. I'll give you one guess what my monkey-brain chose on that day. Once the novelty wore off, there was regret. I wanted the glass panels in the roof, the Bowers and Wilkins stereo, all that fun stuff. Didn't have it. Wanted it. Felt it.
You live and you learn, or so I'm told. So I wasn't going to compromise and buy something just because. Looking through the auction listing, the car had a bit of an interesting history. From the collection of Peter de Savry (no idea - but googled and learned, he also sadly passed away just a couple of weeks ago), this thing had a new engine put in by Mercedes Brooklands in 2021, the old engine hydrolocked. Fascinating. Was it going to put me off? fk no, I expect this thing to be worthless by the time I'm done with it anyway, it isn't a collectors item for me. Drive the car. Remember the mantra. So that didn't bother me much, especially given I had a load of supporting documents direct from Mercedes HQ indicating the job's been done proper, along with letters from Brooklands. It had a warranty on it too, which is odd for a 12 year old car, but the recent engine work had it covered under warranty again. Swings and roundabouts! I confirmed it wasn't a "flood damaged" car, and no. Someone just got a little too excited crossing some standing water in it, and kaput goes the 6.2L - duly noted by myself. SLS is not a submarine. Did all the other checks, all came back clear - there weren't ANY markers on it whatsoever, much less so for the engine work, which apparently Mr. de Savry paid out of pocket for. I find it novel I basically get a brand new engine in the car, for me to go put miles on. The new motor had only done 3000mi.
Cool, the car is passes the "I want it", test. Next hurdle - a discussion with my other half. Now, I love this woman and she's very supportive of my propensity to be a bit of a wally. After a bit of convincing, she admitted she fell in love with the car too, and can see the sense (is there such thing with supercars?) in buying it. Righto. This is getting dangerous. I found the car just a few days before the auction, so I got myself all signed up and registered, sent over all my documents to Bonhams, and then sat and waited. Work commitments meant I couldn't head down myself, but at the same time - with my prior experience on Collecting Cars, I just wasn't feeling super confident about winning it either. I resigned myself to online bidding, perhaps as a bit of "expectation management" on my part.
On Friday, conveniently, a friend of a friend was kicking around Goodwood Revival, where the auction was being held. I got some pictures of the car the day before the auction. Every single rim was scuffed to hell, with one rim having particularly nasty damage on not only the edge, but the spoke.
One of the other rims. Not sure if the damage really shows here, I didn't get any pictures of it myself - but hopefully the poor condition is visible.
There was also some damage on the wing mirror, didn't look the sort that would buff out, probably a repaint jobby. That sounded unfun from a "It's Alubeam", perspective - but it's a small little panel that can easily come on and off, so I didn't feel it was a deal breaker either.
A big thanks to the friend of a friend for grabbing these pictures for me, and taking a good look around the car and giving it a thumbs up other than the noted. I was buying the car completely sight unseen otherwise. Car people are great and always willing to lend a hand!
Now, about the whole sight unseen thing. You know that obsession I had with Alubeam? Well, I'd never actually seen one in the metal. Ever. I'm not a particularly bright man, but even for me this was a bit special. I messaged a friend, Raz, who runs a YouTube channel called Remove Before Race (big plug, super cool guy, go check it out!), and wanted to get his opinion on it. Raz has had an Alubeam car, amongst a host of other silly things, and basically said it's the best color he's had on one of his cars. I'm feeling a little less dumb now. Not smart, but perhaps not a chicken melt sandwich.
Anyway, all settled and roll on to bidding day. Me and my other half nervously wait for the SLS to come up. Doesn't help that the auction was delayed by a couple of hours. Finally, it was time to go for it. Lot No. 321 came up. And, well - if you're interested - here's the moment. https://youtu.be/MYX2ZrlO-JQ?t=3160
I was honestly just monkey-bashing the bid button like the absolute doorknob I am. But there came a moment, the one RIGHT before I put in my final, winning bid, that I hesitated. "Is this too much?", I asked my other half. I didn't know how much further this would go, and I didn't want to get carried away in my second ever auction. Her, sometimes an angel, sometimes a devil. Today, an angel.
