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1968 Mercedes-Benz 280SL
Detroit, 12:55 AM
Fri Dec 4
30 posts in the last 24 hours
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1968 Mercedes-Benz 280SL |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
10/30/08
When we were kids and saw one of these in a movie on on the tube, we grasped that European culture was really quite different from our own. In the movies, always driven by some some tall, thin woman with big sunglasses, a weird coat/dress outfit with matching turban or hat or something--and gloves. Or the dude, looking tweedy or sometimes in some Italian cut suit that none of us ever saw the likes of around town. This car represents a whole other world of cool. The anti-thesis of, say, a Corvette of the same year.
10/30/08
So they're as rare in California as they are here? That's a feat that's hard to match (except for Saab 900s).
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I mentioned this to my friend, a local mechanic, as a 280SL pulled into his garage for a tune-up. He practically broke out in hives. "They rust, and the doors, hood and trunklid are aluminum so they dent easily, and the fuel-injection system's a pain in the ass, and they're not really all that fast because they're so heavy, and they're really just small GTs, not real sports cars, and they're really complicated, and if you get one and it breaks don't expect me to be able to fix it without having to charge you about the cost of a rust-free, running MGB." He paused to take a breath as the shop manager took the keys for the third time that month. "They sure are beautiful, though."
Prices for 113s are rising rapidly, but I have a friend who knows where there are three supposedly solid 230SLs "resting" in a barn. Given my current financial status, even one junker Benz couldn't be obtained without some sort of Faustian bargain. But I can't help but be curious. Would the devil accept a nice, rust-free, California Melee-veteran Sunbeam Alpine (and my soul) in exchange for an SL?
10/30/08
I'll agreew ith you on the others, Murilee, but a Crown Imperial? Those things _never_ die. I'd take money on a bet as to which has a higher percentage still on the road, the Merc 280's or the Imperials.
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BTW, a 'punji pit' is a hole with spikes in the bottom, to cause injury &/or death. See Also: Why You Shouldn't Get Involved In A Land War In Asia - be sure to reference the French footnotes.
10/30/08
Yes, a lot of Imps were slam-banged to death, but if we compare convertible numbers (convertible are illegal in most destruction derbies, I believe) you could get a more accurate number.
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It's like meeting that exchange student girl; she's built like a masonry lavatory and hits like a glass of schnapps. You think you can handle it, but you know she's way out of your league. So you settle for a domestic, but yearn for that Feldkirch fraulein.
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