The Mercedes R129 SL
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About this ebook
The Mercedes SL R129 has started to become a collectible and good examples sell at a premium. The V8 is naturally the most popular version. A special case is the V12. To buy one that is less than perfect is a guarantee to ruin you. This 220-page guide was last updated in February 2018 and tells you everything about the car’s history; it also explains in detail chassis number and data card and offers a comprehensive buyer’s guide. All this is accompanied by over 150 recent non-Daimler AG color photos and includes pictures of the suspension. These are some of the topics covered:
•The development of the R129
•The safety standards and the first integral seat in an open car
•The technical aspects
•The 500SL and 300SL-24
•The V12 arrives
•The 1995 facelift
•The 1998 facelift
•The navigation system
•The AMG models, from the SL36 to the SL72
•The special editions, from the 1995 Mille Miglia to the 2000 UK Heritage Edition
•The tuning scene, from Brabus to RENNtech
•The Middelhauve and Karman SL
•The VIN/FIN explained
•The data card explained
•What is my R129 worth
•R129 buyer’s guide
•Which R129 model should I buy
•Technical specifications and production figures
This guide ends with a free book offer. Enjoy!
Available both in e-book and hard copy formats, this book is part of a series that covers all SL models. The author Bernd S. Koehling has so far over 25 books and e-books about Mercedes-Benz cars to his credit. They cover vehicles from the 1947 170V to the 2012 SL65 AMG.
Bernd S. Koehling
With over 25 books and e-books written about Mercedes-Benz cars, Bernd S. Koehling has proven to be an authority on the brand. Those books cover cars from the 1947 170V to the 2012 SL R231. Bernd has been involved in the Mercedes scene since the early 1970s, when he restored his first 170 Cabrio B. Since then he has not only owned many classic Mercedes including a 220S, 300d Adenauer, 200D, 250SE, 280SE coupe 3.5, 300SEL, 350SL, 280E, 450SE, SLK230, he has also gained a wealth of knowledge and experience, which he shares with his readers in his books. Bernd has always considered Mercedes one of his favorite car manufacturers and has driven almost all Mercedes models built since the 1950s. His other weakness revolves around British cars, here especially Jaguar and Alvis. If you would like to know more about Bernd's books or want to read his blog with selected Mercedes stories, why don't you visit his website: benz-books.com
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Reviews for The Mercedes R129 SL
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Book preview
The Mercedes R129 SL - Bernd S. Koehling
MERCEDES - BENZ
The Mercedes R129
From the 280SL – SL73 AMG
(1989 – 2001)
By Bernd S. Koehling
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2016 Bernd S. Koehling
All rights reserved
CONTENT
Foreword
The Cars
SL280, SL300, SL300-24, SL320, SL500, SL600 (1989-2001)
SL36, SL55, SL60, SL70, SL73 AMG (1993 – 2001)
Development of a milestone
Higher safety standards
First integral seats in an open car
An automatically folding soft top
An improved suspension
The new SL
Car design of the year
award
Introduction of the first V12
A new model nomenclature and revised engines in 1993
The 1995 Facelift
The 1998 Facelift
The navigation system
The AMG models SL60, SL55, SL70, SL73, SL36
The special editions
- Special Edition 1995
- Mille Miglia 1995
- La Costa Edition 1997
- 40th Anniversary 1997
- Special Edition 1998
- SL Edition 2000
- Final Edition 2000
- Formula One Edition 2000
- Silver Arrow Edition 2001
- Other special editions
The tuning scene
- Brabus
- Carlsson
- J. Hagmann
- Koenig Specials
- RENNtech
Testing a RENNtech SL600 7.4
The Middelhauve and Karmann SL
Fly-by-wire
The sales performance
Technical chapters
The R129’s VIN explained
The R129’s data card
The paint options
The R129 buyer’s guide
Which R129 version to choose
Price development from Nov. 2008 to Nov. 2016
The technical specifications
- The engines
- The performance data
- The suspension etc.
The annual production data per model
About the author
One last thing
FOREWORD
First of all I would like to thank you for having purchased this book about the superb R129 SL, one of the best designs of the Bruno Sacco team. When the R129 was introduced in Geneva in spring 1989, it was applauded for its timeless beauty, plus the superior technical and safety innovations. For Daimler-Benz it was a quantum leap forward and put the company at once ahead of the sports car gang. The R107 had managed to sell quite well during its entire production run and when it was announced that it would be replaced in the not too distant future, everybody wanted to have one of the last ones. In Germany it was for the last few years not even anymore on the official list of cars that the company offered. With the launch of the R129, all of this changed. The R107 looked suddenly not only old, it looked at least two car generations old, which is actually was, given its eighteen years of production. From the beginning the new SL was a huge hit with open sports car aficionados. While its predecessor was more of an extremely well built Teutonic touring car, the new SL managed to put a new meaning behind that S
in SL again. Although the new purpose built plant in Bremen, Northern Germany, was quickly adjusted to produce 25,000 units annually, it took at least European customers in the early 1990s four to five years from signing the order until the car was finally delivered. That should only change after the smaller and cheaper SLK had been introduced.