"You've talked about this for days, I'm sick of hearing about it, stop being a pussy and hit the fking button.", and with that, I monkey-bashed the button one last time. It was the winning bid.
Relief, euphoria, and fear all at once. What a fking way to buy a car. Drugs don't have st on this. Hammer price £156k. Total price with premiums etc, £179k ex VAT.
Once my heart stopped pounding and my hands stopped shaking, I called a good mate of mine, George, who'd been looped in from the start. George runs a storage company for supercars out here in the Southwest. He also basically does full vehicle management and is just the man to know when needing anything car related around here.
"Right, first off I'm going to need a spot in storage, then we'll need the wheels sent in for refurb, it looks like it's going to need a good polish - and I'm going to want to PPF it."
"Right, and when do we need to collect the car?"
"Err, Tuesday."
It was Saturday and this was the weekend the Queen was being put to rest.
"I'll get everything else sorted, but first let me see if we can sort transport for the car this early", George is always up for a challenge.
We found a couple of spots on trailers, but all were open air and multi-car. Didn't really fancy it, but I did fancy a bit of an adventure.
"George, should we go and grab it ourselves on Tuesday?"
"fk yeah", George - also always up for an adventure.
Unfortunately this was also the weekend of Queen Elizabeth's burial - so everyone and everything was closed on Monday. Collections were between 9 and 12pm on the Tuesday, so we'd have to drive down pretty early, George piloting the E63S and me on the phone sorting insurance.
The banking situation was also fun, but they said we could whack the card in the reader and just pay the entire sum. Alrighty, never done a sum like that off my card, but sure - the money is in the account so what could go wrong, really? The banks were already closed on the Saturday, and there wasn't enough time to get to the bank for 9am, do the transfer, and get to Goodwood in time to collect. We'd just have to hope the card worked.
A couple of sleepless nights later, we're on the way to Goodwood. Excited, nervous energy buzzing. George piloting the E, I'm on the phone getting insurance sorted.
Nice cruise down to Goodwood, and thankfully lovely empty roads. E63S doing the job of hunkering down and gobbling up the miles. Other than George being a bit of a tit and taking a wrong turn over the bridge to Portsmouth, all was well.
We get to Goodwood and I get the first glimpse of Alubeam in the bright sun after parking up and half-walking, half-jogging to where the cars were sitting. From the very first look, the decision was completely and utterly validated. I was worried it would be overhyped. It's fking beautiful. And I do definitely understand everyone saying that cameras do not do it justice. The car was sat in a pen amongst many other very, very cool cars. All waiting for their new owners. Kind of a novel experience, really. Sort of like picking an animal up from a shelter or something like that. All those cars were going to new homes that day. I felt both very lucky, and very privileged that moment.
This picture was where and when I first saw the car, exactly as is. After taking a moment to stand back and just go "Whoa, cool..", of course.
For now, I will end my post here. I'll be back to continue the story a little later, with the payment saga (involving running down Chichester high-street, expensive box of apology chocolates in hand and panting out of breath), and first drive home.
I hope this sort of post is in line with what this forum area is about, I know it's not strictly talking about the car and more about the experience, but I sort of feel both are hand in hand. The stories and the experiences are what makes the cars more than just a hunk of metal. To me, anyway.
Yes, the SLS is absolutely a bit of an interesting one - I agree fully that it's flawed, but I am partial to those sorts of things after owning the hugely capable, albeit slightly emotionally devoid 720S. With that being said, I was able to somewhat rectify the gearbox on the SLS with an interesting little hidden software update. More on that in another post.
For today, the story of buying the SLS.
I'd found a beautiful gold '88 280GE LWB on collecting cars (https://collectingcars.com/for-sale/1988-mercedes-benz-w460-280ge-lwb-2) - I figured that I'd chance it. The other half needed something to mooch about in, and this would fit the bill perfectly. She doesn't like most of the modern stuff, it doesn't interest her (for context - she has a '67 Impala Supersport in her native Swedenland). I ran the bidding up to around £18,750 and bowed out at £19,000. Immediate regret. It's probably worth something like the low 20s. Truly a lovely thing, and I'm sad I was a bit timid that day. It was PROPERLY exhilarating though, my first ever time bidding on a car at auction, albeit online.
