3 Cool Facts About The Mercedes R129 SL

The Mercedes R129 SL is a luxury convertible whose price is now well within the reach of people looking for a classy and timeless car. It's also a car with a few cool secrets that raise its kudos among petrolheads
3 Cool Facts About The Mercedes R129 SL

1. First production car with automatic roll bar deployment

3 Cool Facts About The Mercedes R129 SL

The Mercedes R129 SL was the first production car to feature automatic roll bar deployment. The spring-loaded safety feature pops out in 0.3 seconds if a roll or predetermined level of instability is detected, making this one hell of a safe convertible, even by today’s standards.

If the car’s owner wants the roll bar deployed at all times, then he/she can do this manually in around four seconds (this works with the roof up or down).

2. The SL73 AMG's engine was used for the Pagani Zonda F

3 Cool Facts About The Mercedes R129 SL

The 7.3-litre V12 M120 engine of the extremely rare SL73 AMG was later used by Pagani to power the 594bhp, 200mph+ Zonda F

In the SL73 AMG, the V12 produced 518bhp, which represented a colossal increase in power over the 383bhp, 5.9-litre V12 of the SL600.

3 Cool Facts About The Mercedes R129 SL

The huge power figure, coupled with its 558lb/ft of torque, gave the SL73 AMG a 0-60mph time of just 4.7 seconds and a top speed of 186mph. Only 85 SL73 AMGs were made between 1999 and 2001.

An SL70 AMG also made the line-up between 1996 and 1997, of which 150 cars were made. It featured a 7.0-litre V12 with 489bhp.

3. R129 SL Mercedes are seriously inexpensive to buy

3 Cool Facts About The Mercedes R129 SL

If you look in the classifieds now, you’ll see a lot of R129 SL Mercedes up for grabs, ranging in price from around £3000 for a standard SL320, to around £11,000 for the far rarer SL600, of which there are approximately 200 registered examples in the UK currently.

For the money, there’s not a lot else out there that offers this kind of refinement, safety, cool and class, which is why the SL is well worth a closer look (as long as you can swallow heavy fuel bills and repair jobs that will likely be quite expensive).

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