This reference guide covers the car with all its variations, AMG versions, special editions and some of the tuner activities with models from Brabus, Carlsson, Hagmann, Koenig and Renntech. Although there were a lot more companies around that dealt in one way or another with the tuning of this SL and other Mercedes cars, it would have been impossible to cover them all, so I ask you for forgiveness, that the list that made it into this book is somewhat subjective. An interesting R129 is also the one that can be driven by side-sticks. Using Airbus aircraft fly-by-wire
technology, the car comes without steering wheel and pedals. It will be controlled by two sticks, positioned on the door armrest and the center console.
The Mercedes SL is, as CEO of Daimler AG Dr. Zetsche put it recently, an automotive icon. While the early models were more developed with an eye on class, elegance and most of all performance, the more modern versions have added comfort and luxury to it. No other sports car from any manufacturer in the world offered such a convincing package at such a price level. And while the quality of later Mercedes cars suffered under the Daimler-Chrysler umbrella, the R129 was still built to standards that had made the brand famous.
This revised edition comes with a comprehensive buyer’s guide, explains in detail the cars’ VIN/FIN and data card and has a look at their recent price development until November 2016. I hope you will enjoy reading it.
December 2016
Bernd S. Koehling
Mercedes-Benz R 129 series (1989 to 2001)
Development of a milestone
It was again the Geneva Motor Show, where Mercedes-Benz presented in 1989 an SL that was a new interpretation of the SL concept in every respect. The car was the undisputed star of the show. It was the first SL with a fully automatic opening soft top. Fully automatic meant that the lucky driver did not have to move any levers anymore or did not have to stow the lowered top manually underneath a cover. It meant for the first time that you pushed just one single button from within the car and then magic would take over. Never mind that Americans had offered such a system already way back in the 1950s. For Daimler-Benz it was new territory. The SL was prominently displayed at the Geneva show on a turn table and had its top plus its metal cover opened and closed day-in, day-out. All it took were 30 seconds to either open or close it. Even if one had seen it already before as a visitor, somehow that magic and the elegant, beautifully proportioned lines of the car pulled you back to the Daimler-Benz exhibition stand to see it time and again.
A late 1974 targa proposal with side curtain borrowed from the SLC C107
For aerodynamic reasons the new design wanted from the beginning to stay clear of the pagoda roof of its predecessor
Both predecessors had to live with initial criticism regarding their design. The pagoda roof was not universally appreciated when the 230SL was launched in 1963. And for European journalists the 350SL was too Americanized
, when they first saw it in 1971. This time it was different. Head of the design department Bruno Sacco and his team had done a superb job. Sacco has started work in Stuttgart in 1958, a little bit later than his colleague Paul Bracq. Both were in one way or another involved in the design of the iconic Mercedes 600 and both, one being Italian and one being French, had little respect for what the Daimler-Benz stylists called in those days: traditional design. So when both proposed for the 600 to do away with much of the famous front grille and adopt horizontal headlamps instead, they created somewhat unwillingly, quite a stir. It took the company years before it was ready to accept similar design proposals from both designers again. The first one was the 230SL, which was accepted, as it was not the front of a more traditional sedan.
Italian born Bruno Sacco started work at Daimler-Benz in the late 1950s
Although styling or designing cars was and is mostly a team effort, there are usually just a handful of people, who are responsible for the final outcome of the car. With the pagoda SL it was next to Paul Bracq, who designed the iconic roof, his superior Friedrich Geiger, who was responsible for the car’s overall design. He was also the man, who had designed the famous 300SL of the 1950s and the R107. In case of the R129 it was mainly Johann Tomforde. Born in 1946, he studied car and product design after an apprenticeship in automotive mechanics in Hamburg. In summer 1970 he joined the Daimler-Benz design division, which was in those days still headed by Friedrich Geiger. As a young engineer he had created a bit of a stir among his Daimler-Benz colleagues, when he presented in 1972 his vision of the car of the future for the year 2000 in form of a small city car with electro engine. In those days he did not know that it would take the company another 35 years until such a concept would be realized in form of the Smart and he certainly had in those days no idea that he would be made in 1992 in charge of this project. That way he is considered today the father of the Mercedes city car Smart.
The three Smart pioneers in 1992, l to r: Chr. Baubin, Joh. Tomforde, H.J. Schär
But in those early 1972 days he was brought back fairly quickly to reality by his superiors, among them member of the executive board and future CEO of Daimler-Benz Werner Breitschwerdt, who told him: that was a mighty fine exercise, young man. But now we want to see you designing real cars again
.
Since 1977 he worked as senior stylist for car-design in both Sindelfingen and the Daimler-Benz design studio in Sunnyvale, California. At the same time he was appointed honorary professor for design and technology at the University of Pforzheim, Germany. At Daimler-Benz his major project was now the new SL. Bracco wanted him to follow