Bitten by the 280GE bug, I started to browse Car and Classic looking for another. Naturally, nothing could be found, and those that were sat at £26k or more - I gave up and expanded the search to all older Mercedes on the website. I figured I'd start there and maybe narrow it down as we go, but having a classic Merc sit next to the E63S would have been kinda cool.
And then I saw it. A listing for the unicorn. I couldn't really believe my eyes when I saw an Alubeam car, exactly as I'd have it. Each picture I clicked through checked off another box. Right color, all the spec, etc etc etc. No price however. And then the penny dropped. It's another auction. f
k, not this again.. Off to check the values of SLS sitting around on the market. Not bad, not great. Around £170-ish for a nice car, well taken care of. Couldn't really find much with the right options and color, or even close. No Alubeam cars, so the search stopped there, pretty much. I didn't need an SLS, but if I were to buy one, it had to be one I wanted badly. I compromised when I bought my 720S, I could have spec'd my own car and taken delivery a few months down the line, or I could have bought the delivery mileage car they conveniently had sitting around and get it next week. I'll give you one guess what my monkey-brain chose on that day. Once the novelty wore off, there was regret. I wanted the glass panels in the roof, the Bowers and Wilkins stereo, all that fun stuff. Didn't have it. Wanted it. Felt it.
You live and you learn, or so I'm told. So I wasn't going to compromise and buy something just because. Looking through the auction listing, the car had a bit of an interesting history. From the collection of Peter de Savry (no idea - but googled and learned, he also sadly passed away just a couple of weeks ago), this thing had a new engine put in by Mercedes Brooklands in 2021, the old engine hydrolocked. Fascinating. Was it going to put me off? f
k no, I expect this thing to be worthless by the time I'm done with it anyway, it isn't a collectors item for me. Drive the car. Remember the mantra. So that didn't bother me much, especially given I had a load of supporting documents direct from Mercedes HQ indicating the job's been done proper, along with letters from Brooklands. It had a warranty on it too, which is odd for a 12 year old car, but the recent engine work had it covered under warranty again. Swings and roundabouts! I confirmed it wasn't a "flood damaged" car, and no. Someone just got a little too excited crossing some standing water in it, and kaput goes the 6.2L - duly noted by myself. SLS is not a submarine. Did all the other checks, all came back clear - there weren't ANY markers on it whatsoever, much less so for the engine work, which apparently Mr. de Savry paid out of pocket for. I find it novel I basically get a brand new engine in the car, for me to go put miles on. The new motor had only done 3000mi. Cool, the car is passes the "I want it", test. Next hurdle - a discussion with my other half. Now, I love this woman and she's very supportive of my propensity to be a bit of a wally. After a bit of convincing, she admitted she fell in love with the car too, and can see the sense (is there such thing with supercars?) in buying it. Righto. This is getting dangerous. I found the car just a few days before the auction, so I got myself all signed up and registered, sent over all my documents to Bonhams, and then sat and waited. Work commitments meant I couldn't head down myself, but at the same time - with my prior experience on Collecting Cars, I just wasn't feeling super confident about winning it either. I resigned myself to online bidding, perhaps as a bit of "expectation management" on my part.
On Friday, conveniently, a friend of a friend was kicking around Goodwood Revival, where the auction was being held. I got some pictures of the car the day before the auction. Every single rim was scuffed to hell, with one rim having particularly nasty damage on not only the edge, but the spoke.
One of the other rims. Not sure if the damage really shows here, I didn't get any pictures of it myself - but hopefully the poor condition is visible.
There was also some damage on the wing mirror, didn't look the sort that would buff out, probably a repaint jobby. That sounded unfun from a "It's Alubeam", perspective - but it's a small little panel that can easily come on and off, so I didn't feel it was a deal breaker either.
A big thanks to the friend of a friend for grabbing these pictures for me, and taking a good look around the car and giving it a thumbs up other than the noted. I was buying the car completely sight unseen otherwise. Car people are great and always willing to lend a hand!
