The R129-chassis Mercedes SL should be worth a million dollars — it's timelessly beautiful, well-engineered, fast, and amazing to drive. And yet it's not: is that because it came 10 years later than planned?
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The R129-chassis Mercedes SL came with many badges: 300SL, SL300, 300SL-24, SL320, SL280, 500SL, SL500, 600SL, and SL600 (not to mention the SL73 AMG) but they all had one thing in common: they're uncommonly great cars.
Delayed by a decade because Mercedes diverted engineering resources to the W201 "Baby Benz," the W124 "E-Class" and the M102 new family of downsized, fuel-efficient engines to hit American CAFE fuel-economy and emissions requirements, the SL was the last of the "Sacco-era" cars that defined Mercedes throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
The 129 pioneered many, many different new technologies, and became a safety tour-de-force thanks to Bruno Sacco's obsession with safety. It offered the same level of occupant protection in a crash (even a rollover) as a Mercedes sedan — something that had never been done before.
The SL's delay meant it could inherit the W201's poineering Raumlenkerachse (5-link rear suspension), and also an entirely new family of 4-valve per cylinder engines with variable valve timing: the M104 straight-six, the M119 V-8, and the M120 V-12 (which is, to date, the only 4-cam, 4-valve roadgoing V-12 Mercedes has ever built.)
Though not covered explicitly in the video, the R129 SL also came with the M113 3-valve SOHC V-8 and a V-6 — as well as the original base model, the 300SL with the 12-valve M103, in markets outside the U.S.
The planned 300SL Turbo Diesel never happened, nor did the original 420SL and 560SL, which were nixed when BMW stepped on Mercedes' plans with its M70 V-12 in the 750i, 750iL, and worse, the 850i and 850CSi. Mercedes had no choice but to make a 6.0-liter. 48-valve V12 by siamesing two M104 3.0-liter straight-sixes together, creating the most powerful engine Mercedes had ever made.
The 300SL-24 (as it was known outside the U.S.) had a dogleg 5-speed manual transmission attached to its 7000-rpm M104 3.0-liter I-6, which took inspiration from the Cosworth head in the 190E 2.3-16 — but added an electrohydraulically actuated variable valve timing system on the intake cam.
One of hundreds of innovations on what was Peak Mercedes. Learn about all of them in this comprehensive history less on the Best Mercedes SL ever made.
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