10 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT... THE MERCEDES SL R107
The SL name tag has a long history with Mercedes, having been introduced on road-going cars on the 300SL in 1954 and still going strong in sixth generation guise today. That 300SL was the legendary Gullwing, something of a design icon and whilst the comparatively plain-Jane 190SL introduced alongside it may have been more affordable and the 300SL Roadster of 1957 more practical, it is the Gullwing that has always had the mega-rich reaching for their cheque books.
In 1963 these original SLs were replaced by the W113 ‘Pagoda’ 230SL. Easily identified by its vertical headlights and concave hardtop (a shape that gave rise to the Pagoda nickname), these cars moved the model line further from sports car territory towards the luxurious tourer end of the market – the 230SLs got big 2306cc six-cylinder engines, later enlarged to 2496cc and 2778cc for the 250SL and 280SL respectively.
The third generation of SLs are