Now, about the whole sight unseen thing. You know that obsession I had with Alubeam? Well, I'd never actually seen one in the metal. Ever. I'm not a particularly bright man, but even for me this was a bit special. I messaged a friend, Raz, who runs a YouTube channel called Remove Before Race (big plug, super cool guy, go check it out!), and wanted to get his opinion on it. Raz has had an Alubeam car, amongst a host of other silly things, and basically said it's the best color he's had on one of his cars. I'm feeling a little less dumb now. Not smart, but perhaps not a chicken melt sandwich.
Anyway, all settled and roll on to bidding day. Me and my other half nervously wait for the SLS to come up. Doesn't help that the auction was delayed by a couple of hours. Finally, it was time to go for it. Lot No. 321 came up. And, well - if you're interested - here's the moment. https://youtu.be/MYX2ZrlO-JQ?t=3160
I was honestly just monkey-bashing the bid button like the absolute doorknob I am. But there came a moment, the one RIGHT before I put in my final, winning bid, that I hesitated. "Is this too much?", I asked my other half. I didn't know how much further this would go, and I didn't want to get carried away in my second ever auction. Her, sometimes an angel, sometimes a devil. Today, an angel.
"You've talked about this for days, I'm sick of hearing about it, stop being a pussy and hit the f
king button.", and with that, I monkey-bashed the button one last time. It was the winning bid.Relief, euphoria, and fear all at once. What a f
king way to buy a car. Drugs don't have st on this. Hammer price £156k. Total price with premiums etc, £179k ex VAT. Once my heart stopped pounding and my hands stopped shaking, I called a good mate of mine, George, who'd been looped in from the start. George runs a storage company for supercars out here in the Southwest. He also basically does full vehicle management and is just the man to know when needing anything car related around here.
"Right, first off I'm going to need a spot in storage, then we'll need the wheels sent in for refurb, it looks like it's going to need a good polish - and I'm going to want to PPF it."
"Right, and when do we need to collect the car?"
"Err, Tuesday."
It was Saturday and this was the weekend the Queen was being put to rest.
"I'll get everything else sorted, but first let me see if we can sort transport for the car this early", George is always up for a challenge.
We found a couple of spots on trailers, but all were open air and multi-car. Didn't really fancy it, but I did fancy a bit of an adventure.
"George, should we go and grab it ourselves on Tuesday?"
"f
k yeah", George - also always up for an adventure. Unfortunately this was also the weekend of Queen Elizabeth's burial - so everyone and everything was closed on Monday. Collections were between 9 and 12pm on the Tuesday, so we'd have to drive down pretty early, George piloting the E63S and me on the phone sorting insurance.
The banking situation was also fun, but they said we could whack the card in the reader and just pay the entire sum. Alrighty, never done a sum like that off my card, but sure - the money is in the account so what could go wrong, really? The banks were already closed on the Saturday, and there wasn't enough time to get to the bank for 9am, do the transfer, and get to Goodwood in time to collect. We'd just have to hope the card worked.
A couple of sleepless nights later, we're on the way to Goodwood. Excited, nervous energy buzzing. George piloting the E, I'm on the phone getting insurance sorted.
Nice cruise down to Goodwood, and thankfully lovely empty roads. E63S doing the job of hunkering down and gobbling up the miles. Other than George being a bit of a tit and taking a wrong turn over the bridge to Portsmouth, all was well.
We get to Goodwood and I get the first glimpse of Alubeam in the bright sun after parking up and half-walking, half-jogging to where the cars were sitting. From the very first look, the decision was completely and utterly validated. I was worried it would be overhyped. It's f
king beautiful. And I do definitely understand everyone saying that cameras do not do it justice. The car was sat in a pen amongst many other very, very cool cars. All waiting for their new owners. Kind of a novel experience, really. Sort of like picking an animal up from a shelter or something like that. All those cars were going to new homes that day. I felt both very lucky, and very privileged that moment.This picture was where and when I first saw the car, exactly as is. After taking a moment to stand back and just go "Whoa, cool..", of course.
For now, I will end my post here. I'll be back to continue the story a little later, with the payment saga (involving running down Chichester high-street, expensive box of apology chocolates in hand and panting out of breath), and first drive home.
I hope this sort of post is in line with what this forum area is about, I know it's not strictly talking about the car and more about the experience, but I sort of feel both are hand in hand. The stories and the experiences are what makes the cars more than just a hunk of metal. To me, anyway.
Got to say that's a lot of money for a car that sounds like it might not have had the easiest of lives but fair play to you, it looks incredible and I'd imagine sounds incredible too. The SLS with the gull wing doors is such a unique thing and I love the ethos of it, as a noisy, slightly blunt instrument, designed to be a great road car.
b14 said:
Got to say that's a lot of money for a car that sounds like it might not have had the easiest of lives but fair play to you, it looks incredible and I'd imagine sounds incredible too. The SLS with the gull wing doors is such a unique thing and I love the ethos of it, as a noisy, slightly blunt instrument, designed to be a great road car.
Yes! I would agree with you, I think it's not worth £184k on open market - but I also did a bit of digging and I don't think the car has been abused, more so perhaps carelessness - it was actually registered to and driven by Mr. de Savry's OH, who did a little less than 1500mi a year, so the poor thing hasn't really been driven much, it came to me with a total of 17000mi. I'll be rectifying that, have already sent it straight past 18500mi. 
JerryEXE said:
I reckon I live less than 500m away from you! Regularly walk past your place (your other half’s push bike is usually outside?) and noticed the SLS arrive recently. Two very nice cars.
Indeed! And my lovely ratty Air-Conditioning pipe hanging out the bedroom window (our German Shepherd gets quite warm, even in the winter!), I've seen your Macca tucked in the garage up the road, looks great the couple of times I've seen it! Don't remind me about the pushbike though, she bought almost a year ago and hasn't used it more than twice 
We're renting here at the moment as we're both expats, but on long term residency as of a few months ago, so once the market settles we'll be looking for something a bit more permanent! Seen a few around here go up for sale so watching with interest.
mirsgarage said:
b14 said:
Got to say that's a lot of money for a car that sounds like it might not have had the easiest of lives but fair play to you, it looks incredible and I'd imagine sounds incredible too. The SLS with the gull wing doors is such a unique thing and I love the ethos of it, as a noisy, slightly blunt instrument, designed to be a great road car.
Yes! I would agree with you, I think it's not worth £184k on open market - but I also did a bit of digging and I don't think the car has been abused, more so perhaps carelessness - it was actually registered to and driven by Mr. de Savry's OH, who did a little less than 1500mi a year, so the poor thing hasn't really been driven much, it came to me with a total of 17000mi. I'll be rectifying that, have already sent it straight past 18500mi. It's high up the car list for me. I've got an F-Type R which Chris Harris compared to an SLS at the time of reviewing it, similar ethos of big noisy V8, a bit traction-limited and generally a sledge hammer style way of going fast. Would love to benchmark them together but suspect the SLS feels a more premium product and the gullwing doors are incomparable of course.
b14 said:
Amazing - clearly it's the one you wanted and it's a unicorn so worth whatever you think isn't too much. Intrigued to know how they managed to hydrolock the engine?! Would hope it can take a puddle or two! Intake very low down?
It's high up the car list for me. I've got an F-Type R which Chris Harris compared to an SLS at the time of reviewing it, similar ethos of big noisy V8, a bit traction-limited and generally a sledge hammer style way of going fast. Would love to benchmark them together but suspect the SLS feels a more premium product and the gullwing doors are incomparable of course.
The F-Type R has to be one of the best sounding cars on the roads today, kudos! Love seeing them around, they have a super cool vibe about them - something about being a bit of a lout but never trying too hard. Brute in a suit type stuff! If you're ever around the south west (I'm in Exeter!), I absolutely won't mind heading out for a coffee so you can check the car out.It's high up the car list for me. I've got an F-Type R which Chris Harris compared to an SLS at the time of reviewing it, similar ethos of big noisy V8, a bit traction-limited and generally a sledge hammer style way of going fast. Would love to benchmark them together but suspect the SLS feels a more premium product and the gullwing doors are incomparable of course.
Having been in a facelifted F-Type I think your interior is miles ahead, but I guess that's to be expected with the age difference. The SLS definitely feels dated on the inside, but not unpleasantly so. I think you'd be very surprised at the way it handles though. It is pointy. Much, much pointier than I first thought. I had it in my head that it would be a bit of a barge, but no. It surprised George too, who has driven all manner of supercars - and even he said it was not what he expected getting into it the first time.
Definitely traction limited however. More so in the recent weather, I took the car out for a bit of a lark in some torrential rain, just to see what it'd do.
Wheelspin with half throttle in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. Settled a little in 6th
mirsgarage said:
Indeed! And my lovely ratty Air-Conditioning pipe hanging out the bedroom window (our German Shepherd gets quite warm, even in the winter!), I've seen your Macca tucked in the garage up the road, looks great the couple of times I've seen it! Don't remind me about the pushbike though, she bought almost a year ago and hasn't used it more than twice
We're renting here at the moment as we're both expats, but on long term residency as of a few months ago, so once the market settles we'll be looking for something a bit more permanent! Seen a few around here go up for sale so watching with interest.
I’m too polite to mention the AC pipe We're renting here at the moment as we're both expats, but on long term residency as of a few months ago, so once the market settles we'll be looking for something a bit more permanent! Seen a few around here go up for sale so watching with interest.
. If you do buy I can recommend a great company to retrofit AC (we were expats for a very long time and got used to AC, one of the first things we did on our return was have it installed).A few busy days, work and life getting the better of me meant I couldn't update this as soon as I'd hoped - but better late than never I guess!
We pick up our story upon first sight of the car. I'm smitten, truly. George is busy checking out the curb damage to the rims, and I head over inside to handle the transaction. Buying at auction, the easiest way to handle it was probably a cash transaction, which I was ready to do. How I got them their money is an entirely different question. The princely sum of £184,080.00 was due - and, well, I couldn't just whip my phone out and do it via internet banking. NatWest was definitely a bit special (sarcasm - you'll see), but a £50,000 hard cap is in place for online banking transactions. Cool. Debit card and the card machine thingy would have to suffice. As mentioned before, no time to head in and make the payment at a branch.
In we go, we get started through the paperwork and the wonderful moment arrives where my card is up for its' moment in the spotlight.
I'm informed we will first do a transaction for £99k, followed by the rest. The banks don't like it when you try full whack, or something like that. No idea.
Anyway, in the card goes and... declined. Gut punch. Open mobile banking app. My math is st on the best of days, but I knew enough to tell you there was £184,080 and then some. So what the fk was the issue?
Ring NatWest fellow. NatWest fellow says: "Ah, sir, I see here - your card has been cancelled."
What. The. fk.
"When?"
"A few days ago."
"Why?"
"Automated as a result of a security breach that was picked up and your card number being compromised."
"But my Apple Pay worked fine just this morning for fuel.. and the day before. And the day before that. It's linked to this card.."
"Yes, that will continue to work after the card has been cancelled due to how the transaction is handled with the bank as an endpoint, you'll find it will work a month from now even!"
"Well, why haven't you told me?"
"A letter should have been delivered!"
"When?"
"Today."
At this point, I'm really far from fked about how this nonsense worked. I needed to pay for this thing, somehow. I wanted to tear my hair out. Today, part of me wonders what would have happened if I tried to Apple Pay for the car, but I really didn't need the account being locked up completely after attempting a £99k transaction on a declined card, so I had to play it safe.
Collections opened at 10:30am. We arrived at 10:50am. Collections closed at 1pm. We'd spent a fair whack of time on the phone with NatWest. It's 11:45am.
Time to run to the bank branch, 10 minutes away on the high street, with 1h15m until collections closed. Fuuuuuuuuuuuck. A close friend joined us for "collection day", so him and I rushed down there while George stayed with the car to ensure it didn't end up loaded on a lorry and sent off god knows where. We get there, and I handle the CHAPS payment. The next crappy bit is that CHAPS payments aren't instant. They involve faxing a transfer order to some random fking place and then some bloke in aforementioned random place does some magic things and voila, the money turns up. Eventually. It's guaranteed by the end of the day but that does sod-all for me, at least - I needed this cleared in the next 45 minutes as it was now 12:15pm.
CHAPS done. We're jogging back to the car and my buddy screeches to a halt. "QUICK, BUY THEM CHOCOLATE IN CASE IT'S ALL fkED AND YOU NEED SOME GOODWILL"
Enter Montezuma's chocolate. We rock up, get the biggest basket of stuff we can find, and exit, tres rapido. I've kept the bag from Montezuma's in the boot of car since. I have no idea why, but it reminds me of that day, that exact moment, and the sheer absurdity of the situation.
Chocolate acquired. We shoot off back to Goodwood - car still there, George still there. It's 12:40pm now. 20 minutes to go.
As we hurry in, George tells me he will happily lay in front of the car in protest to prevent it from being removed in case the CHAPS doesn't come in on time. Thanks, George. You nutter.
Chocolates delivered. Many "awws" from the folks sorting the paperwork and payment. I explain the situation, produce a receipt for the transaction, and say we've done the best we can, it's guranteed to land today... at some point.
The literal auction house is being torn down around us. Workmen are removing bits of fking building for god's sake. These absolute superstars at Bonhams casually go: "Yeah, it's fine, we'll wait for it - we don't really have anywhere to be, just let us know when the money has left your account and it'll then be in ours immediately, so you'll be good to go, don't worry about it."
A win for chocolate.
Right, so... we wait. And we wait. Annnnnnd we wait. Get chatting to a lovely Dutch fella who'd bought some FIA DB5/6 thing. Looked epic. He planned to road rally it. Super cool guy, and funnily enough, waiting around in the same predicament as me.
Credit to my mates, they hung about and we just... waited. I'm checking my phone every 10 minutes, for context. I finally see the money released from my account at around 4pm. I leg it straight to reception. They confirm it's landed. The car is mine.
It's also insured, cost roughly £2k if you're wondering.
I get handed the keys. The documents. And that's it. The whole fking day, this massive wait and build up. It felt kinda anti-climatic, but I honestly didn't care. I was exhausted. It had been a day of running around and sitting on hold with people and stressing out about whether I'd just wasted everyone's time.
I owned it. I wanted to get in it and drive.
So that's what I did. Not before helping the Dutch guy load up his DB5/6 thing first though. Forgive me, I'll post a picture but I have no fking clue what it is, other than beautiful. Happy days, though, his money cleared too!
Car was low on fuel, so a first stop was planned at a nearby Shell, followed by a round of Maccies, and then the straight shot home, no stops.
//
I'll update further in the next post on the first drive home, my little wee delicate fingies are getting tired now, it's 1:30am, and I've got a cool day up ahead that I'll also share with you guys here because it involves something that's coming to the garage eventually.
I leave you with a shot of the car undergoing some TLC in the recent couple of weeks.
We pick up our story upon first sight of the car. I'm smitten, truly. George is busy checking out the curb damage to the rims, and I head over inside to handle the transaction. Buying at auction, the easiest way to handle it was probably a cash transaction, which I was ready to do. How I got them their money is an entirely different question. The princely sum of £184,080.00 was due - and, well, I couldn't just whip my phone out and do it via internet banking. NatWest was definitely a bit special (sarcasm - you'll see), but a £50,000 hard cap is in place for online banking transactions. Cool. Debit card and the card machine thingy would have to suffice. As mentioned before, no time to head in and make the payment at a branch.
In we go, we get started through the paperwork and the wonderful moment arrives where my card is up for its' moment in the spotlight.
I'm informed we will first do a transaction for £99k, followed by the rest. The banks don't like it when you try full whack, or something like that. No idea.
Anyway, in the card goes and... declined. Gut punch. Open mobile banking app. My math is s
t on the best of days, but I knew enough to tell you there was £184,080 and then some. So what the fk was the issue?Ring NatWest fellow. NatWest fellow says: "Ah, sir, I see here - your card has been cancelled."
What. The. f
k. "When?"
"A few days ago."
"Why?"
"Automated as a result of a security breach that was picked up and your card number being compromised."
"But my Apple Pay worked fine just this morning for fuel.. and the day before. And the day before that. It's linked to this card.."
"Yes, that will continue to work after the card has been cancelled due to how the transaction is handled with the bank as an endpoint, you'll find it will work a month from now even!"
"Well, why haven't you told me?"
"A letter should have been delivered!"
"When?"
"Today."
At this point, I'm really far from f
ked about how this nonsense worked. I needed to pay for this thing, somehow. I wanted to tear my hair out. Today, part of me wonders what would have happened if I tried to Apple Pay for the car, but I really didn't need the account being locked up completely after attempting a £99k transaction on a declined card, so I had to play it safe.Collections opened at 10:30am. We arrived at 10:50am. Collections closed at 1pm. We'd spent a fair whack of time on the phone with NatWest. It's 11:45am.
Time to run to the bank branch, 10 minutes away on the high street, with 1h15m until collections closed. Fuuuuuuuuuuuck. A close friend joined us for "collection day", so him and I rushed down there while George stayed with the car to ensure it didn't end up loaded on a lorry and sent off god knows where. We get there, and I handle the CHAPS payment. The next crappy bit is that CHAPS payments aren't instant. They involve faxing a transfer order to some random f
king place and then some bloke in aforementioned random place does some magic things and voila, the money turns up. Eventually. It's guaranteed by the end of the day but that does sod-all for me, at least - I needed this cleared in the next 45 minutes as it was now 12:15pm. CHAPS done. We're jogging back to the car and my buddy screeches to a halt. "QUICK, BUY THEM CHOCOLATE IN CASE IT'S ALL f
kED AND YOU NEED SOME GOODWILL"Enter Montezuma's chocolate. We rock up, get the biggest basket of stuff we can find, and exit, tres rapido. I've kept the bag from Montezuma's in the boot of car since. I have no idea why, but it reminds me of that day, that exact moment, and the sheer absurdity of the situation.
Chocolate acquired. We shoot off back to Goodwood - car still there, George still there. It's 12:40pm now. 20 minutes to go.
As we hurry in, George tells me he will happily lay in front of the car in protest to prevent it from being removed in case the CHAPS doesn't come in on time. Thanks, George. You nutter.
Chocolates delivered. Many "awws" from the folks sorting the paperwork and payment. I explain the situation, produce a receipt for the transaction, and say we've done the best we can, it's guranteed to land today... at some point.
The literal auction house is being torn down around us. Workmen are removing bits of f
king building for god's sake. These absolute superstars at Bonhams casually go: "Yeah, it's fine, we'll wait for it - we don't really have anywhere to be, just let us know when the money has left your account and it'll then be in ours immediately, so you'll be good to go, don't worry about it."A win for chocolate.
Right, so... we wait. And we wait. Annnnnnd we wait. Get chatting to a lovely Dutch fella who'd bought some FIA DB5/6 thing. Looked epic. He planned to road rally it. Super cool guy, and funnily enough, waiting around in the same predicament as me.
Credit to my mates, they hung about and we just... waited. I'm checking my phone every 10 minutes, for context. I finally see the money released from my account at around 4pm. I leg it straight to reception. They confirm it's landed. The car is mine.
It's also insured, cost roughly £2k if you're wondering.
I get handed the keys. The documents. And that's it. The whole f
king day, this massive wait and build up. It felt kinda anti-climatic, but I honestly didn't care. I was exhausted. It had been a day of running around and sitting on hold with people and stressing out about whether I'd just wasted everyone's time.I owned it. I wanted to get in it and drive.
So that's what I did. Not before helping the Dutch guy load up his DB5/6 thing first though. Forgive me, I'll post a picture but I have no f
king clue what it is, other than beautiful. Happy days, though, his money cleared too! Car was low on fuel, so a first stop was planned at a nearby Shell, followed by a round of Maccies, and then the straight shot home, no stops.
//
I'll update further in the next post on the first drive home, my little wee delicate fingies are getting tired now, it's 1:30am, and I've got a cool day up ahead that I'll also share with you guys here because it involves something that's coming to the garage eventually.
I leave you with a shot of the car undergoing some TLC in the recent couple of weeks.
Awesome cars OP, the E63S estate is probably my idea of an ideal daily, and the SLS AMG is one of few cars from the past 15 years I give a f**k about, superb looking things with that AMG V8 stuffed under the bonnet... 
Great posts so far, thanks for sharing your ownership journey - glad the chocolate made up for Natwest's shortcomings! Looking forward to further updates...
Great posts so far, thanks for sharing your ownership journey - glad the chocolate made up for Natwest's shortcomings! Looking forward to further updates...
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